Technology and the Human Interface
This article holds a surprising twist on the standard concept of too much technology for the human race; the twist will get you wondering.
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Whenever I hear somebody that is just an awesome talent, they stick with me, what about you? So when I first heard John Frazier
hit the sax, it BLEW ME AWAY, bad pun, but TRUE! Check out this tune:
Chris Voss is excited about John and there is a chance that internet marketing may come around to help this rising star really get going…and you, dear reader…can get in on this career as it takes off…for now…just listen and enjoy…John Frazier

“drd’s” Blog
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Do not ignore the story of what it means to trade off your soul cheaply; it’s a famous story, retold so many times, from “The Count of Monte Cristo,” to more modern approaches, such as Nicholas Sparks, “The Last Song,” the idea is not hard to grasp, the relationship that is one sided, and the big side of the wishbone, isn’t on your side!  Sure it’s easy to say that we’re going to be big, we’re going to walk away, we’re going to do the “right thing,” only when you come to the point of decision, where it counts, if you are like me, your heart gets in the way, and you run the danger of making a lousy trade and cheapening your own worth.

Truth be told we aren’t people who like solitude, some solitude is good, but a lot of solitude tends to wear us and mold us, and unless it is self imposed; such as the poet Thoreau; it can end, badly.  This means that we form relationships on a constant basis, most of them, good, wholesome, well intentioned.  Many of them deep, meaningful, heartfelt and important, life focusing and life changing relationships.  We form relationships around portions of our lives, such as work and enterprise.  We form relationships based on hobbies and fun, folks who do sports together, or clubs which read and paint together.  We form relationships and we believe that it is a higher form of behavior than animalistic herding?  Truth be told, we aren’t very singular folks for the most part, we form relationships.

The soulfulness in such relationships is often ignored; which is unfortunate because even if there is no higher design than the mental exercise of good social psychology under the guise of hoping for better days ahead, the soulful considerations which are spelled out in so many great religious teachings are of worth and value to guide a person in soulfulness of relationships.  It is one of the unfortunate curses of our modern times that we don’t take soul in man seriously, and that at the same time we reject the notion that there might be something to the deeper choices of the soul, something which might be comprehended were we to open our eyes and choose to see clearly that it is important not to ignore soulfulness in relationships.

The crux of the issue is really gambling with your future by risking your heart in a soulful search for perfection in relationships; while the truth is, it isn’t possible.  Consider that were a person perfect, which none are, they would be able to satisfy every single demand of your soul; think about that one, because at that point, you’d find that your soul was full, but it would be a pretty safe bet, theirs wouldn’t be?  On the other hand consider the imperfections of those who you form relationships with and how the quirky nature of who they are is often the most fun aspects of why we want to associate with them?  As a lifelong rooter for the underdog it is my pleasure to choose to associate with those who are battling long odds.  My gamble is that they will win and my heart felt relationship will be well placed?

There is a hard truth to selfishness in gambling with relationships that is often soulfully renounced as unworthy of consideration, it is this; those who you grow the closest to  are the very ones who will have the ability to make you feel hurt.  If you do not care that deeply for the other person, then they have a very limited ability to put your heart in a state of hurt; so, little is at risk.  Gambling under such conditions is hardly a gamble at all, you aren’t risking much, and conversely, you won’t have much to win, or much to lose.  But when you put your heart out there and it gets stomped on, that, hurts; and that hurt, which feels like a big empty hole in your soul, that hurt, doesn’t go away easy and isn’t easily dealt with.  This is the hard truth to gambling with your heart, you may not come out with a winning hand, and so, my sense is, if you are going to gamble this way, be prepared for that.

Why would anyone deliberately hurt another?  This is, again, a classic question, it is certain that there are people who do hurt other people, sometimes, it’s without intent; the husband who forgets an important date to the wife; and if such hurts are not often repeated, a person can accept them as being inadvertent.  But when a person continues to forget important but small details, things which would be important to the other person, then the question must be asked, isn’t this deliberate?  From such a relationship it is very difficult to enlarge a meaningful and loving growth, one of the people in that relationship doesn’t matter, and if that person is you, then you’d better get yourself into another place, it’s not likely to change.  Those who are hurtful to others by inconsideration and dismissive behavior, do so, while justifying their own behavior as being correct, which means that you will likely never matter to them as much as they matter to you.  Such a situation is virtually beyond redemption, and if you are interested in maintaining your own worth as a person then perhaps you can curtail or modify the relational standing to protect your heart?  If you can’t, if that’s not possible then you may find yourself in a situation that is intolerable, at that point, it may make sense to choose the road, over the pain?

So we come to the age old two way street of love, knowing full well you may get hurt if you risk your heart, you know also you will remain lonely if you don’t.  In defense of the ones who have caused heart hurt in my life, the German Friedrich Nietzsche said “that which does not kill me, only makes me stronger.”

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Associated Content just claimed that there isn’t any interest in writing that is spiritual materials based? My brain almost blew out the back of my head, it was like they were saying that we’re not capable of thinking about deep stuff! Talk about a shallow appraisal of folks? Fortunately we can show them that such an opinion is shallow and that we are for sure being real when it comes to our hearts and souls. Evolution of God and you

Do you believe that religious extremists can/should be stopped?

This is a very informal survey but I ask you to please post this,

and please comment with your insight and any research you

might share to support your insight.  Please also share this

with others and get them to comment as well- need the

input for new book coming out, and of course, if you leave

your comment, research and e-mail, who knows, we might

need to make a deal?  Wanna be in a book?  Thanks – Dana

You might look at that title and think we were talking about the dates?  Which would be cool, it sort of favors that impression don’t it?  On the other hand, it’s also possible that this title might have in it the idea of families getting closer during Christmas?  See that’s possible from that title isn’t it?  Or you could look at this title and hear a suggestion that what makes Christmas happen is, getting closer, see that?  So there are three possible ways that this article might go, all of which would be nice for you, the person that can benefit from reading it, so let’s do a bargain article here, let’s do a three for one?  Sound good to you, it’s a 33.3% off sale, and you just got lucky!

It’s true that we celebrate Christmas on the 25th [LINK 1] – [LINK 2] -[link 3] of the year in December, or, right close to midnight on the 24th, if you are like me, and like to put some milk with cookies on the mantle?  Or some folks have to wait until the day after Christmas because a loved one either had to work Christmas day, so they are usually granted the next day off (to which employers we highly recommend a viewing of “The Christmas Carol” by Dickens), so give or take a day, it’s getting closer to that date, isn’t it?  Are you getting excited about that date getting closer, or, not, or, dreading it?  Some folks actually do suffer from an odd sensation called holiday stress and it shows up very strongly as Christmas approaches, they actually feel pressure about the day getting closer.  Men tend to feel pressure as they pass jewelry stores, and, stores that have high power love gifts like fancy coats and things; women tend to not feel as much pressure, usually they have taken care of Christmas earlier.

Families can get closer at Christmas time, even when physically they may be apart.  It is sometimes seen as very sad when mom and dad and the kids can’t be physically in the same place for Christmas, however, one might also look at such as realize that one way we really know we care is that we miss you not being there?  So while even those who aren’t there physically may be strongly present in a spiritual sense, some families realize how fortunate they are to be together physically and spiritually.  Unfortunately some families never quite get the being together as one spiritually “thing” down, and so, for them, Christmas represents a time when they are together in one place, but they are all “doing their own thing.”  Such a situation isn’t uncommon, not at all, but it is, in some sense, a sad sort of commentary about how we’ve lost interest in one another, when we can be together in the same place, on this most important of holidays, and yet, not care about such?

In no small way it must be said, and said often, that Christmas is actually a time that depends upon the spirit of the people who are celebrating it, otherwise, it might as well just become a day like any other day, and this day, isn’t a day like any other day, for on this day we choose to stop; to look at the precious nature of why this day is set apart; and even if we aren’t, Christian, we still know that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is said by tradition, to have been born on this day.  Oh sure, professional skeptical scholarly types will tell us that His birth didn’t actually take place on this date, but that’s never been a big deal to me, is it to you?  See to me what is important is not the day, but the birth!  Not the birth itself, but Who it is that was born, and not even as much Who it is as what He would do for all humankind in this, His-story! You see I believe very much in saying that it is a Merry Christmas, and that we should have the privilege of supporting the Jesus for whom this date was recognized and set aside.  How about you?

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What if there were an enormous Christmas secret that was knowable, you could find it out, and it would be wonderful when you did, and you weren’t aware of it? That would be some secret wouldn’t it? You might not like somebody who knew something that would be good for you and chose not to share it, so that they kept it a secret, would you? Ever play a game of hide and go seek, and the other players all got together and left you hiding there? After a while you got suspicious and came “all-e-all-e ins that’s free.” and there wasn’t anybody there? Well this isn’t a secret like that, rather this is more like a fly that is on the wall of the Grand Canyon; you would need to know specifically which rock outcrop that fly was on, to the inch, in order to set your scope up to find it, wouldn’t you? This Christmas secret is going to be revealed to you, and so, in this brief writing that’s what we’re going to get into, the “how do I,” find this Christmas secret?

First we’ll talk about Christmas just a bit, because it is so important, before it happens, as it happens, and after it happens. Then we’ll talk about, in the next paragraphs, the Christmas secret and how you can find it before Christmas, during Christmas, and we hope, after Christmas, so let’s go?

Before Christmas happens things begin to change, in different cultures the world over, people begin to adjust to the idea that something really “neat,” really wonderful in terms of a holiday, is going to happen. Christmas is a world sized holiday, by the way, which, while celebrated differently, by style, takes place on the same day, December the 25^th. For some it’s just a recognition that the rest of the planet sees this day as significant; for most of those countries, however, it is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ. It’s becoming, in America, and in many other countries, unpopular to state it so, which does not make much sense, given that all that Jesus ever did, no matter what else you may think, all He ever did was good for everybody! So in that He was so unlike so many other people, maybe that is why they have chosen to reject celebrating His birthday? But actually, my sense is that good people everywhere know that Jesus the Christ is real, was a real baby, actually lived here on earth, and really did do nothing but good the whole time He was here. If there’s a problem with Jesus the Christ, it’s probably not about Him at all, but about the people who say they know Him; but act like they don’t. People who are supposed to be loving and kind, but sometimes have a very odd way of showing it? Maybe if they weren’t like they are, people would be happier about celebrating their King’s birth? I don’t know, all I know for sure about Christmas is, it does change the world, each year before it gets here, the world gets ready for it, and if you are looking for Christmas, you might find it in that fact?

When Christmas day shines out, my heart rejoices, with so many other hearts, because it is the day in which Jesus the Christ, was born. Historically, maybe not, history is good to study, my preference is to believe that history is kept in the humans heart who knows love, and this day celebrates the birth of the Man who taught love, lived love; and is love. That to me is what Christmas is all about, but it really happens that morning because the night before we have a family tradition, which began when we were extremely poor, a year where we lost just about everything, and even our families health wasn’t good. That year both of us, the wife and I, were trying to think of something that we could do which would be good; we needed something good to take place, those were hard times. So I’d seen this clip of a movie called “A Christmas Carol.” several great actors who have since died, George C. Scott and Edward Woodward, to name a couple; were in it; it is an incredible movie, if you don’t have it, it’s worth the $5.00 it might cost to get it today. Anyway, in our state of down, somehow this movie seemed from the clip to be good, so my suggestion was, “hey, let’s watch it.” She agreed and so was begun the Christmas tradition of watching “A Christmas Carol,” by Charles Dickens. If I had a wish to be granted, like they do at the TED meeting each year, I wish every wealthy greedy world sized corporate pirate leader, who believed they had no need of Christmas, would get to watch this with us.

After Christmas things aren’t the same. Children who had hoped that Santa Clause, or, Saint Nicholas, Shengdan Laoren of Chinese name, JuiTomten of Sweden or others, can be found smiling. In fact this website: http://www.lone-star.net/mall/main-areas/santafaq.htm seems to be a pretty good one, for checking out Santa’s name, but back to the hoping, smiling, children; they are enjoying what Santa has left. Parents who have actually listened to their children and each other (these would be the 50 or so percent who aren’t getting divorced) are smiling inside, just a little, and that “just a little,” may be the about the only smile they get for a while. Things aren’t the same and that is certainly hard to dispute when such a large scale holiday takes place, Christmas doesn’t leave things the same, so if you are looking for a clue about the Christmas secret, that’s a huge one, things after Christmas change.

We’ve spent just a little time together about before, during and after Christmas itself, because nothing is like it, as a holiday, I don’t know one that world wide, has it’s power? New Year’s is celebrated world wide, but it doesn’t have the significance of Christmas and the secret which we are going to discuss, may be a fundamental aspect of why?

Now let’s go into the Christmas secret, because it can be found before Christmas, let me tell you how. You will need to find a quiet place, where you won’t be disturbed for about five minutes; this is going to be tough on you, so you will really have to want to know the secret, because you will need to find a quiet place for five minutes! Here you do nothing, shut off the cell phone and sit – still. Just sit still, for five whole minutes. While you are there ask your heart how many more hurts it can take before it breaks enough to realize that the hurt that you suffer must tell you something about your ability to take hurt? Ask your heart then, if your hurts are worse than the mother who watched her baby die yesterday; because it couldn’t get water. Water- not food, not medicine, WATER- now, ask your heart if you really understand what hurting is? If you will listen to your heart and be honest, you’ll realize that Dickens’s was right, and in the eyes of God “these may be of more importance than you ever will be;” and, we, you and I, and everyone, are letting it happen. It’ll be an interesting five minutes if you do it; and remain true to your heart, I guarantee it will affect how you look at suffering.

The Christmas secret however, is also to be found, by you, right there in the midst of the great times of great joy; you see, we need those, oh we desperately need them, here is why. When you are down, and those times will happen, even when you compare the depth of your down to the greater suffering of someone else; you need to be able to think about good Christmases and good times- its a way of keeping your balance with reality. The Christmas secret, begins in the persons heart, and so, for some, sadly, it’s gonna remain a secret, their heart, is, unfortunately, only a muscle that pumps blood; and that, is, one of the saddest realities of this world. The Christmas secret might have something to do with, changing that; if it is possible to change that heart with little feeling, to one that feels, the Christmas secret might bring it about.

After Christmas if your heart cannot change, the Christmas secret will help you in ways that you might not believe were possible, but all the time were. A very close personal friend who let other things get between us; realized, not too long ago, that “we don’t talk like we used to.” While I almost said, “
no duh,” I stopped my mouth, stayed quiet (like in the car), and listened, because what they said next was something that if your searching for the Christmas secret, will help you, they said, “so every once in a while, let’s just call each other, think we can do that?” You know I really do think we can, and somewhere I hear Charles Dickens agreeing with others “they’re getting close to finding the Christmas secret aren’t they?” What do you think the others say back to them about us?

Dr. Joe Vitale a nationally recognized marketing guru
makes the point constantly that the universe loves speed,
meaning, when you get an idea, don’t sit on it, act on it.
Don’t think about it (much), put it into play, and see if
it moves something into a different phase? One of my
favorite mentors is a fellow named Chris Voss, he has a
Podcast plus blog plus Net show he does in which Chris
just blows you away with info- can you tell he is “my man!”
On one of his blogs Chris gets off on Facebook, and really
I’m starting to see his point, I like Facebook as well, but
if you are into marketing products over the web, my goodness
consider this chart:

Okay, now for the kicker…you knew there had to be one,
right? Check out where the mighty Twitter has landed itself?
Six months back the clamor over Twitter was so loud you
couldn’t hear your tweets as they came in? “What happened?”
You ask, “glad you asked, here is my guess…” Twitter had
some hangups that they’ve gotten past I hope, about how you
did what you did in terms of Tweeting…and in being kind of
Twitter management of posts happy, I think they got legal minded
about who could tweet what and when and where, and they forgot
who was payin’ the bill? Now I’m thankful for Twitter don’t
misunderstand me, it’s a tremendous way to get the word out,
on some things, but it isn’t nearly as well used as Facebook
according to this review. So for my money, I guess I better
learn how to tweak out the Face, huh?

Getting into it – does it mean, knowing what it is?  If you

don’t know what it is, can you get into it?  Take for example

a spinning Ferris wheel? 

If you don’t know what it is,

can you get into it?  Sure enough, it’s easy isn’t it?  But of course my next

question is, is that a smart way to go about things?  Are we

better off if we understand it first, then leap?  Should

we look before we leap?  What do you think?

In the recent hit movie “Live Free or Die Hard,” Bruce Willis’s continuing saga of the “Die Hard,” series, the subject matter concerns something called a “firesale” attack on the technology of the country.  The theory behind it being that link where just as in a fire sale; “everything has to go”;  so in this dramatized “firesale” the electricity, utilities, television, system controls for traffic management, you name it, anything that could be controlled via a computer, is taken over by the bad guys.  As usual Bruce is nearly killed numerous times, and as in all Hollywood action flicks of late, our hero sustains enough injury that anyone who understands medicine knows, “this guy has been a walking dead man since the second time he was shot!”  So the unreal is seen via this media as real (note that).  The unreal is also seen as having power- that the power resides in the ability of the hero to overcome (note that)- so that your impression of the media hyped hero is that he is wonderful, he saves the day and all is well in our world.  You might not know this, so you will need to check it out with Dr. Dennis Waitley of NASA and Olympic athlete training fame, but here is a fact, your mind cannot distinguish from what it sees as input that is surreal or fake or drama, and what is real, in terms of how your body reacts- this is called visual motor rehearsal.  Now here is a real shocker for you; my take on this is that the Bible addressed this as early as Adam and Eve in the garden, God didn’t ask them what they were thinking, God asked them “where are you?”  Big difference in that question.  Now what this says to us are two very important things that we noted, first, your being reacts to drama in a physical way as if though it were real (read that Adrenalin pumping action flicks really get your Adrenalin pumping, so do video games, so do stimulating visual products…) and second, what we have been conditioned to believe is that we must save the day!  We’re the hero in that drama, we’re the savior in that series, we’re …it.  Oops, that doesn’t sound like surrender to Christ as Lord to me?  So where does the power reside in that situation, with the person.  It is the mantra of our time, “be all you can be,” “success is all that matters,” “it isn’t how you play the game, but whether you win or not, which leaves you as memorable, nobody remembers the second place Super Bowl teams…”  And on and on and on it goes, the power residing in the person.

The scene is a calm hill, it’s quiet, the dawn has broken over water, people around this small desert village are just waking; they have gathered around because they know that the solitary figure coming down off the hill can and does heal the sick.  They’ve seen it happen, word has spread, and this Jesus of Nazareth; well, he’s power, and they know it.  He turns to the men who are walking with him and says; “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the misst of wolves: be yes therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”  That meets with the wide eyed stare of those who are being sent out, but they realize, if they have learned enough of Jesus and His unique power, they will be fine so long as they rely on Him and not upon their own foolishness, such is wisdom that He speaks of.  That’s a far cry from our way of doing things today, wouldn’t you say?

So when we come to the time to celebrate the birth of this amazing Jesus of Nazareth, perhaps one of the things that we might do is really examine where the power resides in our life?  If it resides with Him, then we cannot fail; He doesn’t fail, we will all make it, who put our faith and trust in His ability to save us and keep us; we shall be there, not because of who we are, but because of who He is.  If the power is residing with us, however, then my suspicion is that just as we sin everyday, we will find a way to lose track of what faith is, we will find a way to dis-serve the master and even lose faith in Him; until ultimately our worth in the kingdom is diminished to the extent that it ought not exist at all.  Which is sad, but happens many times.  The very real challenge for us in Christianity today is to not lose sight of who we belong to and what His power is all about.  So the question to you this fine day is, do you know who has the power in your life?