"Good Evening brothers and sisters of The Planetary Federation. I'm Metallogie Q. Sunstrike, and I have another tragic story to report to you tonight on the consequences of Internet game addiction. Yes, despite medical and scientific advances, it's still the disease that won't go away.
Fortunately, unlike so many of these stories, no one has had to die yet in this one. Two lives were shattered, however, perhaps beyond recovery. These two men have only today learned that they have lost track of over 20 years of their lives while they were busy getting their screen time, fighting each other, having online adventures, and competing with their enemies in a game without an ending. Tragic and pointless, no? Yes, today we'll hear from these two brothers, victims of the old crack cocaine-like game of the earlier years of this millenium, World of Warcraft, WoW, or Warcrack as it was called back in the day when over 40 percent of the people who played it became addicted to it.
"The drama is still playing out right at this moment as family members try to comfort the addicts as they wait to be picked up by FlashSpeed Cyberaddict Recovery Services for detox and rehab treatment. One might expect that after 20 years or more of using, it will be a long detox and rehabilitation period.
"The men are Zoroaster and Zola Chand, of the 3500 block of South Michael Jackson Lane. They were found wandering half-naked and confused this morning by a neighbor, who identifies himself as Henry Higginsworth. Mr. Higginsworth found them going from house to house looking for a spare computer they could use after both of theirs died around the same time. They were getting hysterical and crying because they could not play WoW.
WoW was once recognized by Guinness Book of World Records as the most popular MMORPG, or massively multiplayer online role-playing game, in videogame history. Of course this was back in 2010. Today we have the new record for popularity as well as addiction in the 2019 game, "Fifty Bucks A Month Or You Die," and this despite the fact that we now have medication that can entirely eradicate the addiction if taken before or during playing any competitive game that causes Dopamine to be released into the brain. What is wrong with people? Do they choose to become addicts?
"As long as we are talking about Internet addiction history, our home audience might be interested to know that WoW once had 10 million registered players and only cost fifteen dollars a month to play. The other game at that time that was equally as addictive, according to social scientists, was Everquest, called Never-Rest for its negative effect on normal sleep cycles. That game, a granddaddy of the MMORPGs came out as long ago as 1999.
"Internet game addiction afflicts approximately 40 percent of those who play, the same percentage as before we had the Dopamine inhibitors that stop addiction if taken properly.
"Who knew when these two discovered Super Mario Brothers that saving a beautiful princess could lead to a zombie life of degradation, loss and ruin? And now we're told the brothers, don't know what year it is or acknowledge that 20 years have gone by unnoticed while they were deep into their virtual world.
This, of course, comes as quite a shock to their grown children, Sabine, the eldest daughter of Zola told me, and she was taking it hard. Together the men have five children. Zola's are Sabine 20, Rickie-Q 19, and Ernie-Zee 17. Zoroaster has a son Cliff 19, and a daughter, Zee, 17."
"We are going to try to get some of these kids to go on camera and talk to us about what they've suffered while growing up and currently. Certainly they must be embarrassed today. We feel deeply for them."
"Oh here comes Sabine and one of the other ones heading towards us now.
Sabine, and who is this with you? Okay, Cliff. Could you please come on and talk for a few minutes about what this nightmare has been like for you. I know it had to have affected you for most of your lives."
"Hell and damnation, Lady," Cliff's voice was raised, "My childhood was worse than for someone whose Dad had the decency to leave if he wasn't going to be present and show up for the family. We were stuck with this grinning idiot on the couch pushing his carpal syndromed thumbs like it was going to change the world or something. I know I couldn't stand looking at his worthless face and that body that never got up and moved around or went anywhere--like maybe to some place where he might earn some money. No, he left the job of supporting us entirely to my mother. It was important that he get his screen time, and we were raised to understand that nothing could stop the game or interfere with it."
"And how about you, darlin'" Metallogie turned to Sabin.
"Same thing. Lights were on but nobody was home. I don't think my father knew what age I was, what grade I was in, if I was dating, if I got in trouble... My mother raised us by herself. She didn't bother trying to even discuss us with him, because he had no interest in anything but WoW and he made that clear. That hurt!"
"You poor kids..." Metallogie began, but out of the corner of her eye she saw the brothers wandering in a mental hospital shuffle way towards her. Then as if tackling the quarterback, a man leaped on stage and landed spread-eagled.
"Mr. Ned Cassidy, the men's uncle, wants to say a few words, "Yeah, well I'm Ned Cassidy of the 3800 block of Michael Jordan Boulevard over in Let-Us-Rock-You, California. "It started innocently enough for Zo and Zoro when they were boys and used to spend hours playing paper ball wastebasket basketball. But they were kids. You don't think much of it. I used to have a few Freezies to relax, and bet with my drinking buddies on which boy which make which baskets. No harm in that.
When they got older it moved up to Beer Pong and it wasn't long before Guitar Hero was moved over to play the first generation of original Disc Junkie edition of Starcraft."
"Thank you, Mr. Cassidy. That is helpful."
"Yes, that was the beginning. I'm Ned Cassidy and that Starcraft or was it Halo was the true beginning of their decline into slavery and madness." He clearly was on a roll now and meant to get his few minutes of fleeting fame if he had to break the TV personality's arm.
Metallogie had dealt with his type many times before. She quickly made the sign to go to commercial, and then punted him off the stage with her boot. She was back on camera smiling and collected as the commercial ended.
"The neighbor reports being shocked to discover that one of the brothers, the one he describes as having 'large pieces of bagel hanging in his waist-length beard,' mentioned that the computer was purchased new in 2002' and then, sadly, added that it was 'only a few years old.' He said it probably was still under warranty and he planned to have Macro-Apple replace it. Good luck with that fellows. Not too many warranties are good for 18 years of non-stop usage.
"But the brothers have finally made it over here to say a few words now. Let's begin with you Zola. I understand you had quite a shock today."
"Yes, I was shocked that my sonofabitchin' computer quit on me and I couldn't get my screen time."
"Wasn't there something else that happened today? Something about your wife Jonesie?"
"Yeah, she left me a note saying she was leaving me. I was all like crying and upset but then one of my kids, maybe it was Sabin, pointed out that the letter was dated back in 2014 so why am I acting like it happened today? I have enough problems today. I was going to get to the next level today, and then this went and happened. I'll never buy another computer from Macro-Apple I'll tell you. Garbage. Just got the thing too.
"Besides, as far as Jonesie goes, she told me a long, long time ago that it was over when I told her I didn't want to be bothered with my sexual husbandly duties. I couldn't focus on anything but WoW, and it just made me cranky to have to be away from the game that long. I don't know why it took her so long to leave. Listen, are they just jackin' me around or is it really 2020?
"No, Zola it really is 2020. You've been in virtual reality since the early part of this millenium."
"I'll be damned. The time flew by."
"Addiction is a thief of everything a person has, and we must bear that in mind.
"The two emergency workers for the FlashSpeed Cyberaddict Recovery Services are here with the men now. I'm going to see if we can get them to say a few words about their evaluation of the brothers.
"Well as I am sure you can see for yourself, both Zola and Zoroaster have not been taking care of themselves physically while living in their virtual world. They are emaciated, suffering from malnutrition I don't doubt, have untreated bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome, report ongoing acute and chronic migraines, and Zola says that a doctor once told him he had a deep vein thrombosis from sitting so much. The rest of their medical problems will be determined by physicians at the recovery center.
"I have seen cases where people have lost time before due to Internet addiction, but never quite as much as 20 years. True, they don't hold down jobs, but both of them have children who have grown up while they were lost in Cyberville, and their bodies have aged, people close to them such as their parents have died, we've had a world war which they seem to have taken no notice of, and they haven't a clue that there are medications you can take today which prevent Internet game addiction by thwarting the Dopamine elevation if you do go ahead and take the risk of playing anyhow.
"It will be one tough road back for these two guys, I'm afraid."
"Thank you. Thank you all for watching and remember this story if you are ever tempted to play Internet games. That's it for tonight. Peace and Higher Consciousness, I'm Metallogie Q. Sunstrike."
This is the authentic voice of an old woman who hopes she has learned some things to share. It is about transformation. It is becoming our true selves. It is finally about returning to Oneness. It is also about writing and recovery.
Authentic Self Real Self Or King of Cool: It's This Blog's First Contest
My computer hacker, I call him Dave because "Hacker-Cracker" wasn't always kind or necessary, sees to it that no e-mail written by me leaves without being given a special signature of: "Love, Peace Higher Consciousness To All." It's written in magic blue sparkly fairy dust or some beautiful thing. When he's pissed he makes me write the entire letter in that paint. I was trying to send a press release request for submission to the woman in charge of the Chicago Sun-Times and most of the surrounding areas. It was written in Dave's Blue Period. Guess what? No Sun-Times press release for me.
Anyhow, I have had several copies of this book, Handbook to Higher Consciousness, over my long lifetime. Tonight somewhere on my desktop or e-mail it said "Google" and then the "signature." There are wonders, signs in everything and synchronicity never sleeps, so I did. What you see below is the first Google entry for it which says my signature is taken from that book.
I didn't recognize it. I wonder if ever read the book cover to cover or just made sure it was on my bookshelves to convince people, that I actually was in pursuit of more than a roll in the hay, half a dozen or so cold brews, music to get ripped by, some ups/some downs, and some pot, and, of course, the pretentious person's catalyst: someone to impress.
(Let's take a Bob Dylan moment only because it fits here. This refrain popped into my brain's songwaves as i wrote the above, "Ah but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now." (My Back Pages.)
Clean and sober and free of so much pretentious, phony crap. So much of it was just mental masturbation and mental clutter. Here's the authentic stuff now: I am not a vegan because it's too much work. I'm planning to become a vegetarian again as soon as I make some chicken Chinese and Thai foods, and maybe eat one more steak to say adieu.
I'm over my beat-up 60-year-old self today and not out to impress anyone. I never was all that. I am not by anybody's rating, hip, cool, rad, awesome or whatever the current word for that bridge that separates people so well.
I attempt meditation for ten minutes a day (on good days) with my monkey mind and my adult attention deficit disorder and it's like sitting on a trampoline full of Sumo Wrestlers battling beneath my feet while I attempt to create Bobbin lace under a magnifying glass. I smoke, only cigarettes. 'Nough said? I haven't read the great classic, Moby Dick, and I was an honors English major. I just don't care for all that nautiful crap.
I may be the only college educated American of a certain age who never got past the first two chapters of M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled and if his latest book about exorcisms is any indication of his inner turmoil and beliefs, count me out reading any more. (For M. Scott Peck bashing read this mean-spirited article that pulls no punches.)
I have not read many, many great works of world literature including the Bible if you include it in that category (you do? really?) It's just too negative and violent and too many "begets." I am shamed into remorse and genuine sorrow when I think of how much breathtaking poetry is simply lost on me because I lack the connections, and the language and knowledge of poetry to appreciate it properly.
I have a B.A. in English and make simple mistakes in spelling, capitalization, rhetoric, grammar and am guilty of using trite phrases and the latest pop catch phrase worn out before it's a month old.
I make myself sick I am such an intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical slacker. I don't know what has been on my goals list longer--doing yoga or quitting smoking. I can say that with God's help I don't drink, or take drugs unless prescribed for me. Becoming whole means I don't stay in bed depressed for days, weeks and months. I no longer wish I was a writer because I do write regularl y. I don't fear letting my grown kids see the real me and I know my kids love me and they know I love them. I know I am a wiser, more loving parent and more flexible. I watch far less television. I read more non-fiction than novels. I don't hate my parents anymore or blame them for my mistakes. I've learned to let go and let God. You win some. You lose some. Why stop and try to put useless pieces together if it's broken. Leave it in the dead past. "Let the dead bury the dead."
I never again in this life will be capable of believing that I need to exchange my precious time, creativity and inspiration for a paycheck to buy crap I don't really want or need. If my work doesn't bring me joy, I'm not going to throw away my hours on it for somebody's idea of what I should be doing with my life.
My God, my Higher Power (H.P.) I know, is large and infinite enough that no has to be excluded due to narrow dogma. Everything is inclusive, freeing, joyous, and sacred in a natural flowing miraculous way.
My God loves me exactly as I am and this same God loves a murderer, rapist, child pornographer, wife beater and coward exactly as they are because they were created in the image of God and are perfect. Forgiveness needs to be the immediate response. The action must come without even the thought of holding a resentment or, I hope for me someday without the ruffle of an irritation or annoyance.
I'm building up my way to respond with compassion to all of life just as I respond to love with love most of the time when I am open and trusting. I want my heart to take the compassionate stance first and always and then to act on it. The Dalai Lama is one model. Mother Teresa is another. There are many great and good compassionate people.
I have a far way to go. I'm selfish, self-centered, grandiose, full of wants for petty things like fame, money and a good reputation. I dream of world peace and man's reaching a new stage in evolution in my lifetime. I also dream of living near the ocean, traveling world wide, and eating out more often.
Oh, you sweet man, Walt Whitman who expressed for us what we all are: large and containing multitudes. I, too, contradict myself. I abhor killing for fur but am considering wearing the mink hat that my friend inherited and then gave to me. It is warm and it's so funky and unlike me. Progress not perfection is my goal.
Let's hear about you now. Please write and tell us--share with us--whether you are cool, hip, rad, awesome, real, authentic, free or whatever the words are today and why or why not. It's so freeing to let go of more inauthentic clutter and just be the very one you are.
Pretentious things I have done in my prideful life:
One thing I metaphorically did a lot of in the Sixties and Seventies that I don't do anymore: I might NOT be movin" to Montana to raise dental floss. (Thanks to Mr. Frank Zappa.) I might be going to Vermont to study how to be a spiritual, mindful business person, but not because everybody's doing it and I think it would be an amazing thing to do, although I do find it somewhat amazing. More in future blogs.
1. Subscribed to the Village Voice as a 15-year-old suburban teenager and didn't understand most of what I read about.
2. Taken an honors poetry l writer's workshop poetry session taught by a visiting Harvard Professor who awed me and whom, I believed, must know all there was to know about poetry. But I was so stiff, scared and 'cool' that I did not write one word of poetry the entire quarter, not even the simple exercises he requested as homework, because nothing I could write would be good enough for a class like that with a professor like that and God forbid if the really smart grad students in the workshop mocked me or put me down. In other words I destroyed the entire experience for myself. It could have been so damn educational, freeing, joyous, a big step towards getting to know and understand poetry, but I cared more about seeming jejune, naive, untalented, ignorant or stupid. Sometimes I look back at my wasted years and have to work to forgive myself yet.
MS REFUSENIK'S FIRST ANNUAL NOT MOVIN' TO MONTANA TO RAISE DENTAL FLOSS CONTEST (Montana Lyrics.)
But let's make it interesting. The least inauthentically hip, cool people based on their posts to this blog will win 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes directly from my clutter collection. If you can't help it that you are authentically hip or cool, don't worry. As long as you are yourself you are an eligible winner. What would I tell Johnny Depp to write or Jack Nicholson. You may be a Cyndi Lauper or a Patti Smith, and no one is going to expect you to act like anyone other than hip, cool, fabulous you,.
Don't get too excited about the prizes. I am a person living on a fixed income so they will be things like my unopened back issues of the Reader's Digest, or a handmade collage made by yours truly of all the unhip things that make life a celebration when we're authentic, like bluegrass music, popcorn dripping with real butter, reruns of The Andy Griffith Show or Mr. Rogers--wait, wait. I have to focus on unhip things I can produce as prizes.
First prize then will be my entire carefully collected collection of ... care to guess? Hint: Not old Rolling Stone Magazines, not old "LSD not LBJ" type political buttons, though your getting warm, one last guess---a how to guide on sending yourself off with a green funeral? No, I'd use it if I had one and I wish I did.
First prize = my entire thrift store and garage sale button collection. Buddy, some of these buttons are very unique. You don't see ones like these every day. Use them in your art or is that so funky it could be considered cool? That's authentic. I just thought of it again now that I am giving them away, having procrastinated and never used them in my art. There's lots you can do with them really. Some are so special I planned to remove every button from clothing items like denim blouses and replace them with tiny little boats or some bit of whimsey from the 1940's/1950's.
Second Prize = Tapes (Cassette, not 8-track) of music and spiritual talks we couldn't appreciate when we were cool and had to keep up with the popular music that everyone listened to. Leave the selection to me or maybe I'll print a list and we can vote on the best ones. Examples from my L-7 but sort of new agey collection are most of the tapes of Marianne Williamson, Course in Miracles principles, P.M.Dawn (most Soulful of HipHoppers and the Bliss Album), Drew Carey Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined and Learn to Relax: Self Hypnosis and many more. We'll vote.
Third prize is a book or two. I have lots of books for the authentic person. I'll publish some titles and you can chose. Or you can give me a list of interests and I'll try and match them.
So send in a couple or so double spaced pages about all the ways you are more free, less pretentious, more laid back and more at peace since you traded in your cool stuff for sacred space. Why you are an authentic old square today and how it feels. Give plenty of examples. How have your values changed? How did continuing to grow spiritually change your personality and lifestyle?
I hope you'll send pictures and testimonials from spouses, significant others, friends and children, but if you want to remain anonymous that's fine too. I get a lot of blog comments from Anonymous. Some are pithy and have some substance, but one Anonymous just writes spam about viagra and growing your penis to new lengths the size of football fields or something. Do cool men want that? Penises that collide with their toes when they walk? I don't get it myself.
I have some awesome surprises for you in the next few weeks. These things really are awesome, but I should fine myself $5.00 every time I use that overused trite word that has come to signify something teens think is cool. What other words can we use? Let's rescue our language of joy, bliss, wonder and awe. I love the word wonder. I feel so in touch with the child still within me when I can spend a few days wondering or even five minutes. I will be providing some things to make you wonder.
Send in your language suggestions or comments here.
Authentic Selves Vs. "Might Be Movin' To Montana To Raise Some Dental Floss" Contest ends Feb. 7, 2011. More about additional judges later.
******************************************************************************************************
1
sky within, by Cternetea
Photography Macro Nature
Deviant Art
***************************************************************************************************************
Finally, here's what I Googled from my signature. It must be meant for one or all of you. It fits nicely here naturally. Oh sweet sacred serendipity.
Send contest entries to: missmarymac0040@sbcglobal.net by midnight Feb 7.
*************************************************************************************************************
The following is from the higher consciousness classic,
Anyhow, I have had several copies of this book, Handbook to Higher Consciousness, over my long lifetime. Tonight somewhere on my desktop or e-mail it said "Google" and then the "signature." There are wonders, signs in everything and synchronicity never sleeps, so I did. What you see below is the first Google entry for it which says my signature is taken from that book.
I didn't recognize it. I wonder if ever read the book cover to cover or just made sure it was on my bookshelves to convince people, that I actually was in pursuit of more than a roll in the hay, half a dozen or so cold brews, music to get ripped by, some ups/some downs, and some pot, and, of course, the pretentious person's catalyst: someone to impress.
(Let's take a Bob Dylan moment only because it fits here. This refrain popped into my brain's songwaves as i wrote the above, "Ah but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now." (My Back Pages.)
Clean and sober and free of so much pretentious, phony crap. So much of it was just mental masturbation and mental clutter. Here's the authentic stuff now: I am not a vegan because it's too much work. I'm planning to become a vegetarian again as soon as I make some chicken Chinese and Thai foods, and maybe eat one more steak to say adieu.
I'm over my beat-up 60-year-old self today and not out to impress anyone. I never was all that. I am not by anybody's rating, hip, cool, rad, awesome or whatever the current word for that bridge that separates people so well.
I attempt meditation for ten minutes a day (on good days) with my monkey mind and my adult attention deficit disorder and it's like sitting on a trampoline full of Sumo Wrestlers battling beneath my feet while I attempt to create Bobbin lace under a magnifying glass. I smoke, only cigarettes. 'Nough said? I haven't read the great classic, Moby Dick, and I was an honors English major. I just don't care for all that nautiful crap.
I may be the only college educated American of a certain age who never got past the first two chapters of M. Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled and if his latest book about exorcisms is any indication of his inner turmoil and beliefs, count me out reading any more. (For M. Scott Peck bashing read this mean-spirited article that pulls no punches.)
I have not read many, many great works of world literature including the Bible if you include it in that category (you do? really?) It's just too negative and violent and too many "begets." I am shamed into remorse and genuine sorrow when I think of how much breathtaking poetry is simply lost on me because I lack the connections, and the language and knowledge of poetry to appreciate it properly.
I have a B.A. in English and make simple mistakes in spelling, capitalization, rhetoric, grammar and am guilty of using trite phrases and the latest pop catch phrase worn out before it's a month old.
I make myself sick I am such an intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical slacker. I don't know what has been on my goals list longer--doing yoga or quitting smoking. I can say that with God's help I don't drink, or take drugs unless prescribed for me. Becoming whole means I don't stay in bed depressed for days, weeks and months. I no longer wish I was a writer because I do write regularl y. I don't fear letting my grown kids see the real me and I know my kids love me and they know I love them. I know I am a wiser, more loving parent and more flexible. I watch far less television. I read more non-fiction than novels. I don't hate my parents anymore or blame them for my mistakes. I've learned to let go and let God. You win some. You lose some. Why stop and try to put useless pieces together if it's broken. Leave it in the dead past. "Let the dead bury the dead."
I never again in this life will be capable of believing that I need to exchange my precious time, creativity and inspiration for a paycheck to buy crap I don't really want or need. If my work doesn't bring me joy, I'm not going to throw away my hours on it for somebody's idea of what I should be doing with my life.
1My God, my Higher Power (H.P.) I know, is large and infinite enough that no has to be excluded due to narrow dogma. Everything is inclusive, freeing, joyous, and sacred in a natural flowing miraculous way.
My God loves me exactly as I am and this same God loves a murderer, rapist, child pornographer, wife beater and coward exactly as they are because they were created in the image of God and are perfect. Forgiveness needs to be the immediate response. The action must come without even the thought of holding a resentment or, I hope for me someday without the ruffle of an irritation or annoyance.
I'm building up my way to respond with compassion to all of life just as I respond to love with love most of the time when I am open and trusting. I want my heart to take the compassionate stance first and always and then to act on it. The Dalai Lama is one model. Mother Teresa is another. There are many great and good compassionate people.
I have a far way to go. I'm selfish, self-centered, grandiose, full of wants for petty things like fame, money and a good reputation. I dream of world peace and man's reaching a new stage in evolution in my lifetime. I also dream of living near the ocean, traveling world wide, and eating out more often.
Oh, you sweet man, Walt Whitman who expressed for us what we all are: large and containing multitudes. I, too, contradict myself. I abhor killing for fur but am considering wearing the mink hat that my friend inherited and then gave to me. It is warm and it's so funky and unlike me. Progress not perfection is my goal.
Let's hear about you now. Please write and tell us--share with us--whether you are cool, hip, rad, awesome, real, authentic, free or whatever the words are today and why or why not. It's so freeing to let go of more inauthentic clutter and just be the very one you are.
Pretentious things I have done in my prideful life:
One thing I metaphorically did a lot of in the Sixties and Seventies that I don't do anymore: I might NOT be movin" to Montana to raise dental floss. (Thanks to Mr. Frank Zappa.) I might be going to Vermont to study how to be a spiritual, mindful business person, but not because everybody's doing it and I think it would be an amazing thing to do, although I do find it somewhat amazing. More in future blogs.
1. Subscribed to the Village Voice as a 15-year-old suburban teenager and didn't understand most of what I read about.
2. Taken an honors poetry l writer's workshop poetry session taught by a visiting Harvard Professor who awed me and whom, I believed, must know all there was to know about poetry. But I was so stiff, scared and 'cool' that I did not write one word of poetry the entire quarter, not even the simple exercises he requested as homework, because nothing I could write would be good enough for a class like that with a professor like that and God forbid if the really smart grad students in the workshop mocked me or put me down. In other words I destroyed the entire experience for myself. It could have been so damn educational, freeing, joyous, a big step towards getting to know and understand poetry, but I cared more about seeming jejune, naive, untalented, ignorant or stupid. Sometimes I look back at my wasted years and have to work to forgive myself yet.
MS REFUSENIK'S FIRST ANNUAL NOT MOVIN' TO MONTANA TO RAISE DENTAL FLOSS CONTEST (Montana Lyrics.)
But let's make it interesting. The least inauthentically hip, cool people based on their posts to this blog will win 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes directly from my clutter collection. If you can't help it that you are authentically hip or cool, don't worry. As long as you are yourself you are an eligible winner. What would I tell Johnny Depp to write or Jack Nicholson. You may be a Cyndi Lauper or a Patti Smith, and no one is going to expect you to act like anyone other than hip, cool, fabulous you,.
Don't get too excited about the prizes. I am a person living on a fixed income so they will be things like my unopened back issues of the Reader's Digest, or a handmade collage made by yours truly of all the unhip things that make life a celebration when we're authentic, like bluegrass music, popcorn dripping with real butter, reruns of The Andy Griffith Show or Mr. Rogers--wait, wait. I have to focus on unhip things I can produce as prizes.
First prize then will be my entire carefully collected collection of ... care to guess? Hint: Not old Rolling Stone Magazines, not old "LSD not LBJ" type political buttons, though your getting warm, one last guess---a how to guide on sending yourself off with a green funeral? No, I'd use it if I had one and I wish I did.
First prize = my entire thrift store and garage sale button collection. Buddy, some of these buttons are very unique. You don't see ones like these every day. Use them in your art or is that so funky it could be considered cool? That's authentic. I just thought of it again now that I am giving them away, having procrastinated and never used them in my art. There's lots you can do with them really. Some are so special I planned to remove every button from clothing items like denim blouses and replace them with tiny little boats or some bit of whimsey from the 1940's/1950's.
Second Prize = Tapes (Cassette, not 8-track) of music and spiritual talks we couldn't appreciate when we were cool and had to keep up with the popular music that everyone listened to. Leave the selection to me or maybe I'll print a list and we can vote on the best ones. Examples from my L-7 but sort of new agey collection are most of the tapes of Marianne Williamson, Course in Miracles principles, P.M.Dawn (most Soulful of HipHoppers and the Bliss Album), Drew Carey Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined and Learn to Relax: Self Hypnosis and many more. We'll vote.
Third prize is a book or two. I have lots of books for the authentic person. I'll publish some titles and you can chose. Or you can give me a list of interests and I'll try and match them.
So send in a couple or so double spaced pages about all the ways you are more free, less pretentious, more laid back and more at peace since you traded in your cool stuff for sacred space. Why you are an authentic old square today and how it feels. Give plenty of examples. How have your values changed? How did continuing to grow spiritually change your personality and lifestyle?
I hope you'll send pictures and testimonials from spouses, significant others, friends and children, but if you want to remain anonymous that's fine too. I get a lot of blog comments from Anonymous. Some are pithy and have some substance, but one Anonymous just writes spam about viagra and growing your penis to new lengths the size of football fields or something. Do cool men want that? Penises that collide with their toes when they walk? I don't get it myself.
I have some awesome surprises for you in the next few weeks. These things really are awesome, but I should fine myself $5.00 every time I use that overused trite word that has come to signify something teens think is cool. What other words can we use? Let's rescue our language of joy, bliss, wonder and awe. I love the word wonder. I feel so in touch with the child still within me when I can spend a few days wondering or even five minutes. I will be providing some things to make you wonder.
Send in your language suggestions or comments here.
Authentic Selves Vs. "Might Be Movin' To Montana To Raise Some Dental Floss" Contest ends Feb. 7, 2011. More about additional judges later.
******************************************************************************************************
1
sky within, by Cternetea
Photography Macro Nature
Deviant Art
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Finally, here's what I Googled from my signature. It must be meant for one or all of you. It fits nicely here naturally. Oh sweet sacred serendipity.
Send contest entries to: missmarymac0040@sbcglobal.net by midnight Feb 7.
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The following is from the higher consciousness classic,
Handbook to Higher Consciousness by Ken Keyes, Jr.
which explains the Living Love system to higher consciousness.
T H E T W E L V E P A T H W A Y S
To the Higher Consciousness Planes
of Unconditional Love and Oneness
FREEING MYSELF
1. I am freeing myself from security, sensation, and power
addictions that make me try to forcefully control situations
in my life, and thus destroy my serenity and keep me from
loving myself and others.
2. I am discovering how my consciousness-dominating
addictions create my illusory version of the changing world
of people and situations around me.
3. I welcome the opportunity (even if painful) that my
minute-to-minute experience offers me to become aware of the
addictions I must reprogram to be liberated from my robot-like
emotional patterns.
BEING HERE NOW
4. l always remember that I have everything I need to enioy my
here and now -- unless I am letting my consciousness be
dominated by demands and expectations based on the dead past
or the imagined future.
5. I take full responsibility here and now for everything I
experience, for it is my own programming that creates my
actions and also influences the reactions of people around
me.
6. I accept myself completely here and now and consciously
experience everything I feel, think, say, and do (including
my emotion-backed addictions) as a necessary part of my
growth into higher consciousness.
INTERACTING WITH OTHERS
7. I open myself genuinely to all people by being willing to
fully communicate my deepest feelings, since hiding in any
degree keeps me stuck in my illusion of separateness from
other people.
8. I feel with loving compassion the problems of others without
getting caught up emotionally in their predicaments that
are offering them messages they need ior their growth.
9. I act freely when I am tuned in, centered, and loving, but
if possible I avoid acting when I am emotionally upset and
depriving myself of the wisdom that flows from love and
expanded consciousness.
DISCOVERING MY CONSCIOUS-AWARENESS
10. I am continually calming the restless scanning of my
rational mind in order to perceive the finer energies that
enable me to unitively merge with everything around me.
11. I am constantly aware of which of the Seven Centers of
Consciousness I am using, and I feel my energy,
perceptiveness, love and inner peace growing as I open all
of the Centers of Consciousness.
12. I am perceiving everyone, including myself, as an awakening
being who is here to claim his or her birthright to the
higher consciousness planes of unconditional love and oneness.
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The following is from a classic of the higher consciousness
frontier: The Handbook to Higher Consciousness by Ken Keyes,
Jr. which explains the Living Love system to higher
consciousness.
THE SEVEN CENTERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
1. THE SECURITY CENTER.
This Center makes you preoccupied with food, shelter, or
whatever you equate with your personal security. This
programming forces your consciousness to be dominated by your
continuous battle to get "enough" from the world in order to
feel secure.
2. THE SENSATION CENTER.
This Center is concerned with finding happiness in life by
providing yourself with more and better pleasurable sensations
and activities. For many people, sex is the most appealing of
all sensations. Other addictive sensations may include the
sound of music, the taste of food, etc.
3. THE POWER CENTER.
When your consciousness is focused on this Center, you are
concerned with dominating people and situations and increasing
your prestige, wealth, and pride -- in addition to thousands of
more subtle forms of hierarchy, manipulation, and control.
4. THE LOVE CENTER.
At this Center you are transcending subject-object relationships
and are learning to see the world with the feelings and
harmonies of flowing acceptance. You see yourself in everyone
-- and everyone in yourself. You feel compassion for the
suffering of those caught in the dramas of security, sensation,
and power. You are beginning to love and accept everyone
unconditionally -- even yourself.
5. THE CORNUCOPIA CENTER.
When your consciousness is illuminated by this Center, you
experience the friendliness of the world you are creating. You
begin to realize that you've always lived in a perfect world.
To the degree that you still have addictions, the perfection
lies in giving you the experience you need to get free of your
emotion-backed demands. As you reprogram your addictions, the
perfection will be experienced as a continuous enjoyment of the
here and now in your life. As you become more loving and
accepting, the world becomes a "horn of plenty" that gives you
more than you need to be happy.
6. THE CONSClOUS
WHY EVERY FREELANCE WRITER SHOULD BE READING THIS BLOG.
MsRefusenik is going back to the roots of her Tell All Blog today and talking about writing, particularly about a resource for freelance writers that they absolutely must have now. Excuse me if I sound overly
enthusiastic, but I am so excited by this finding I feel like getting back to some serious freelance writing myself. I have been out of the bid wars for a while working on social services interests, but that rush for a gig worth doing is always there.
You know there are so many good blogs and websites for writers it is overwhelming to try to choose a few to read regularly. I started collecting bookmarks on freelance writing blogs and there were quickly so many that I didn't pay attention to any of them, to be honest.
Finally, in the past few days, I have found one shining blog that is so far above the rest in terms of quality, real substance, line for line resources you need and can readily use and ideas enough to soar on for months, that I must tell the world about it.
The world already knows about it apparently. It was only me in my bat cave who didn't know about this winner of the top top ten blogs for writers' winner. I only found out about the contest after already being a huge fan of the blog and seeing it somewhere. It certainly deserves that distinction and many more
Unlike so many blogs for freelancers, this one is not guilty of running all the standard posts you normally find on how to make more money, writing the perfect query, breaking into print magazines, how to market yourself, etc. Nor does it address the original posts it does cover from fresh perspectives in ways we have read before and heard until we are sick of them. And, what I appreciate most, it is not a Cliff's Notes but the novel itself. There is meat on its bones.
Let me give you some examples of the kind of high priced spread that Carol Tice's Make A Living Writing is. When you subscribe, which is somehow unbelievably free for all that you get, you get a free copy of a report that is easily worth paying big bucks for: 40 Ways To Market Your Writing. This well-researched, life experienced based treasure has so much more than the average e-book or article on the topic it deserves a Pulitzer. I plan to use my copy on a daily basis from now on. In fact, I just was away from this paragraph for about an hour and one-half because I fell into the report while looking for all the good things to tell you that it has. She tells you what should be on a business card and then recommends the company that she uses for hers. I went to look at their cards and they have the most beautiful spiritually themed cards (not too holy roller) for a reasonable amount. Then I had to open a new business e-mail address to put on the card. Just trust me. You will find things in this 40 Ways that you don't come across all the time--some lists and web addresses that are of major importance for marketing that I never knew existed are on it.
Carol Tice, the woman who uses her own life experience to write this wonderful blog,
enthusiastic, but I am so excited by this finding I feel like getting back to some serious freelance writing myself. I have been out of the bid wars for a while working on social services interests, but that rush for a gig worth doing is always there.
You know there are so many good blogs and websites for writers it is overwhelming to try to choose a few to read regularly. I started collecting bookmarks on freelance writing blogs and there were quickly so many that I didn't pay attention to any of them, to be honest.
Finally, in the past few days, I have found one shining blog that is so far above the rest in terms of quality, real substance, line for line resources you need and can readily use and ideas enough to soar on for months, that I must tell the world about it.
The world already knows about it apparently. It was only me in my bat cave who didn't know about this winner of the top top ten blogs for writers' winner. I only found out about the contest after already being a huge fan of the blog and seeing it somewhere. It certainly deserves that distinction and many more
Unlike so many blogs for freelancers, this one is not guilty of running all the standard posts you normally find on how to make more money, writing the perfect query, breaking into print magazines, how to market yourself, etc. Nor does it address the original posts it does cover from fresh perspectives in ways we have read before and heard until we are sick of them. And, what I appreciate most, it is not a Cliff's Notes but the novel itself. There is meat on its bones.
Let me give you some examples of the kind of high priced spread that Carol Tice's Make A Living Writing is. When you subscribe, which is somehow unbelievably free for all that you get, you get a free copy of a report that is easily worth paying big bucks for: 40 Ways To Market Your Writing. This well-researched, life experienced based treasure has so much more than the average e-book or article on the topic it deserves a Pulitzer. I plan to use my copy on a daily basis from now on. In fact, I just was away from this paragraph for about an hour and one-half because I fell into the report while looking for all the good things to tell you that it has. She tells you what should be on a business card and then recommends the company that she uses for hers. I went to look at their cards and they have the most beautiful spiritually themed cards (not too holy roller) for a reasonable amount. Then I had to open a new business e-mail address to put on the card. Just trust me. You will find things in this 40 Ways that you don't come across all the time--some lists and web addresses that are of major importance for marketing that I never knew existed are on it.
Carol Tice, the woman who uses her own life experience to write this wonderful blog,
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