A combination of “interesting parenting” and being born just a tad, or maybe a lot more, oversensitive developed an individual who was a bit overboard on the competitive side, and an introverted personality made for a cookie cutter rebel/loner. It was a great combination, I knew (and I was the only one), that I truly had an epically winning personality.

I remember the first time I was brought into a Casino in England, rolling in like a king where my Aunt’s friend had a VIP pass to the free food and drink that it offered, where one of the waiters taught me to my face the phrase “cheeky boy”. Looking back, being “cheeky”, led to many adventures that created the completely unique personality I am today.

CHEEKY EXHIBIT A

One of the interesting things I remember doing as a teenager, was really insulting and bitingly talk to every smoker I met. I made sure every single smoker I met who was killing me with second hand smoke, knew the level of carcinogens they were inhaling and exhaling, how it was destroying on a worse than nuclear level: themselves, myself, everyone around us and the many generations forthcoming on our lovely little planet earth.

CHEEKY BENEFIT NUMBER 1

I’ve actually learned how to help smokers stop smoking. How is this a benefit? It’s just something I’ve always wanted the ability to do. One thing (to begin the process) that’s fun for me to do is to heavily encourage the person to smoke it up as much as possible through conversation, and tastefully exaggerate the benefits of smoking so much so that mr. purple will feel guilty if I would begin smoking because of their influence.

Either that, or he/she will try to change the topic or talk about how it actually blocks them from enjoying certain foods/makes their teeth yellower/odorizes their clothes/ etc. and then I innocently suggest in a cheerful way to “why not just stop smoking?”… ‘Pause for effect’… *mutual laughter*.

It doesn’t work every time, but when it does inspire healthy and happy change to these people and their families, it’s truly heartwarming.

CHEEKY EXHIBIT B

This really wouldn’t be considered “cheeky” in many circles, however, it depends on the kind of family and friends you have around you. I didn’t really find any supporters of my dietary change until half a year since I began it.

I at one point in my life, before I quit, became completely vegan on a whim after being influenced by some random blogger whom I admired. Of course, I told everyone how I was doing it to help the world, and to encourage others to stop hurting animals, and the list of pro-vegan facts I got off Google, but really, I just did it for fun. It made for some funny conversations, where family would remind me of how I loved “succulent tasting lobster” or “delectably fine Vancouver crab” by subtly placing it in front of me. I especially loved how my mother put meat under the “completely vegan salad” she made me. I really felt the love

CHEEKY BENEFIT NUMBER 2

I’m now one of the healthiest people I know, if not the healthiest. It’s great, I love it, I can eat whatever I want, intuitively knowing what foods consist of what ingredients (you read the ingredient list of almost every store brought item when you begin being a vegan), and just naturally have a tendency to lean towards healthy organic foodstuffs, with meat or otherwise.

CHEEKY EXHIBIT C

I don’t know if I would call this cheeky, but I’m sure there are a few whom it would agree that there’s an element of that in youthful idealism.

It’s funny, I wanted to change the world for the better. And as a Chinese person, proud to be Chinese, specifically, China! If you read the first part of this article, you would know that at one point in my life I really hated cigarette smokers. So, my vision, as a hopeful and rather naïve young man back in the day, was to transform all Chinese people into non-smokers.

CHEEKY BENEFIT NUMBER 3

My vision has grown, quite dramatically, and I’m very grateful to my younger self for the passion to make the world healthier. Nowadays, I’m not really for or against what type of people, or what they do, or how they do it. My thinking has grown a little since then. People can’t be told (and in fact they hate it with a passion) what to do, they need to be charmed, tastefully, with actions and words and good energy combined with trust. And so I’ve learned even my own vision can’t be conveyed directly, as words are so inadequate, however it’s better to sometimes say something rather than nothing.

My current vision is influenced by 2 of the best parented and managed families I’ve seen in Toronto. I can see a community strong enough, to be influenced by the vibe of families like these 2 awesome families I’ve seen, where there was always a spirit of generosity that extended to strangers, a trust that really transcends words (and needs to be seen for effect), and a concentrated mutually combined energy created to inspire everyone around. Maybe these families wouldn’t articulate it in quite so many words, but I’m a mouthful and that hasn’t really changed since forever

With my growing vision, comes a maturity and a sense of peace and contentment about who I am as a person. Combined with my desire for mutual growth, I don’t just sit there, I grow passionately and encourage everyone around me to be inspired to grow as well, so that we can be in on the joy of life together.

There are few things I enjoy more than simply to shoot off an awesome, super inspiring article for the average SpiritSentient reader to enjoy and learn from. Gee, I wonder what benefit awaits me now

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In this caffeinated and viagra-laced age of fake opulence (which is wonderful by the way, as people have never been more focused on its’ opposite), many people try to DO things to GET what they WANT.

This is a recipe for struggle, resisted-growth, and lack.

We’ve created a little inspirational typographic poster to hopefully inspire people to ditch those old ways of thinking in favor of new ones.

Check it out:

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They are a sort of media pioneer.

There are other’s like them coming to light all across the world.

Jonathan Jarvis is another new media pioneer, and similarly to Epipheo Studios, he’s created an elegant, artful, precise mode of communicating complex ideas.

His most popular offering currently, is his video clip explaining the global Crisis of Credit in plain english, and it really is stunning.

My personal favourite though, is his silent animation explaining a new media designed to handle and simplify humanity’s thriving global complexity.

He talks of New Mediators, part designer, part journalist, part analyst.

Check it out.

And in case you missed our Epipheo article, give a look at Epipheo Studio’s "How The Internet Is Changing Advertising"

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Society also tends to focus on ‘doing’ things rather than ‘being’ a certain way.

Let’s address that tendency, shall we? <grin>

Doing things is awesome. The world doesn’t evolve much without physical actions occurring.

On the other hand, doing things with little to no focus on how we’re being while we do them, can generate some interesting situations.

Example:

Helping people is a wonderful thing to do: donating money, food, etc. is awesome, most would agree.

How about doing the above, while being self-justifying and performing the actions in order to assuage our own guilt? Or how about doing them out of boredom, confusion, or a follow-the-herd-mentality? How about donating material things without being loving while we act?

Now, consider the act of standing up and telling a child that you’ve given them enough candy? Yes, it would be denying them some wonderful treat they like. Is it hurtful and harmful, denying a simple pleasure out of spite? Is it loving discipline, helping the child to grow and handle themselves in the world?

It’s an action, and it’s an action that could be taken, out of a sense of care for the child’s well-being and care for yourself not being taken advantage of.

It could also be an action taken out of rage at the child’s incessant pestering, and out of one’s own issues with repetitive persuasion techniques employed by the child.

Certain intentions can be indulged in, and certain qualities of being can be brought to the actions that we do.

Not only that, but actions can arise spontaneously, beautifully and at times ‘more powerfully’ out of stillness and non-action. Learn more about this practice using this simple Aikido training technique.

Both are ‘important’, both are integrated and entwined with each other. They do not exist in a vacuum.

As a slight corollary to our Valentine’s Day article (Love & Sex: The Magnum Opus), let’s look at how this applies to the act of submitting, following, or receiving another person.

We can engage in the act of submitting to others in a dis-empowered state of being, or we can submit to others as a form of beautiful strength, willingly choosing to follow something that feels loving and right to use in a certain moment, to us personally and individually.

We can dominate others in a playful, co-operative, everyone is comfortable with this for now way, or we can dominate in an unwanted, competitive, abuse-of-power way.

Society’s current tendency towards heavily respecting and praising action, while simultaneously judging and eschewing non-action and states-of-being is a symptom of an overly aggressive, hyper-active, traditionally ‘masculine-’ focused culture. Which is fine, it’s merely something to be aware of.

It’s certainly nice to transcend the duality of masculine + feminine, as an individual and as a society, but either way, it’s no big deal.

This article isn’t intended as a criticism, it’s more of a ‘heads up’ to people to perhaps observe their own personal tendencies towards judging people who may be stuck as workaholics and busy-bodies, as well as (more likely) judging those who are being still, loving, kind, and who’re focused on inner-development. Judging generally helps very little and life generally encourages and maintains an integrated balance of doing and being.*

*On a larger scale, society can lean heavily towards one side or another, for a time, but eventually life will balance things out with the opposite.

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Ah pop songs, many trash the successful pop singers of our time. You’ve probably heard it before, "no talent… ruining real art… commercialized people with no vision… or anything to say."

I’ll go over a few things about pop-musicians that are relatively difficult to deny.

1. Pop stars generate tons of happiness.

The actions of one pop star, often observably lead to feelings of happiness, elation, and joy in the hearts of many people, according to their own relation of their experiences.

People of all shapes and sizes, even those who don’t understand the language the song is sung in, find it easy and fun to commune with pop music as a background environment. They find it easy to dance to the music, and connect over discussion of the music.

2. Pop stars usually had to overcome haters, people telling them they couldn’t succeed, and other experiences most people would shy away from.

‘Haters’ is a term to describe people who are behaving in jealous, envious, judgemental, trash-talking ways.

Many people on earth are too scared to pursue their dreams for fear of others judging them. Pop stars are possibly the most judged people on earth. The Inquirer, gossip-mags, kids and adults alike…

There are so so so many people just waiting with baited breath for the chance to launch their opinion on how awesome or shitty a certain popstar is. Listen to the conversations you hear at parties, on the street, or in the subway. It’s all "Oh my God that Britney’s shameless."

The stars who didn’t have a struggle early in life, those who were just randomly ‘discovered’ are often so physically and mentally and emotionally unprepared to deal with such responsibility, power, and freedom that the fritter it away and end up with a life few would envy. Drug problems, health problems, malevolence and dissrespect, loss of dignity, etc., often times later in their flagging careers, their ego’s will act up and get them arrested, trying to regain the attention they received so randomly early in life. Would you want to go this route? Would you ‘handle it better’? Are you judging these people in your day-to-day life?

3. Pop stars sing about and echo issues that are on almost everybody’s minds.

Pop stars strongly reflect our collective unconscious. When they sing about bitches + hoes, money + fame, love + loss, and the masses everywhere connect with these phrases and lines and songs — it’s because they’re all thinking about the same topics. They are engaging topics. They lie at the core of the our current societal conditions.

Yes, there are tons of people "looking for love" (love lies within each of us, but it’s a rare mind who actively and consciously thinks thoughts like this.)

Yes, there are so many people practically dying to get out of the 9-to-5 grind and achieve financial success or radiant, socially approved beauty.

Yes, it’s easy to see people becoming miserable all week and yearning powerfully over and over about "getting out", "getting wasted" (and/or crunk), and "partying hard." "Before I leave / brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack /
‘Cause when I leave for the night / I ain’t coming back."

4. Because of #3 corporations, record labels, and society as a whole supports pop stars.

It’s because the masses think about love, sex, money, fame, partying, distraction, release, etc. and connect so easily on these topics, that anyone singing about them with a catchy beat, attractive looks, and strong drive and marketing, seems to succeed so strongly. Even with all the people trash-talking them, huge throngs of people buy these pop stars albums, memorize, sing, and dance to their songs, and follow their every move and breath. A lot of time, calories, energy, attention, and conversation are absolutely devoted to these pop stars, and it’s because they have their fingers on the pulse of what the masses are hungry for. They fill a need (niche) in the world.

Even the intention behind this article is to discuss something people really have on their minds. Perhaps for the next big pop sensation that comes out, you’ll have a fresh perspective from some of the information shared here.

5. Pop stars are generally comfortable with fame, success, sex, and money.

They can sing/talk about these issues publicly because they’ve transcended it. Things people are not comfortable with remain as hidden as possible, or masked/disguised by something else.

If a person has an embarassing secret or ego-driven neurosis, the last thing that person will generally do is to feel comfortable investing massive amounts of time and effort into polishing said issue into into a song for the masses to dissect. If a person is able to publicly sing, with passion, and invest their time + energy into a certain topic, it’s a safe bet they’re comfortable with it.

Pop stars are able to handle the trash-talk, the gossip, the people who at any given moment choose not to hug someone, not to be charitable, but instead choose to judge, label, and hate-on others. Pop stars have a strength of character that allows them to continue to grow and evolve their lives, where other less-prepared people might be easily overwhelmed.

We could look at how indie artists accomplish this as well, but that’s not the focus. The focus is to observe the success, the beauty, the power, and the general good will pop stars have.

A musician friend of mine, Suresh Singaratnam recently saw Taylor Swift at an airport, and observed her behaving very graciously and down-to-earth regarding her fans (possibly harping & incessant) attention. Suresh himself offered her respect on his facebook, noting that from his first impression, even though he’d never personally listened to her music, as an artist she seemed to him to be an awesome person, with a healthy attitude towards fame and life.

Nicole Scheringzer + Ne-Yo on Independant Women:

Nicole Scheringzer – Winning Woman

Where them girls at? (Girls at).
That like to be in charge.
When the heat get too hot, they just keep turnin’ it up.
Never let ‘em cheat-sheet, they just sweat, gotta go hard.

Ne-Yo – Miss Independent

‘Cause she work like a boss
Play like a boss
Car and a crib
She ’bout to pay them both off
And her bills are paid on time

With this massive hit, Ne-Yo sings about his take on gender issues (he also works in social concerns regarding ‘bills’). Some people connect with it, feeling it furthers ‘feminism’, some connect cuz it’s a slick rnb groove about whole women, some connect with it cuz they hate how it sounds so lame and weak and ‘pussified,’ or something else altogether, either way, hundreds of thousands of people had something to say about it and were delighted to talk about it when it debuted.

Jason Derulo + Plain White T’s on Success:

Jason Derulo – Watcha Say

But when I become a star we’ll be living so large
I’ll do anything for you
So tell me girl

Plain White T’s – Hey There Delilah

Hey there Delilah
I know times are getting hard
But just believe me girl
Someday I’ll pay the bills with this guitar
We’ll have it good
We’ll have the life we knew we would

It’s a common condition, a person is born, goes through many life-lesson’s, all the while honing in on their true purpose, the goal that will fulfill them, and taking whatever steps towards that they feel able. Whether it be achieving fame or raising a family or becoming a criminal or dictator, songs about the eventualy achievement of ’success’ are prevalent.

Jay-Z + Kanye on Jealousy:

Kanye West – Good Life

Haters give me them salty looks, Lowry’s
50 told me go ‘head switch the style up
And if they hate then let ‘em hate
And watch the money pile up, the good life

Jay-Z – Jockin’ Jay-Z

Haters (are) like
Hov, why you still talkin’ money shit?

[beat]


‘Cause I like money bitch

I like fly shit, you like gossip
I let you do you, why you ride my tip?

Jay-Z notes, in poignant thug-speak, that people ask him why he sings about money with such a passion and joy (they probably phrase it more like "Man, all you rap about is money and bling, geez."), and his response is that he leaves people to their own favourite topics of discussion and inspiration, whether that be petty gossip or discussing success, money, and women — what reason do these questioners have to judge, label, and pester him regarding his own discussion topics or issues to sing about?

Lupe Fiasco + Beyoncé on Matching thoughts, words, and actions:

Beyoncé – Single Ladies

Cuz if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it
If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it
Don’t be mad once you see that he want it
If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it

Lupe Fiasco – Superstar

While you was lightin’ your purple I was over the scripts
See, I couldn’t walk the walk
Couldn’t really talk the talk
Had to get my talk to properly explain my walk
Cause this lack in talk had my walk lookin’ off

Lupe speaks to those who smoke their days away, hoping for their wishing on a star for success to ’succeed’ for them, with no physical actions being taken. He’s been there, and he realized he couldn’t "walk the walk" until he got his "talk properly", his words and actions did not match, and so ’societal success’ was elusive.

Keshia Cole, TLC, and Missy Elliott on Being Beautiful (in a socially praised and accepted way):

Keshia Cole – Let It Go

‘Cause I got it like that
But it ain’t even gotta be like that
Yo’ man he be callin’ me back
Cause see I’m fine and a matter of fact
He asked how I do dat dat
Fit my jeans over baby fat

TLC – Unpretty

You can buy your hair if it won’t grow
You can fix your nose if he says so
You can buy all the make-up that mac can make
But if you can’t look inside you
Find out who am I, too
Be in a position to make me feel so damn unpretty

Missy Elliot – Work It

See my hips and my tips, don’t ya
See my ass and my lips, don’t ya
Lost a few pounds and my whips for ya
This the kinda beat that go ra-ta-ta

Missy discusses her own mindset, that of a beautiful, attractive, sexy, powerful person. Missy Elliot, interestingly for the majority of her career was not what most of society would consider "hot" or "sexy", short and high up on the BMI, she still achieved her own fame and always sang powerfully and passionately about her own beauty and her own appreciation for her physical body. Lately she’s slimmed down quite a bit, ‘causing a small controversy with many of her fans who had grown attached to her old style.

Ke$ha + 50 Cent on Partying:

50 Cent – In Da Club

You can find me in the club, bottle full of bub
Look mami I got the X if you into taking drugs
I’m into having sex, I ain’t into making love
So come give me a hug if you into getting rubbed

Ke$ha – Take It Off

And now we lookin, like pimps
In my gold Trans-Am.
Got a water bottle full of whiskey
In my handbag.
Got my drunk text on
I’ll regret it in the mornin,
But tonight
I don,t give a…

So much of society is like a powder-keg. Cities are filled with people who spend so much of their beautiful seconds on earth choosing things that feel miserable, feel horrible, and feel uninspiring. Many successful pop stars achieved their success from doing what they felt passionate about, whether it be hanging around in VIP clubs and wearing attractive clothing, or locking themselves in a basement until they created their debut hit. The point is, when people talked to them, they were not miserable or tired and drained from pursuing a million activities that felt shitty to them.

And now many of them sing songs praising partying and going out and having fun. They know people will connect with it, they have fun singing about it, and the songs are upbeat, dance-able, ‘party’ tracks.

Nickelback + Nas + Cypress Hill on Fame:

Nas – Nas Is Like

Ask me now, I’m the artist, but hardcore, my science for pain
I spent time in the game, kept my mind on fame
Saw fiends shoot up, and do lines of cocaine
Saw my close friends shot, flatline am I sane?

Nickelback – Rockstar

Cause we all just wanna be big rockstars
And live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars
The girls come easy and the drugs come cheap
We’ll all stay skinny ’cause we just won’t eat
And we’ll hang out in the coolest bars

Cypress Hill – Rock Superstar

So you wanna be a rock superstar, and live large
a big house, 5 cars, you’re in charge
comin’ up in the world, don’t trust no body
gotta look over your shoulder constantly

Though the scene hasn’t heard from Cypress Hill in awhile, that kind of places them even more to the realm of Pop Stars, for pops stars are often treated like fads, subject to the fickle whims + thoughts + attention spans of an audience who often doesn’t grow as fast or experiment as much with their own lives. Cypress notes that famous people tend to attract large amounts of praise, gifts, praises, and honours. The flipside of this, is usually that they are also subjected to tremendous judgement, scrutiny, gossip and scandal. This ‘dark side’ is handled differently by everyone, and pop stars commonly are well-equipped mentally, emotionally, physically and financially to deal with it. (*Kanye West’s public image appears far more sensitive than most pop stars to criticism [1] [2])

Pussycat Dolls + Christina Aguilera on Sex:

Pussycat Dolls – Buttons

I’m telling you loosen up my buttons baby (Uh huh)
But you keep fronting (Uh)
Saying what you going do to me (Uh huh)
But I ain’t seen nothing (Uh)

Katy Perry – I Kissed A Girl

I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chap stick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don’t mean I’m in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it

Christina Aguilera – Dirrty

Wanna get rowdy
Gonna get a little unruly
Get it fired up in a hurry
Wanna get dirrty
It’s about time that I came to start the party (party)
Sweat dripping over my body
Dancing gettin’ just a little naughty
Wanna get dirrty
It’s about time for my arrival

Christina Aguilera’s Dirrty is a good example of how songs have been getting more and more sexually open, (at least through language and articulation), and this reflects and mirrors society. Some would suggest that the songs are the ’cause’ of society’s focus, as they influence the children. The other side of this is why would any artist create sexual songs if there was no audience around fiending for it, ready to appreciate it? And if for some reason they did, the song would go nowhere and reach no one’s ears, with no interested market around.

Britney + Taylor Swift on Love:

Britney Spears – Crazy

Baby, I’m so into you
You got that something
What can I do?
Baby, you spin me around
The earth is movin’ but I can’t feel the ground
Every time you look at me
My heart is jumpin’ it’s easy to see

Taylor Swift – Love Story

Romeo save me they’re trying to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult but its real
Dont be afraid well make it out of this mess
Its a love story baby just say yes

Love, I’d bet it’s the most common topic of any style of art, across the board. Pop stars touch on it often, with great financial and social success. Taylor Swift’s love story echoes the age-old Romeo+Juliet archetype of love (using the names directly), and people love it. Why? Because there is a huge audience that will eat it up. Millions of lonely people out there seeking, seeking, seeking, some other who’ll complete them. If people all felt whole and complete in themselves, perhaps the music that gets appreciated and spread, might be different.

Anyway…

It’s interesting to me personally, that so many people have so much to say about pop stars, and celebrities in general, because to me it seems that it’s the audience, the masses, and society as a whole which dictates what succeeds what manifests all around us in our daily lives. If everyone was hyper-religious for example, I’d bet there’d be a lot more successful singers singing about spirituality.

So if it’s society that decides, and society is simply all of us individuals, thinking our thoughts, then the change starts with us.

If we stop focusing/caring about celebrities and trashing them so much, and start appreciating what they’re trying to tell us, and how they show us very strongly where our priorities lie as a society. If we don’t like it, we can change our society. How do we change our society, with our own thoughts, which ripple and inspire others, in every conversation we have, and everything do.

This idea, this mindset, this idea is what the masses, the audience, *loves* to focus on. It might NOT be what you personally focus on, but as soon as you start trash-talking about it, you’re *are* focusing your attention on it, and strongly, and ‘negatively.’

Even my writing this article draws attention to pop stars and their music, but hopefully in a refreshing innovative way.

Thanks for reading

(If anyone wants to make a song about me and SpiritSentient, feel free )

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That’s a dated phone company jingle, and it runs through my mind occasionally when I ponder connectivity. So congrats to the jingle-writer, methinks.

Anyway…

We live in a very social, globally connected time, and yet it’s not hard to hear the cries of people passionately wanting to connect with other awesome human beings.

Well, I personally love, love, *love* connecting with people. I’ve known this since I was very young, and my life has gotten to the point where I make awesome connections with amazingly beautiful people subconsciously, through habit, almost by breathing. It wasn’t always to this degree though, and even with this high degree of connectivity, I still enjoy interesting ways of connecting with people. I’ve met a number of really interesting people through craigslist barters, twitter, dating sites, and — wait-for-it — anonymous random chat sites.

Admittedly, these sites can be a cesspool of bored, depressed people, but a) those people are often the one’s most in need of connection. (Even a random happy "Hi!" before they click disconnect out of fear, can brighten their day,) and b) it’s a good chance to play with your social-filtering and note the kind of experiences you attract, and whether you’re able to appreciate them or not.

This is a relatively new development in the web 2.0 world, and depending on the circles you run in, you may or may not be familiar with them.

If not, allow me to introduce you, and share some of my experiences.

In about 45min I rotated through a bunch of chat sites and connected with a number of people. Some chats people would consider junk, some chats people would think was an incredible connection.

Now, I should note that some people go on these sites simply to ’cause trouble, others have very strong sexual agendas, etc. – Many people have 3-4 infinitesimally small chats which a quickly disconnected, and they are turned-off and give up on the sites, which is fine. I’ve been there, and through experience, I’ve learned that for me, it works best to start with something like:

"Hi! I’m awesome and it’d be totally cool if you didn’t disconnect immediately " (Note: this line is inspired, the perfect thing to suit me and my personality. Feel free to try it yourself, but I’d wager strongly there’s a line that is more appropriate for you personally.)

Since adopting this opener, I’ve gone 5 for 5 random chat connections lasting over 10 minutes, and usually where I refer them to SpiritSentient.com or trade Facebook info or whatever, and ta-da, I’ve made a connection, sometimes in my own city, other times across the world.

Here we go

Random Chat Sites:

		GettingRandom.com – Getting Random is a Facebook Application, that let’s you chat with a random user. You can specify gender, and there’s an option to publish the chat to their archive. I flirted heavily with Sarah, it was a blast, until she got pissed that I chose not to follow the Olympics this year and disconnected. They have a best of chats section.
		iMeetzu.com – Has geo-specific chat-capability (map yourself and find someone close by), gender-specific chat. I talked with a guy about books, and he recommended Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory McGuire.
		aNiceChat.net – Nickname character limit of 8 characters. I believe A Nice Chat was the first site of it’s kind. It’s clean, simple, minimal, completely random, not published, and I met a cool, sexy girl who liked Tool.
		talkspot.yolasite.com – Chats are published. They have guys only room, girls only room, teens only room, adults, etc., I’m not a big fan of the interface/nickname functionality on this site.
		omegle.com – This site has had quite a lot of viral success. Lots of users. Big chat button and go. They also have a really funny chats section.
		chatroulette.com – Incredible video/webcam integration. Often filled with people abusing the visual aspect of the site.
		iddin.com – Relatively popular. Iddin allows for semi-geo-specific chat. I had no real success with this site when I tried.

Playing with these sites can be seen as a complete shot in the dark, or in light of a divine-ordained miraculous connection, or somewhere inbetween, but it is definitely a *new experience* for most people.

If the back-and-forth of real-time chat doesn’t suit your style, there’s similar sites that work more on a random pen-pal basis. One of the poems I posted on SpiritSentient a long time ago came through EmailRoulette.

Random Email Sites:

		E-mail Roulette – Similar to the chat sites above, no geo-specific stuff, no gender-control, completely random. Very cool though. I met Echolalic Dyspepsia through it (a guest poster here a long time ago.)
		BumpList – a mailing list for the determined. Only 6 users are allowed to be subscribed at any time and the oldest member of the list is "bumped" every time a new person signs up. It promotes community participation, since members constantly need to re-subscribe if they want to continue the conversations, lol.

Extra:

Of course there are trolls sometimes in the world, and though they seem to avoid me/stay out of my way, your mileage may vary. Here’s a ‘best of chat roulette‘ for your amusement.

I’d love to hear any experiences you have with these sites

Related posts:

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2. Children Full Of Life Recently, popular blogger Chris Cade posted a video about...

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone.

Here’s a little video love, from SpiritSentient to you.

Special thanks to Adam Bradley, who basically made the whole thing, and who provided a YouTube account for us to host, since YouTube decided to suspend ours

Related posts:

1. We’re Cut-Off! Suspended! SpiritSentient has always been big on sharing beautiful creations....
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Social relationships and romantic relationships are hot topics, don’t you think? So many people desire to know more about ‘picking up,’ know more about romance, and know more about getting laid.

The desire to know more about these topics is observably common in our society. Often times, people are so focused on these things (in a sort of confused way,) that they miss seeing the forest for the trees, and they don’t realize the beautiful ways they can enrich their skills/success/results in all of the above mentioned areas, simply by understanding some of the subtler, more esoteric concepts of relationships.

I’ve always been massively into relationships and communication, and recently I’ve been coming across the concept of language and communication as the process + structure of societal evolution. (I’ve been reading a lot of Capra recently.)

The basic breakdown of this generally intellectualized topic is that communication (thoughts, words, choices, actions,) is people’s core tool for continually evolving ourselves, others, and humanity.

I’d like to note that everyone has their own thoughts, ideas, and perspectives on communication in relationships, and that variety of approaches is wonderful and beautiful.

SpiritSentient often discusses yin/yang Polarity, masculine-feminine balance, and how every person has their own choice to be either/all of those things at any given time (or they may choose neutrality.) These concepts are explored much more in-depth by David Deida (who though we are not affiliated with in anyway, we promote often, ’cause he’s awesome.)

We also look at ego-trascendence as another tool to access more powerful interactions with people and in relationships in general. This is explored much more in-depth by Stephane + Greta Hemon of IdeaGasms.

Communication as Relationship Evolution, Ego-Transcendence and Yin-Yang Polarity: these concepts are often seen as ‘esoteric’ and not-very-applicable to western society, (which reeks of a closed-mind to us,) and that is totally fine if that’s the way you want to look at it.

These concepts are geared towards ‘next-level’, elevated, conscious relationships and though seemingly off-the-wall and inapplicable for most people, are directly related to the simpler, nitty-gritty aspects of societal interaction; things that a majority of people are interested in like flirtation, pick-up, dating etiquette, and sex.

At SpiritSentient, we consciously choose not to write much on the minutely fine choices of relationships like "When is the best time to call a girl?" or "Am I slutty if I put out on the first date?", we prefer to focus on broad, sweeping, life-changing intentions such as "What type of life do you enjoy living? What qualities do you see in a partner or partners sharing your life with you?"

This doesn’t mean that we’ve not studied these minute, detail-oriented questions… we have studied them, and now we’ll share some of the most eye-opening stuff we’ve come across.

These authors and idea-people have addressed everything you could possibly imagine about relationships: from guys perspectives, girls perspectives, couples’, society’s and the world at large’s, and all of them can be extremely enlightening. (We’re not gender/label oriented, but usually use ‘guys’ and ‘girls’ to aid in brevity)

Guys (or masculine-identified persons,) check out:

VenusianArts

Psyduction

Wing Girls

YangTown

Girls (or feminine-leaning persons):

Shopping For Love

Reuniting.info

Your Tango

(Note: we’ve read both sides, and highly recommend enlightening oneself about the perspective from the opposite side.)

Okay, sweet. Those are some pretty awesome resources up there. We’d give you a minute to click-away to somewhere else, but we know this article is riveting and you can’t resist reading further

What follows are some ‘Next-Level’, esoteric resources that the majority of society generally does not encounter, is not interested in, or rarely has access to, for whatever reason.

Are you one of those who are ready for more interesting ideas and approaches, and more creative and visionary concepts?

Sure you are

It is our passion to open people’s minds to ideas — so seriously people, if you’re not having all the success you want in the areas of sex + romance, please consider reading something that you may have considered (and labelled) ‘crazy’, ‘hippie’, or ‘a useless waste of time’ before (we know people’s mind’s do that sometimes.)

If you’re interested in the empowerment and awesome life-results that can come from re-connecting with your own body and listening to it as well as directing it, check out the sections below:

1. Society is taught next to nothing about our own bodies.

Besides what we can suss out for ourselves, very little teaching has been instituted as a society on this topic.

Has anyone ever really offered you open, empowering information, knowledge, and guidance regarding your own genitals? Or were the people around you shy towards, or over-bearing about sex?

Maybe you had a lot of education from parents, maybe you had a little. It’s not unlikely that all you really had was sex ed. in grade 6 for a couple hours, watching out-dated videos that had almost no impact on you as a person, and whatever experimenting you’ve done on your own with your own body.

Speaking of bodies, here’s a look at how SpiritSentient feels about theirs:

Jason loves his muscles, and consequently, he’s been able to use them more and more passionately, and they continually impress people with their strength, whether it’s shovelling the driveway, resisting a choke-hold during sparring, or at the gym.

Arthur loves his flexibility, tendons, and ligaments, and so naturally, he is one of the most supremely flexible guys in our circle — Bruce Lee/Yoga/Dancer style.

Our mutual passion for these specific aspects of ourselves helps others appreciate these aspects to a certain degree as well and so it spreads.

Why are we telling you this?

The point is that most people have a part of their body that they love, focus on, and feel fulfilled when using. Dancers generally are really in-tune with their feet/hips. Rock-climbers are thrilled when their fingers/grip lifts them to new heights. Some women luxuriate in their hair, some guys love their own smiles or jawlines.

In contrast, there is usually a part of people’s bodies that they neglect, which goes relatively unloved. Are there perhaps some parts about yourself that you aren’t currently loving as much, feeling as thrilled about, or even giving a second thought?

It’s not uncommon for this ignored part to be a person’s genitals. Many people have no clue about what’s going on with their own sex-parts, and without getting into the deep history for how this has come to be, our society has bred a disconnect between our awareness and this area of our bodies.

Perhaps you think in terms such as "Oh, yeah, I have a cock and I love getting off." or "Yeah, that’s my pussy, it’s for making babies?" — ‘real’ awareness and attention to one’s body goes much deeper than that.

Many people can explain how when they don’t eat or drink, it affects their energy levels and ability to function. Many can tell you how they can’t function ’til they have a coffee in the morning. Many can tell you how muscles interact and feel, how blood flows, how their breathing is, how tendons work, or how their reflexes operate. How many of them are ready and able to explain how things affect their plumbing?

Women – Are you familiar with your vagina? Not just your clitoris, but your labia, cervix, ovaries and vaginal walls? Do you know why you feel the way you feel and what’s going on inside you at any given time? Did you ever consider that perhaps you can control your own menstruation, the way hunger pangs can sometimes be made to disappear or the way you might be able to transform a need to use the bathroom… all these things and abilities are part of your own body.

Men – Do you realize your penis is an extension of you? Have you considered that perhaps it’s not some separate thing for you to use as a crutch or a distraction? Or one that leads you around into troublesome situations? Maybe it’s a tool of self-expression, body-language, and one that can guide you to know many things about yourself, the same way a headache might let you know you had too much computer time, or the way tendonitis could point the way to too much repeated excersize.

The Beautiful Cervix Project – This site contains galleries of a woman’s cervix during certain periods of life (pregnancy, menstrual cycle, surgery, etc.) – a very intimate and eye-opening look at the internal and external expressions of a cervix. It’s sometimes considered quite graphic, but to me personally, it’s beautiful. I almost recommend it more for guys, instead of ovulation and PMS and menstruation being a bewildering /frustrating mystery, it can be something to love… beautiful, understandable, and changeable. (I learned a ton from the gallery of a 25 year-old woman’s menstrual cycle.)

Be Aware of How You Masturbate (Barbara Keesling, Google Books) – Similar to how it is for women, a lack of awareness of one’s own erections, what they’re for, and what sign we guys bodies are giving us, can hold us back from our desired life. Does your penis lead you around? Do you find yourself wasting time and energy trying to get laid or just masturbating hours of the day away? Ask yourself why? Is it because you don’t really truly believe deep-down that your cock exists for a reason and a purpose as an extension of you, and that it can and will do what you intend? It can be used for some ‘low’-level pleasure that whiles away your days here on earth, or it can be used for ‘high’-level, world-helping multi-purpose intentions — such as expressing true and beautiful love while getting a girl off while creating a beautiful child who’ll grow up to invent something amazing while setting an example for future generations and all the while feeling amazing.

Either that or it can just feel freakin’ amazing, which is not to say one is better than the other You decide, and what’s best may change moment to moment.

2. Sex as pro-creation vs. sex as recreation vs. sex as communication.

Transcend this paradigm/battle. Now, if you feel able.

Sex is all three and more. The key to appreciating it in this way is to master your own biological processes, instead of being driven and manipulated by them. Many times we can hear a woman say "My biological clock is ticking", or "Sorry, blame it on the hormones." Similarly you can hear men utter phrases like "Well, what was I supposed to do, look at how she dressed." or "Well, what was I supposed to do, I had blue-balls, I needed to jack-off."

These phrases if they are uttered out of habit, without conscious thought, can be indicators that one’s sexuality is running one’s life, and robbing one of powerful choices.

Take a look at these resources to learn more about mastering your own biology instead of being a victim to it.

Fertility Awareness Method – considered by some (*mostly those who’ve not tried it) to be an unreliable and foolish method of birth-control, FAM is also considered by many of those (who have experienced it and do practice it) to be the ultimate form of birth-control. At advanced levels it requires no tools, freeing partners up for extremely sensual skin-to-skin penis-in-vagina contact while offering more security than any other form of birth control (barring body-modding surgery) currently marketed, and promoting a body/mind/soul mastery that makes pregnancy into a simple conscious choice. Quote from the site:

"FAM was developed in the ’50s, when scientists began to better understand how the menstrual cycle worked. They’re side-effect free, virtually cost-free and can be 95 percent to 98 percent effective when done correctly."

This relates to the knowledge of bodies touched on in the above link (The Beautiful Cervix Project), which also guides people towards a high-level of sexual freedom with a partner, through body/cycle awarenes.

Ejaculation Control – Just as women can look into the Fertility Awareness Method, men have a chance to learn ejaculation control, their own form of natural birth-control. There is a ton of calories, resources, and energy that goes into producing sperm — and when these resources get shot out of the body into a tissue, or a condom, or into some woman you only care about as a masturbatory aid, how beneficial to your life and the world do you think this is? Might not be the most helpful idea to continue with. Do more, control your ejaculation and enjoy the beauty in accessory-less, condom-less, skin-to-skin sex? If you’re happy doing what you’ve been doing, by all means keep at it. If on the other hand you’re open to more, perhaps explore ejaculation control. The advanced level of this principle involves multiple orgasms with out ejaculation, and really, really… does that not sound at least vaguely interesting, guys? The main pioneer for this idea is Mantak Chia, but since there are very little free articles by him on the net regarding ejaculatory contorl, I’ll direct you to Ryan at Yangtown’s take on Mantak’s Deer Exercise.

3. Sex requires energy, time, and body-resources, and many of us waste them by default.

The fact that sexuality requires calories, time, and focus and/or attention almost seems like common sense, and can be very easy to observe if one pauses briefly to think about it.

Human beings are boundaried physical creatures (defined by the boundary of our skin,) and inside that boundary exists bajillions of cells. Each cell is a little energy factory. Wasting one cell may seem insignificant, but wasting millions of sperm in a kleenex or emptying trillions of blood cells every month into a pad to throw in the trash? Couldn’t there possibly, maybe, (oh-please-oh-please) hopefully be an alternative to just dumping gobs and gobs of our own bodies, energies, and cells in the trash? Don’t we love every awesome cell of our bodies, those that make up our arms, fingers, blood, sperm, whatever?

Sure we do So that being the case, why does society so often embrace any idea about sex that the media feeds us? Why do we end up using our cells, time, and energies simply for distraction and to make the media masters rich? Why do we, on auto-pilot, waste time and energy on relatively useless sexual pursuits, only to have to rest more, sleep more, and consume food more, just to replace the wasted energy? Does this seem efficient? Fun? (Eco-friendly? )

Menstruation Mastery – Menstruation is a body process that is often thought of as a burden, automatic, and unchangeable; it’s viewed here in a different light. It is viewed as a beautiful part of the body, and as a guiding sign and a cycling system which regulates and replenishes eggs and energies. There is a tremendous, (massively tremendous) amount of cells, calories, resources, and energy that go into the creation of eggs and the ovarian environment, in order to prepare for fertilzation. Many people consider those body-resources as a ‘write-off’ and simply let them all go to waste, usually blocking them with some kind of contraceptive. We’d love for you to consider that those cells, calories, resources and energy can be put to better, conscious, directed use, through a deep knowledge of, and connection with our own bodies.

Menstruation’s main purpose is to prepare for child-birth. It has evolved into a subconscious, relatively automatic system, but does that mean it’s completely uncontrollable, unmanageable, and that it has the power to run a person’s choices, desires, and LIFE at all times?

The link at the beginning of this section is an outline to menstruation mastery, as this topic is not yet widely covered on the internet. Here’s another, and if you catch yourself playing the victim to your cycle, blaming it, using it as an excuse, or becoming frustrated by your apparent lack of control over it, consider the teachings of Saida Desilets.

A quote from the site: "If a woman is not intending to have children in the immediate future or is already beyond her reproductive years or simply entering menopause, it is very important that she learns to recycle the concentrated energy of the ovaries back to the vital organs and nervous system from where it came. Recycling will prevent the all too common irregularities that accompany menstruation and the hormonal changes with menopause."

Direct Your Energy – Evolution-wise, men have generally evolved into naturals at directing things, which is beautiful. They often have a deep capability to focus intensely, being completely present and undistracted by things such as a messy environment, noise, worldly demands etc. They can compartmentalize, and offer or withdraw their attention powerfully. (note: this is not to say women can’t do this, it’s merely to observe the clear inclination of men towards this type of thing.) Gentlemen, do you exercise this directing ability with your sexual energy? Do you put your attention on it and direct it exactly where you consciously choose? When a sexy image flickers past the TV that you have on in the background, do you consciously choose to direct your attention and focus on the image? Or do you end up looking at the image by knee-jerk reaction, hopelessly taken away from whatever beautiful self-growth or world-helping task you were performing before the TV showed you a sexy image? Do you consciously look at something else? If you do look at it, can it distract your mind down some ridiculous path, or can you enjoy it consciously, fully aware that media is trying to peddle something to you, market something to you? Can you look, take from it what you will, and move on?

This interview with Sol Sebastian is a very cool clip with an interesting look at the subject. Sol is the founder of the Alchemy of Man, and has some intriguing ideas on sexuality.

4. Our thoughts and attitudes shape our relationships.

This is not an uncommon connection to make, and there is lots of info regarding this available on the net, but we’ll devote some words to it anyways, as it’s interesting Right?

Conscious Submission – Submissiveness in the past was the status quo for women, and was often looked down upon as a weak, powerless energy. It can be looked at in a more enlightened way – as that of a conscious choice.

Two beautiful human beings, both with talents and preferences, exist in a relationship. Let’s assume this relationship is not that of a neutral relationship, and that each partner leans a certain way on the D/s scale. The submissive-identified person thrives on intense, intimate, emotionally flowing relationships. The submissive is a monumental, radiant, brilliant sensitive, emotional giver. One so ready, excited, and enthusiastic about giving, that she’d prefer to have a dominant, disciplined counterpart in her life to provide a balance. This makes sense as far as preferences go. It’s not necessary to judge or label this, and it is (currently) a common desire expressed by women, for whatever reason. The submissive’s main joy is through the beauty of actions + choices geared towards sustaining a relationship, and that is how s/he ROCKS LIFE. This is in contrast to the dominant-identified person, who thrives on directing her/himself, relationship or no relationship, towards ROCKING LIFE.

While society has de-valued relationships with even a hint of ‘dependency’ (even if it be inter-dependency), and labelled them as un-healthy, it is up to each person and individual to either go along with any harping that society and the media’s spreads saying that submissiveness is ‘not good’, or not.

Chelsea Summers, blogger at Pretty Dumb Things and author at FilthyGorgeousThings.com) says this about submission: "Submissive acts grant me an inherent license to experience pleasure in acts that my mind would usually fear. Usually, that is when I am not bound, not gagged, not restrained by word or deed, when a man is fucking me forcefully, usually, my mind remains active. Those busy, busy whirring hamster wheels of my head keep me feeling afraid, and they keep me from experiencing fully every tidbit of pleasure I could get from the experience.

Those hamster wheels get in the way, what with their furry and fearful ceaseless whirring."

You may also enjoy this view on The Healthy Submissive.

Conscious Domination – Another controversial topic, and also historically maligned and misunderstood. One of the more interesting takes on domination isn’t about one person’s power subverting or squashing another person’s, it’s about understanding and appreciating the beauty of everyone and everything, and through that attitude, attracting an equally powerful partner who through their emotional/relational radiance shines and wishes to express themselves + play a submissive role, at the same time as the dominant-identified person goes about expressing and playing a dominant role. Have a look at Steve Pavlina’s enlightening take on things.

Fantasize This – A woman who went by the name of Bliatz (long-gone from the net I believe, but she was around in 2006 and I made a note of her awesomeness), had this to say regarding her mind’s thoughts and fantasies:

"All those nasty, to-the-limit, semi-rape, full blown gang-bang scenarios that my mind seem to slip into in the most matter-of-fact manner…They are simply mind fuel, scenes and gestures, still pictures, words and details that my mind have found to be the most arousing bits and pieces it can come up with. And sometimes, they will inspire reality. Small parts of them can be lived out and tested, limits can be pushed and challenged…Somehow, those fantasies are also the very core of my sexuality. They tell me how my sexual mind works, what it is attracted to."

There is a flip-side to her thoughts, and that is that while fantasies are just fantasies, each moment we exist on this earth, we have the option of acknowledging and encouraging a thought, or acknowledging it and dismissing it as not a priority/focus/something-we’d-like-more-of. We don’t have to choose and propogate every fantastic thought that runs through our heads.

Note: As usual, this charged topic is brought to you by SpiritSentient, and though we have our own personal preferences/biases/whatever-you-call them, we present the info here with the intention that you make your own choices, pick your own preferences. If you feel better in one role or another, flipping back and forth, remaining neutral, whatever it is that suits you — fucking go for it with our whole-hearted encouragement. We love you all.

To wrap-up this section:

A somehow relevant quote from the blog Shopping For Love (who also links David Deida and Osho…sexxxy,) goes:

"I think it is very sad that women so often cage the wild creature they were first attracted to. And then once they have him in their lair, subdued, emasculated, slaving away to the domicile, firmly tied to the bed with velvet ropes, they start complaining: "What happened to the man I fell in love with?" — Love Shopper"

5. Society has promoted a living environment which excludes room for bonding, generosity, connection, and appreciation.

We rush, we drive, we crowd, we stress, we breathe shallowly, and behave shortly, always looking to get to the next thing before appreciating what we have now, so big on securing the future, or dredging up the past. This is our current society, and it’s ok, we can change it… if we want.

Bonding Behaviours – It’s often said that "it’s the little things," and there is a large amount of truth to be discovered there. Instead of being busy with fight-or-flight survival-style harsh behaviour, we can access a massive portion of our minds, hearts, and souls and expresses little gestures of love. They don’t take much effort, they don’t take much time, they’re suuuuper easy, but only if we can pull our heads out of the daily grind many of us seem to have created for ourselves, otherwise, they feel uninspired, unmotivating, and impossible. Not many people find it easy to stop and pick a flower or a gift, when the mortgage payment is about to default.

6. We have at some point, neglected potent spiritual concepts, dismissing their validity towards relationships.

Related to point five (’Society has promoted a living environment which excludes room for bonding, generosity, connection, and appreciation’), is a subtle but extremely hot tip for having an un-hurried life full of space/time for expressing love, and that is to live by the principles of faith, trust, compassion, peace, and love.

Yep, it works wonders. We know you know this deep down, and are happy to remind anyone who needs it

Do what you love, do what you feel inspired for, and passionate about. Access and expand your own vision for your own life, and in doing so… a beautiful success will come, where time, money, security and freedom to express love towards other human beings manifests more and more often.

Miracles (or awesome opportunities) can happen. You may start needing way less sleep, find yourself up, motivated, and meeting all kinds of opportunities and connecting with beautiful talented people who love to help you, because you are such a vibrant, happy person to be around and be associated with. These things make it much, much easier to express love through small gestures, and take a break from the hub-bub of city life.

Many people see the reality around them — made up of a lack of romance, or a lack of sex, or a lack of partners, or a lack of friends — as a symptom that needs to be cured, rather than a healthy indication that they have some powerful moves to make and growth to experience in order to live their desired life.

If our bodies ache, is that "just the way life is"? Or is it a sign we need rest, nutrients, a break, variety, activity, surgery or some other care to our bodies?

And if we’re not connecting emotionally or sexually with someone whom we’d prefer to connect with, is that "just how life is"? Or is it a sign letting us know that we or they could benefit from spiritual growth? Maybe it’s letting us know we can get our shit together more, or exercise some more faith, trust, and ballsy moves, and in doing so, make our lives better!

From Bliatz again: "Trust is in the origin of human life. Without trust in other human beings, we can simply not live.  The newborn child is the most dependent being on earth, totally in the hands of the adult human persons surrounding it. Trust comes naturally. This is the primacy of human trust."

Anyway, this concludes a sizable chunk of info and ideas, delivered with love, from SpiritSentient to you. We hope and trust you enjoyed it.

Extra Awesome Resources:

David Deida

Jade Goddess

Blue Truth

Ideagasms

Osho on Sex and Love

Pretty Dumb Things

SubmissiveLoving.com

Orgasmic Birth

SpirituallySexy

It couldn’t hurt to leave you all with some extra links filled with what feels to us, to be super-helpful, definitely not your run-of-the-mill info. Thanks so much for your time and attention

"I with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman." — Anais Nin (I always liked Anais Nin’s words…)

By the way… A tremendous amount of energy went into this article, we offer it for free to enlighten + elevate and brighten people’s lives. If you’re able to find it in your hearts to share this with others (email, stumble, digg, facebook), comment and add some feedback to the post, donate, simply think happy thoughts towards SpiritSentient, it will likely help much much more than you imagine. Thank you all lots and lots!

P.S. If you liked this, you’ll probably like our I Love Women video — check it.

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SpiritSentient has always been big on sharing beautiful creations.

Some of those creations are crazy cool videos, which we posted on YouTube.

If you’re looking for any of those, it might help to know…

SpiritSentient’s YouTube account has been suspended!

YouTube deals with policing/supporting millions (billions?) of videos all the time, it’s a big job, and as far as I know they don’t invest a ton of personal time into every single account, it’s more of a suspend-first-ask-questions-later policy, which I totally understand.

Anyway, we’re looking into it, and anticipate an amicable solution with Google soon. In the meantime, you can check out our budding new Vimeo Channel (Vimeo is a higher-end, more-attractive, sexier version of YouTube anyway — you’ll love it , they have slightly less selection of videos, but they also have way way less ‘junk’ )

And as an added bonus, we’ll take a look at something beautiful.

There’s been a couple artforms that we’ve noticed have really gained popularity lately in the western world. One of them is Kinetic Typography (which we discussed in this post, shown through the poetry of Taylor Mali), and the other is Paper-cutting (here’s an interesting and quick look at paper-cutting by multimedia artist Elsa Mora, who I stumbled upon ‘by accident’ while writing this piece. She’s got really beautiful works, and she relates paper-cutting to the shaping of our own personalities!)

A long-time lurker on SpiritSentient, Tracy Baker, recently started her first foray into paper-cutting, and gave me this beautiful card, made from two gorgeous types of paper.

The texture of the paper is so awesome. Doesn’t it make you want to touch?

Open it to find…

Inside it’s smooth/creamy/shimmery, and works a little like a pop-up book. Definitely describable as ‘cute.’

If you hold it up to the light, it’s partially translucent!

And a bonus of a second look at the back, SpiritSentient-style!

Hope you enjoyed this trip through a piece of paper-cut art, I’d explain more about the process, but well… I didn’t create it

Wouldn’t SpiritSentient’s logo look badass like that? Next-level business cards for that added punch? <grin>

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