MANIFESTING A BETTER WORLD

The Inconvenient Truth on US Jobs

2012-01-24T08:25:00.000-08:00

Our leaders seem to be wracking their brains on how to come up with more jobs. Unfortunately it will be difficult to create new jobs while maintaining the great prices on the stuff we need and want. Cheap prices on goods are dependent on us being able to outsource manufacturing to countries where workers work for lower wages. If we want to bring those jobs here we are going to need to add tariffs to imported goods so that companies manufacturing goods in the US can compete.

Politicians aren’t going to add tariffs to imported goods because it means sacrificing our lifestyle. The very rich benefit from free trade by being to outsource labor, which decreases production costs. The poor and middle class benefit by being able to afford more stuff for less money. No politician is going to vote for tariffs because we would not elect such a politician. The only people that would elect such a politician would be the ones looking for work, and that population will not be large enough to drive an election until they outnumber the people working.

Therefore we’re left looking elsewhere for jobs. We are spending government money on clean energy and now on tourism, all in an effort to generate jobs. The US deficit has now surpassed our GDP. Luckily politicians recently rejected the 1.2 Trillion dollar increase in the debt ceiling.

Some politicians suggest giving tax breaks to large companies that buy equipment here in the US, hoping that will entice them to move their labor force here. There are many options that may create jobs, most of which translate in increasing the national debt. The inconvenient truth is that we probably will never pick the best option because we are not willing to sacrifice our standard of living.

Angst Is When We Live for Tomorrow

2012-01-16T01:18:00.000-08:00

Angst is the difference between who you presently are and who you presently could be. Angst is assigned many definitions, but I think the one above applies best. We spend so much time wishing things were different, that we had more money, that we had more love, etc. We end up waiting for all these things to come to us in the future, but we actually have everything we need to bring those things into our lives right now, in the present.

We need to look at the big picture. If we want money, what is the money for: fancy cars, jewelry, big house…? All that stuff falls under the category of abundance, and abundance is something you feel inside, not something you touch outside of you. The tangible things you “possess” can give you a feeling of living in abundance, but this feeling is fleeting if you are dependent on solely those things to support the feeling. In order for the feeling of living in abundance to remain, abundance needs to be part of your life. You need to exude abundance just as you receive it.

How can you make the life you fantasize about in the future become the present? Focus on the feelings instead of the things. Figure out the feelings that you are craving and how to make those feelings part of your present reality instead of a fantasy. Love others and you will be loved.

Angst is not a difference in time or place, it is a difference in the way you feel. Allow the life you desire to manifest itself in the present and you will feel no angst. You can only feel angst when you do not live at the level of your present potential. Time is only perceived—every moment is right now. This is the awakening of the human spirit.

Meeting about the New Human Awakening

2012-01-08T05:17:00.000-08:00

WAKE UP WORLD!

We have been plagued by ongoing issues like war, starvation, and poverty since time immemorial. We have now developed the communication technology that allows us to discuss the issues and come to real solutions. I’m putting together a meeting that will take place in Providence, Rhode Island in March of 2012. It will probably be the first meeting of it’s kind in the area. We’ll look at how FaceBook and Twitter are bringing people together around the world to discuss the issues that have always hindered the progress of our civilization.

For people unfamiliar with social media, I think the best strategy is to pair those people up with people that are familiar with it. Just as at the meeting it will be a matter of people helping people, so will it also be in the world arena.

If you are interested in attending such a meeting, please email me at my FaceBook account: http://www.facebook.com/practicalmanifestations

Thank you,
Bill

CERN Scientific Discovery 9-11: Opens Possibility of Time Travel

2011-12-31T10:26:00.000-08:00

US: Borrowing against the Future of Our Children

2011-12-30T07:59:00.000-08:00

Whether you realize it or not, the US national debt has nearly tripled in just the last 12 years (below are the statistics). The reasons for not being able to balance the budget were abundant, and from what I have heard, both parties basically blame each other for most of it. We had wars to fight, citizens needed assistance for various hardships, and we needed to rebuild cities after earthquakes, floods, etc. Although all of these issues have cost us money before (since inception basically), for some reason over the past 12 years we ran a deficit each year of more than the entire accumulation of debt incurred between the years 1776 and 1940 (an average of 780 billion per year).

So in general terms the increase in debt looks like this:
First 164 years of operation (1776 to 1940): about 0.5 Trillion
Next 60 years of operation (1940 to 2000): about 4.6 Trillion
Following 12 years of operation (2000 to 2012): about 14.4 Trillion

I, myself, didn’t even realize how much we have accumulated in such a short amount of time. I sort of figured we had always had several trillion dollars of debt, so hitting 15 Trillion was not earth-shattering. At an average rate of 780 billion per year, in another 10 years we’ll be at about $23 Trillion in debt, and it might not stop there.

What will it take to convince politicians to balance the budget? Personally I think it should be a mandate that the budget be balanced each year. Our families all function on balanced budgets, and when we don’t for even just a few years we end up filing for bankruptcy or needing to reconsolidate our debt, either way our credit is ruined. The nation’s credit rating has already been downgraded for the first time ever, yet the yearly budget deficits go on. If we don’t tend to the situation it will be left to our children to pay extraordinarily high taxes just to pay the interest the $X Trillion accumulates each year. It is a tough matter because we like our politicians to bring money to our state and we figure that it is better that our state receives it than some other state and the money is going to go somewhere, right? Somehow we need to work together, citizens of all states, and agree that the money is not ours at all. It is borrowed and eventually the interest rate will be much more than it is today when the lenders realized we are over-leveraged.

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Wealthy Vs Middle Class (Not Democrats Vs Republicans)

2011-12-29T13:46:00.000-08:00

As we get ready to begin 2012 we start to hear the two parties ramp up the rhetoric about how much they are going to do if they were to be elected. There is a lot of flip-flopping on issues and finger-pointing on bad bills and people that got in the way of good bills. They are all such good debaters that they all sound right when challenged. And the issues and bills are so complex that it’s tough for anyone to decipher b.s. from truth.

Nonetheless it seems a lot of us try to pick the lesser of two evils. Maybe the ideology of one party sits better with you than the other, or maybe one party says they will add jobs to the field you work in, and that’s how they get into power. So we end up electing somebody that vows to change things, or help to return things to the way they were, or maybe keep things status quo (if they’re already good).

People discuss and argue a lot with their friends, family, and co-workers about which party should be in office, and particularly about who should be president. But what strikes me is that while we are all distracted by arguments on ideologies and details, the gap between the wealthy and the middle class continues to grow. Large companies outsource their labor to foreign companies and import materials without tariffs. The outsourcing costs us jobs and the jobs we are left with pay less. More and more people find themselves out of the range of middle class and in the range of needing government assistance.

According to stateofworkingamerica.org (Economic Policy Institute) the richest 10% saw over 50% of the income growth over the last hundred years (ending in 2008) while the rest of us shared the remaining 49% of income growth http://stateofworkingamerica.org/who-gains/#/?start=1918&end=2008

It only makes sense that the people at the head of these companies are making money hand over fist since the CEO’s are seeing the large bonuses each year. But I don’t think the answer is salary caps, because this could easily lead to corrupt politicians favoring one CEO over another. Instead, let’s bring the work back home by imposing some tariffs to level the playing field. How else can our labor fairly compete with the labor the rest of the world can offer?

To discuss this issue and others, please join the discussion on http://www.oldestquestions.com/

Where Did All the Jobs Go?

2011-12-28T07:56:00.000-08:00

According to Wikipedia the US goods trade deficit with NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) was $94.6 billion in 2010, a 36.4% increase ($25 billion) over 2009. That alone could explain where a lot of the jobs have gone recently. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement

Free trade agreements were supposed to help american businesses grow and boost the economy. However it seems that because businesses are able to get cheaper labor outside the US, it is far more cost productive to manufacture goods outside the US and import them without any tarrifs in effect.

On October 12, 2011 the US entered a free trade agreement with Korea is expected to boost the US GDP by $12 Billion. http://www.ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/korus-fta

However we see a different impact on the US economy from the free trade agreements we have signed in the past. The agreements seem to end up costing more jobs and serve to increase the number of imports.

The High Price of Free Trade: North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) cost 879,280 jobs between 1993 and 2002.
http://www.epi.org/publication/briefingpapers_bp147/

As of 2010, US Trade deficits with Mexico alone cost a total of 682,900 jobs since NAFTA's inception in January 1994.
http://www.epi.org/publication/heading_south_u-s-mexico_trade_and_job_displacement_after_nafta1/

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Gap Grows between Congress and the People They Represent

2011-12-27T20:09:00.000-08:00

Link http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45800303/

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

To discuss this issue and others, please join the discussion on http://www.oldestquestions.com/

Ideas for Making the World a Better Place

2011-12-27T12:44:00.000-08:00

The way I see it, every person has at least a few things they would like to change about the world. Somehow the message is lost between us and the politicians that are supposed to represent us. There has got to be a way of unifying with other people that would like to change the world for the better and to figure out which ideas are the best for getting the desired results. When you talk to people they each have their own ideas on how to improve the world, and many times those ideas are absolutely unique to that person. If you talk to someone else, they have a completely different set of ideas, and that person thinks their own ideas are the best.

In building the oldestquestions.com web site it was my intent to give people a forum to openly discuss their ideas for improving the world. As other people see each idea, they are able to rate it and comment on it. In this way some ideas will be given a higher rating than others as a result of the summation of better ratings by the various users.
I think it would be interesting for people to see how others view their opinions and ideas as well as to hear the comments they have. What a world it would be to have an idea and decide to slightly modify it for the better based on comments/suggestions you receive from people you have never met!

2012: Another Election Year

2011-12-25T06:21:00.000-08:00

As we approach another election year we start hearing the banter increase between the democrats and the republicans. What usually strikes me is that the moderates on both sides are fairly reasonable and should be able to come to some sort of agreement. However other things get in the way such as pressure from extremists and finger-pointing whenever something goes wrong. What I haven’t mentioned yet is the pressure from the lobbyists. Big business uses lobbyists and campaign contributions to impact the voting power of politicians.

The owners of some big businesses are republicans and the owners of other big businesses are democrats, but both categories of owners are wealthy and they are interested, among other things, in building their wealth. For example Republican owners may persuade politicians to favor oil drilling while Democrat owners may persuade politicians to favor green (efficient/clean/renewable) energy. Aside from wealthy owners contributing, there are lots of advocacy groups of people as well as unions. In the end if you are not wealthy or not a member of group that has enough money to make a substantial contribution, then your voice is less likely to be heard.

It’s too bad we all can’t be heard equally. We would need to somehow remove the money aspect from elections. In that scenario each candidate would not be able to depend on contributions from big business, advocacy groups, and the wealthy. They would be persuaded by their constituents contacting them rather than throwing fundraisers and contributing to their campaign.

Please join our discussion board OldestQuestions.com to discuss this and other issues affecting our world.

We Launched Our New Discussion Board Web Site OldestQuestions

2011-12-25T02:58:00.000-08:00

We finally did it, we launched our new web site OldestQuestions.com

It was many months in the making, and once it was created, we had to figure out how best to use it. We figured if we created categories based on the issues that are on most people’s minds: both national (United States) and world issues. Unlike other sites though this site is not for us to post our ideas and let others comment on them, but rather to allow everyone to post views as well as comment on and rate other people’s views and comments.

We are still in the testing phase of the site, but you are welcome to join and post thoughts and comments and rate the thoughts and comments of others. Please allow 12 hours after you confirm your registration via email to login and 12 hours for the administrator to approve your thoughts and comments.

See you there! http://www.oldestquestions.com

New E-Book Excerpt 3: Eating Healthy (Draft)

2011-03-14T16:38:00.000-07:00

In this country a lot of focus is given to weight and appearance: fat or skinny, where the focus should be on eating habits: healthy or unhealthy. Where a focus on appearance can reinforce low self esteem and self sabotage, a focus on healthy eating habits should reinforce high self esteem and complement positive activities such as exercise.

Everyone tries to eat healthy, yet we all struggle to actually make it happen. We can set out with the best intentions, however when it comes time to eat, somehow there are always a lot of obstacles that stand in our way. Obstacles are often the result of a combination of internal and external influences. Some of the most common external influences for eating poorly are the cost of healthy food, and convenience. Internal influences could be stress, emotional baggage. Cravings are probably the most common reason for eating poorly, but I pair them up with stress since we are most susceptible to yield to cravings when we are under a lot of stress.

Each day we set out to eat healthy, yet encounter many obstacles along the way that cause us to fall short. I find that it all starts with breakfast, that is where the pattern begins. We are in a hurry and need to grab something fast—something fast to get and fast to eat. Most breakfast options consist of carbohydrates and sugar. They give you that quick energy to sort of jump-start your day. The carbohydrates quickly turn into sugars and the combination of fast energy comes as fast as it goes. Over the course of the day we find ourselves repeatedly just trying to get something fast to eat, this goes for lunch and sometimes even for dinner. By the end of the day we’re too exhausted to make anything complicated, so we look for frozen or canned foods that we can microwave and eat with a beer or two before we fall asleep in front of the television. When the next morning comes the pattern starts over.

The pattern is self-sabotaging because it keeps us in a perpetual chaotic and unorganized state. You may have first adopted the pattern in college or even in high school. The root cause of the pattern could be some emotional baggage or there may be stresses in your life that make you feel like you are always under the gun. To determine the root cause of the pattern you should revisit the chapter “Healthy Mentality” and work through my suggestions to resolve the issue(s).

Once the root causes of the pattern have been acknowledged and resolved, there may be a few more superficial causes such as: financial constraints or time constraints/convenience. For the more superficial causes of poor diet it often comes down to making a proper diet a priority in your life. Doing so be an easier exercise if most of the root causes have already been resolved. This is because you will be less susceptible to engaging in self-sabotaging activities that would leave you vulnerable to making a poor diet decision. An example of this would be leaving the house just before dinner time to run a few errands without having eaten before you left. In the back of your mind you would know that you would be left stopping for fast food somewhere once you got too hungry to wait. Having resolved those root causes, you are more likely to think ahead a little and eat before you run out at dinner time.

Another more superficial cause for poor diet could be that eating healthy seems boring. Who wants to eat soggy tasteless vegetables at every meal for the rest of their life? It takes a long time to cook, does not taste good, results in dishes that you will need to wash, and it all happens in your boring kitchen or dining room. Plus it costs about the same amount as grabbing a burger and fries, sometimes it costs more. No wonder even people with a healthy mentality are sometimes tempted by fast food. How can we make meals at home more interesting?

First of all eating plain chicken or beef with overcooked vegetables each night just won’t cut it. What about making some interesting meals: shopping in the international section of the supermarket, lightly sautéing vegetables instead of boiling them, or making the occasional healthy desert? The larger supermarkets usually have an international section and an even better option may be to try one of the local ethnic food stores. Making something new is often just a matter of using a few new spices, vegetables, and or sauces. Try making a mild version first, you can always add a little kick to it after your first attempt.

To discuss this issue and others, please join the discussion on www.oldestquestions.com

New E-Book Excerpt 2: Developing a Positive Relationship with Money (Draft)

2011-03-05T12:27:00.000-08:00

Here is another excerpt from my upcoming E-Book on keys to loving life:

"This chapter is not about necessarily making more money, but rather tweaking our relationship with money itself. Most of us have a love-hate relationship with money: love it when it’s around and hate it when it’s not. Right from childhood we learn that money gets us what we want: presents at Christmas, a new bike, nice clothes, etc. When our parents did not have much money to spend, Christmas might have been a little less joyful (the parents felt guilty and regretted the fact they couldn’t do more), the bike didn’t show up, and maybe the clothes weren’t quite as nice compared to the “good years”.

We have come to understand that money is a direct result of hard work: the harder you work, the more money you make. We also understand that it is a very linear equation. By this I mean that you can work overtime and maybe make 1.5 times your typical hourly wage, but those overtime hours are much tougher to work since they are done after you already worked your standard shift of 8 hours (or more). We also see people that don’t have money and think that they just aren’t working hard, maybe they are a little lazy. We might look down at people collecting unemployment or living off of government subsidies, maybe we’re even a little jealous of them because they don’t seem to have to work as hard as we do and they get by somehow. We waste so much time haggling and fighting over relatively small denominations of money (hundreds or maybe even thousands of dollars).

Company owners are very limited in what they can pay their employees, especially those employees at the lower tiers. As an example, let’s say you and I are co-owners of Hypothetical Widget Inc. (HWI). We have an employee that works on the assembly line named Jane. Here is the info on Jane:

Jane puts pieces X, Y and Z on the widget and works alongside 5 other people

that put on pieces M through W.

Jane makes $400.00 per week, just like the other assembly line workers.

The pieces of the widget are intricate, so Jane only puts on a couple hundred per

day, which is about average.

In our example, Sue is Jane’s boss. Here is Sue’s info:

Sue makes $500 per week.

Sue oversees the workers that put on pieces M through W.

In the next bay you have 6 more assembly line workers and one more boss, named Alex.

Alex also makes $500 per week, just like Sue (Jane’s boss).

Jane comes to us and asks for a raise. Times are hard and she is struggling to make ends meet. We tell her we will review her file and let her know. You and I decide that we can afford to give Jane a 10% raise in her hourly wage if she can work 10% faster. We give her the news and she is thrilled and promises not to let us down. At first Jane’s production increases by 10%, but after a few months it starts to dwindle. Jane is having family trouble, arguing with her husband and fighting with her kids. We see her production slip to 5% above average and we know we are losing money, we start to get frustrated with Jane. Jane isn’t doing so well either, she has all the issues at home, she spending more money going out to eat buying fancy clothes all in an effort to compensate herself for busting her rump. Although she is earning 10% more, she is actually somehow taking home less than she was before.

We see that she is not looking so good, so we call her in for a talk. We tell her that her production rate has dropped to 5% above average, so the best we can do is pay her 5% more than the others, it’s only fair. She has a problem because now she spends 10% more and her wages are being cut back down to 5% above average. She asks us if we could pay her $100 more per week, that would really give her some breathing room. We explain to her that we are really limited here. We know that her boss will be mad if she is making the same amount her boss is. We tell her that her production just doesn’t warrant the massive raise. Furthermore we would have to give raises to all the people on the production line, and that would put our company in the red. We tell Jane to just be happy with the extra 5% and send her on her way.

Facing the above scenario gives people a very close-minded view of money. It paints money as a rigid substance, directly and linearly related to how hard we work. Why two percent of the American population earns ninety eight percent of the money made is a mystery to most folks. It is a mystery to them because it appears that the two percent has figured out the greatest puzzle in the world, how to get money you don’t earn. The truth is that those people do in fact earn what they get. The difference is that many of them figured out that money is not a rigid substance, how hard we work has little to do with how much money you earn. Some of them just inherited a boatload of money, and I say, “Good for them!” The rest thought long and hard about how to modify their rigid perception of money. They started brainstorming about ideas that had the potential to earn real money and tested these ideas with the little money they had. Once some of those ideas started to pay off, they stopped working for others by the hour and started building their own businesses. It all started by just stepping out of the box, ending that rigid perception of money. Of course it would be very risky to change your perception of money and immediately quit your job, although I’m sure some people have done it and still been successful. Once you understand that busting your rump is not getting you anywhere fast, you start to worry less about trying to bust it more. In turn this frees your mind to be more creative and come up with fantastic ideas, ideas for things you would actually enjoy doing. Then you need to scrape together a few bucks and a little time to test out your ideas. Maybe you will need patents and copyrights to do it right. Your first idea might be a real bomb (the bad kind), and so might the second. But eventually you will have a dynamite idea, get the proper patents and copyrights, and ride it all the way to the top.

While it may sound like this is a plan to make tons of money, this is not really the case. The plan is to take the focus off how much money you make and put the focus on coming up with ideas for what you really want to do in life. Somehow you will always get by with whatever amount of money is coming in. When you don’t make enough money each week to pay the bills, it can be extremely worrisome and distracting to say the least. The trick in the beginning is to figure out a way to earn enough to live rather comfortably, that level is different for everyone. Once you are somewhat comfortable, you can take your focus off money and think about loving life.

Will you be part of the top two percent, who knows? Does it really matter? No. What matters is that you will be doing what you love to do, and the people around you will tend to follow suit. Soon you will find yourself (if not already) getting up in the middle of the night to write down some great ideas. You might have an idea or two and know that you need to write it down immediately and let it just expand on the page before your eyes. How do I know this is true? As I look at the clock right now, it is 3AM. My wife woke up to me typing and told me it’s time to come back to bed. I’ll be back in a few minutes, I’m having too much fun writing these ideas :)"

You're welcome to join the group I recently created on Face Book for people interested in my already released and yet-to-be-released books, Practical's Book Club at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_161423227237808&ap=1

New E-Book Excerpt 1: Keys to Enjoying Life: Mental Health (Draft)

2011-03-03T05:08:00.000-08:00

As you probably know, I have been working on my book on business marketing, but just recently I started an E-Book about the keys to enjoying life. I have to expand a little more to talk about counseling and meditation, but I'm happy with what I have written so far. I'm thinking of offering it for free and probably pairing it up when selling the business marketing book. The business marketing book explores how social media can be used to build even the smallest startups.
Here is an excerpt from Keys to Enjoying Life

"The key to having a healthy mentality is thinking positive thoughts. Having positive thoughts is not as simple as telling yourself “Be positive!” There are many reasons that we have negative thoughts: stress, trauma, and emotional baggage being a few of them. These reasons for negative thoughts can also lead to low self esteem and an overall negative disposition. Replacing negative thoughts with positive ones is something that takes time and diligence and sometimes monetary investment.

If your mind is full of negative thoughts, you know that you have a lot of work to do. You will need to consider the root causes of the thoughts. Perhaps you have feelings that you are not ready to acknowledge yet. These feelings may not necessarily make sense to the rational side of your brain, yet the feelings still exist.

A Negative Pattern Example

For example, you may feel guilty that you are not able to help a loved one that is ill. In our example you are able to take her to a doctor and help her get around a little, but the illness continues to worsen. Rationally you know that you could not possibly do more than you are doing, but subconsciously you still feel like you could be doing more. You recognize that you feel guilty and maybe angry at yourself for not doing more and in order to resolve this feeling you will need to start by forgiving yourself. Next you may need to forgive the other people that are not doing more to help her, forgive her for not doing more to improve her own condition, etc. You may experience many feelings as a result of the incurable illness. Each feeling and its cause needs to be acknowledged. Recognize how it feels to have each feeling in its full intensity, then forgive yourself for being angry, for the things you feel guilty about, and for the negative feelings you are having.

Understanding and Reversing Negative Patterns

While the rational mind can recognize and understand something immediately after review, the subconscious mind often needs more time to completely comprehend the information it is given. It may be a process that needs to happen daily for a few weeks or more before full comprehension is reached.

You will begin to notice that you experience certain negative feelings as a result of specific triggers. Identify each trigger and the negative pattern of thoughts, feelings, and actions that ensue. This is an iterative process. You will notice each trigger directly causes a negative thought or feeling, often followed by a self-sabotaging action. Once you have identified the pattern, think of ways to short-circuit the pattern by reacting differently to the trigger. When you experience a trigger, recognize the thought or feeling that immediately ensues. Feel how it feels to have the thought or feeling in all of its intensity. What is the root cause, when did you first feel that way? Recognize the next step in the pattern. Is it another thought or feeling, how does that one feel? What is the root cause and when did you first feel that way. Now what action are you tempted to take? Is it self-sabotaging? Think of an action you can replace it with, something that will make you feel happy and good about yourself. Take the positive action you are considering. Afterward make notes about the full experience, right from the initial trigger through the thoughts and feelings and temptation to take self-sabotaging action as well as the positive action you did take. Make a note of how it feels to have short-circuited the negative pattern. While recognition and resolution of negative feelings can be a lengthy process, it is the first step toward feeling better."

Thank you for reading, I'll update you as I complete more sections.

A Musical Subconscious

2011-03-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

Last night my wife and I were discussing the possibility of her writing a book to help teach kids music. She found that the kids seem to have trouble learning to play using most books and had an idea to make a list of songs that she felt were most helpful to kids. We talked about putting all those songs into one book, something new and fun and interesting to use. I thought it was fantastic and told her that we need to come up with a name for the book. She put together a rough draft yesterday. We need to exchange a few songs due to copyright restrictions, but we have the concept, and it’s great.

So I woke up this morning and was writing down a few things that I am thankful for in my life while waiting for my ride. Strangely enough as I finished writing I looked up and who is sitting across from me but a music teacher. It appears that he is making notes on music composed by a few of his students, but I can’t be sure since I’m not an expert on music. I say “is making notes” because I started writing this blog post right when I saw him and he is sitting there as I continue to write. I love catching and memorializing the moment as it happens.

Perhaps it is just coincidence, or maybe I am looking for things in my environment that are harmonious with what is on my mind. It always strikes me how the subconscious mind works, and I wonder just how much my spectrum of perception is affected by it. Of course there is the possibility that I was meant to see what I saw or that I sat where I did because subconsciously I knew I would have that experience.

Just a few thoughts to ponder today.

Fine Line Between Coincidence and Manifesting

2011-02-03T05:34:00.000-08:00

Today I’m going back up to Boston. My company has created a temporary office for me in a skyscraper there, so that’s where I’ll be working for a couple weeks. This may not sound like anything special, however I cannot ignore the rather unlikely coincidence that I happened to write a blog not too long ago about working in a skyscraper in a major US city (link to reference below). It could be just a coincidence, but then again I did publish something talking about me working in a skyscraper in a big city. So there is a possibility that my publication in 2009 affected where I would be working in 2011. The connection could be easily debated of course, and probably impossible to prove, but it is strange at best. I typically work in a small field office trailer and have never worked in a big US city before.

One thing that I notice is that I am a little more nervous about getting to the office in Boston as opposed to traveling to my usual rural office. If there is some connection between my publication and this event, then it’s a possibility that this event is just one in a series of events that eventually end in the physical realization of the original intent, as discussed in the publication. Furthermore there would be some hurdles that I would need to clear in order to prepare for the final realization, otherwise the final realization would not be permanent. You would hypothetically be thrown into the intended situation and you could not sustain that position because you were unprepared. For instance, if I needed to work in New York and had not gotten used to traveling to a main city before, I might only be able to do it for a couple weeks, then need to quit. Or maybe the traveling itself would not be enough to make me quit, but combined with a bunch of other difficulties, could be overbearing.

I’ll keep you posted as this possible manifestation continues to evolve and my thoughts on the subject. I’m keeping a scientific observer perspective, but such possible revelations could be pretty exciting. We need to keep a mindful eye on the evasive line between coincidence and manifesting.

http://practicalmanifestations.blogspot.com/2009/04/blog-over-1000-visitors-to-date-topic.html

Upcoming Existential Ideas Exchange Web Site Update #1

2011-01-25T06:20:00.000-08:00

As you may have heard we are currently building a new web site, a free site where people can exchange ideas on existentialism. For the past several months we have been working on the functionality and layout of the site. It was quite the task just getting the basic functionality and layout down, but it looks like we’ve got it at this point. Everything we are working on is still offline, so I’m not able to show you what it looks like. Nonetheless I wanted to share the update with everyone following the story.

Today we would like to announce that we have made some serious headway. Having completed the basic functionality and layout, the next step was to work on the functions of registration and login. As of today those functions have been added. Of course they need some tweaking to get them to work just right. We are ecstatic about the appearance of the site and know that it only gets better from here.

Another thing I wanted to share with everyone is the color scheme in case anyone had suggestions. Presently we are considering consistently using purple text. The background is a very light blue. The header is lime green. The items are separated by a grey bar, in which there is info about the item posted. I like the present color scheme but I am not completely sold. Please comment with any ideas.

I’ll continue to post updates about the upcoming site on our blog to keep you all informed. We have a group on Face Book for anyone interested in discussing the site prior to launch and for anyone interested in receiving a registration invitation on the launch date:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_144099815643491&ap=1

Thanks and do keep in touch!

Mini Vacation for New Years Eve

2011-01-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

For New Years Day we decided to take a mini vacation in Bozra, Connecticut at a Bed and Breakfast. It was really terrific to relax and spend some time with my wife. The room came equipped with a whirlpool tub, a fireplace and a few bottles of wine, so it was not difficult to enjoy our time there. The name of the place was the Fitch Claremont Vineyard B&B, if you are ever in the area. What was really great was that they offered a package of the wine and dinner at a local restaurant New Years Eve at a very reasonable price. We spent a couple nights there. We also met some other people taking mini vacations and they were really nice. We went to Foxwoods Casino for New Years Eve. We didn’t do anything dramatic there, but had some fun with long time friends of ours. Looking forward to a good new year and wishing everyone the same!

Immigration: A Good Man Scheduled to be Deported Part 2

2010-11-23T10:48:00.000-08:00

This is an update to my previous post, dated November 10, 2010.

Like I said, a friend of mine was scheduled to be deported at the end of the month if no action was taken. He was granted political asylum about 17 years ago because apparently Guatemala was not a safe place to live and the US grants political asylum to non-US citizens when their home country is unsafe.

I made several phone calls starting with US congressmen and the RI attorney general's office. No one seemed able to help. I searched for a local immigrant advocacy group but was not able to find any. I found a national advocacy group for hispanic immigrants and they said that congressmen and women can not influence a person's immigration status unless it is a question of human rights.

I also contacted the local news station and told the investigator reporter the story. He too was unsure he could help, as immigration law and practices were not familiar to him. He asked me for the phone number for my friend's lawyer and I gave it to him.

I tried calling the lawyer myself and his assistant said he would get back to me. Later that evening my friend called me and said that the lawyer was able to get a 3 month extension. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I called the lawyers office or the news station reporter called his office or just mere coincidence, but they seemed to reach a temporary resolution right after we called him. Perhaps we made a difference that day, even though all the other phone calls appear to have been unfruitful.

On top of maybe making a difference, I learned a lot about how dependent immigrants are on their lawyers to help them through the system. When we think of immigrants, we usually think of illegal immigrants trying to work their way into getting free health-care and taking jobs away from other legal US citizens. There is another side of the story, people here legally that need help and are completely dependent on lawyers to treat them fairly. I wish those individuals luck and hope they are successful in finding a fair lawyer and perhaps a local advocacy group to help them along their path.

Immigration: A Good Man Scheduled to Be Deported

2010-11-10T03:19:00.000-08:00

A good friend of mine is from Guatemala and he told me on Monday that his last appeal against deportation will be at the end of this month. He came to the US about 17 years ago and has been waiting for his application for citizenship to be processed since he arrived. He was granted political asylum when he first arrived and that has been his status ever since.

He has been in Rhode Island for 17 years and has also been working the entire time…except for this last year, because like so many other Rhode Islanders, he was laid off. I believe his employer needed to pay about $2000 to employ my friend each year, as is mandated by the office of immigration. My friend paid for unemployment benefits out of his weekly paycheck for the last 16 years before he was laid off. He filed for unemployment benefits and I believe they decided he qualified, paid him two weeks worth of benefits, then stopped. His application has been in process ever since.

My friend is a good man, someone that would do anything to help his neighbors. He is a hard-working man, honest and sincere, and an asset to the community. He came here from Guatemala all those years ago because of a dispute between his family and a powerful family in his area. Apparently his family was blacklisted and all of their business-related pursuits sabotaged.

I am reaching out to a former congressman for help. Hopefully he can tell me what, if anything, can be done. It would be a shame for the community to lose my friend knowing how much potential he has to be a contributor to society.

Update 11/10/10: I had no luck with the former congressman, he suggested I contact a lawyer, but I fear it is too late for that. I contacted the local television news station to see if they were interested in the story. If they are not interested in the story, maybe they will at least point me in the right direction and tell me whom to talk to.

Learning from the Physical Existence

2010-09-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

I had always tried to think of what the purpose of life could be and recently I started to become frustrated with the fact that I could come up with no simple answer. What could possibly be learned by a physical existence that was not far more efficiently learned otherwise, thereby avoiding having to create this world we live in and the billions of people that inhabit it? Would it not be simpler to embark on a spiritual journey that taught the same lessons? After struggling with these unanswered questions for a while I then thought of a mouse that was so frustrated trying to think of the reason for the maze that he/she did not get to finish running through it. It is possible for one to become so concerned trying to think of the purpose of life that they miss the point of life while everyone else naturally learn all the lessons at hand.

I made the decision not to get too worked up about trying to think of the purpose of life and instead just being open to the lessons as they unfold. At that point it occurred to me that whatever the purpose of life is, it probably involves learning lessons that are best learned via a physical existence. This is a simple and straight-forward answer to the age-old question and makes sense to the rational mind. Of course reality is not subject to our rationale, so the fact that something makes sense does not make it correct, it is simply one perspective that our minds can easily grasp.

I then tried to think of lessons that are best learned via a physical existence. We have always been taught to value spiritual stuff over physical stuff, so thinking of lessons for which the physical aspect is more efficient was not easy. The obvious lesson is to learn to live in balance both internally and in relation to ones environment. I think a major benefit of the physical existence when it comes to living in balance is the fact that we have senses. We can see, hear, touch, feel, taste and smell when things are in balance or when they are out of balance. For example we may feel pain when something in our body is out of balance: if we break a leg, or stub a toe. We can hear the melody of music or the chaotic sound of just noise. Our senses help us to perceive balance or imbalance around us and within every day.

Although the spiritual side of life is superior to the physical in so many ways, perhaps when it comes to giving us lessons inclusive of definitive feedback about internal and external balance, the physical existence just has a little more to offer. According to this theory, one of the lessons of life, to live in balance, can be learned by just paying close attention to our body and our environment to be able to better detect when things are in balance. I use the phrase “one of the lessons of life” because there are probably many lessons including to learn to respect and love one another.

Stardust Children’s Foundation

2010-07-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

I visited my friend Gertrud (http://www.metrowesthealingcenter.com/) and she told me about a friend of hers that manages a not-for-profit educational organization named Stardust Children’s Foundation. She gave me a pamphlet about the work they are doing to help children around the world. Their newest project is to help children in a school in Jamaica. They channel donations toward books and school supplies as well as lunch for the children for the entire year. Some money also goes toward maintaining the school.

Gertrud and I were talking before about helping Gertrud’s friend Emerson, who helps street children in Brazil. Gertrud said she spoke to Jeanne about the Brazil project and Jeanne thought it would be a great project to do after they finish the Jamaica project I described above.

Gertrud invited me to dinner on Monday so I can meet Jeanne and discuss the two projects with them. You can visit their web site at http://www.stardustchildrens.com/ to learn more about the organization. I'll let you know what I find out on Monday.

Brazil Street Children: Learning About Brazil

2010-06-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

As my friend Gertrud introduced the concept of donating to the street children of Brazil, I began researching the level of poverty that can be found there. Gertrud has a friend named Emerson that is helping the children and I asked her to see if he could provide us with stories and pictures of the great work he is doing. I figured while we waited to get some feedback about his work with the children, we could learn about the general state of brazil and the living conditions the children are experiencing. Presently Emerson provides medical attention to the desperate street children. I envision being able to help him in his quest to help the street children by bringing publicity to his work so that others that are interested in helping may offer financial contributions.

The first web site I came across was http://www.hope4streetkids.org/more%20about%20streetkids.htm which informed me that Brazil actually has the second highest gross national product of any country in Latin America. They have the tenth largest economy in the world, yet "...between 7 and 8 million children, ages 5 to 18, live and/or work on the streets of urban Brazil." The web site cites UNICEF, 1996b as stating that about 40 million street children exist throughout Central and South America. Apparently the children are treated like lower-class citizens and are therefore subject to a great deal of exploitation and abuse.

I am looking forward to receiving stories and photos from Emerson about the work he is doing and will keep you posted. Until then I will continue researching the conditions for the street children of Brazil.

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Helping the Street Children of Brazil

2010-06-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

My friend Gertrud of MetroWest Healing Center mentioned to me that she has a friend in Brazil that is helping the neighborhood street children. His name is Emerson and he is a doctor. He offers them free medical attention and it has a dramatic impact on their lives since they have so little. Gertrud recently visited Brazil for a healing seminar Emerson was giving. She met a child there and decided to start sending Emerson some money each money to care for the child.

Gertrud told me of her idea to maybe start a charity for the street children of Brazil. I researched to see what was involved in starting a charity and it seemed pretty complex. I told Gertrud that to start, we could just start sending Emerson donations to help these poor street children. I know that our time and money spent helping Emerson to do the work he is doing will go much farther since he is offering his services for free and the money goes toward supplies, etc.

I thought it would be a great idea to start gathering information on the street children of Brazil in general. Furthermore it would be fascinating to get actual stories from the children Emerson is helping to hear what they have to say. I would also like to see Emerson’s project bloom into something bigger like getting the kids educated so they can start helping themselves and the other street children.

To find out how to make a donation, please visit our donation page at http://www.practicalmanifestations.com/donations

Decorating for Success

2010-04-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

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I was making my breakfast this morning when I looked at the refrigerator and saw the picture I had taken of my wife standing with Yo-Yo Ma, one of the greatest cellists in the world. I took the picture maybe a month ago when we went to see him play a concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Many people would love to meet him but never get a chance to. We just happened to be standing in the right spot at the right moment and he walked right to us. My wife loves this picture as she, herself, aspires to be as great a cellist as he is some day. The law of attraction can be used to bring into our lives anything we want, such as success in our career.

I then took my breakfast into our living room, where we have a music rug. It occurred to me that we do not have a formal place for my wife to practice by herself or with her string quartet, Col’ Areo, and to tutor her students. She usually does everything in the large room in the back of the house. There are major differences between the two rooms. The living room has a hardwood floor and so has excellent acoustics. The back room has a rug and drop ceiling so the sound gets lost. The back room looks like something from 1970 whereas the living room looks fairly modern. Plus the living room already has the music rug.

One thing that we learn from Feng Shui is that our environment affects the flow of energy around us. Similar to the philosoply behind the law of attraction, setting up a room for a specific purpose and decorating it with stuff that inspires us can be quite beneficial. I suggested to my wife that we have the picture of her with Yo-Yo Ma blown up, framed, and put on the wall in the living room. We can place her special cello chair and the cello on its stand in the corner of the room. We also have an advertisement for the first Col’ Areo String Quartet concert in the room. When people come to practice, they can do so right in the room and almost everything around them pertains to music and success.

We also have a sort of bookshelf that my wife bought but now does not care for so much. She will be happy to learn that it will be leaving the room to make space for the cello corner. Here is a picture of the living room right now. We have not added the picture of Yo-Yo Ma or the cello corner yet, but I'm sure you can imagine what a difference it will make. The cello corner will replace the bookshelf in the bottom picture.