Conservation/Rescue

IMAGINE That a disaster has occurred. One that destroys buildings, floods neighborhoods or burns them to the ground... As things stand now responders react and move in to save lives. They do what they can with the technology they have.  Over the course of months or, in some cases years, authorities and NGOs attempt to bring the communities stricken back to life. IMAGINE A FUTURE Where things can be done faster and better. Bridges can be built in a matter of hours or days... Private companies can come into disaster zones and build homes immediately... During and immediately after disasters strike people have to be rescued. This is the most important part of the whole disaster response--saving human lives. What if technology that already exists could make doing this quicker and better??? What if drones were actually used to get people over collapsed or flooded areas? What if a Google Glass or Holo Lens Helmet could help rescu

WHAT STANDS AGAINST THE STORMS Right now it is COVID-19. What will be humanity's next challenge? Should we even talk about things to come while we are still in the midst of the present crisis? A decision not to panic. A decision to be mindful of events around us but not let the events overwhelm us. Seeing positives where everyone else sees negatives. A chance to grow. Not a time to wither. When everyone else flees.  Go forward. Backward is only a temporary maneuver that gets us going forward again from a different direction. Some of the storms we face are murderous ones full of bombs, bullets and human brutality. But until we are stopped by them we go on. Lightening descends, winds blow, waters rise and consume, fires rage and obliterate. Into them we go. Evil Empires rise. They build legacies on bones-the bones of the innocent. They hold our whole world in fear. Until we expend our own lives to stop them. Our world is violent.

LOST IN THE DARK The problem with knowledge is there is so much of it. And it is everywhere. How can you learn, how can you know, it all?? Some people do the wrong thing because doing the right thing, where they are from, is perceived as being just to hard. Sometimes. All the time. And maybe it's just that doing the right thing, where they are from, can get you killed. I could be wrong about this. Some people do everything, that is within their power to do, right and things still go horribly wrong for them. Is it all the result of some elaborate ancient curse bestowed on an ancestor for doing something wrong? Or is it some other form of thought contagion. Thought confetti. Images and information blown out in all directions. So all we see is the glowing orb in the sky. The image that tells us there is something else we should probably be focusing on. Instead of focusing on the darkness, that we can't seem to see through, all around us.

CORONA LOCK DOWN I was in prison for 28 years. I did substantial portions of that time in prison inside the prison. I prison we make light of many things. One of those things, that no one in prison actually wants to ever have to deal with, is prison inside the prison--solitary confinement or segregation. When you get in a fight that goes bad ( by you hurting someone too much) or you get confirmed as a gang member or you get in a physical confrontation with one of the guards that work at the prison you wind up in solitary confinement. You only get one hour of the day out of your cell. And that's only on the days the guards feel like it. You get to live around people that have slightly and completely lost their minds. The only time you get to interact with these other people is by yelling over the walkways or going outside to your designated cage while they are in their's. All of your movements are restricted. Even more so than in regular prison popul

THE PROBLEM WITH US We are a species of predators. Our languages we use to muddy the water around this central truth about ourselves.  Some of us try to be better. Sure, some of us eat meat, but we aren't serial killers because of it. Or are we? Some of us try to be better. And, in doing so, do not eat meat. These aren't serial killers either. Or are they? I'm quite sure the animals think of us as their killers when we kill them to eat them. And I am sure that the plant life eaten by the animals we eat think of them as their killers. We humans aren't just predators though, we are super predators. Very rapacious, greedy ones. It's never been enough for us to kill to eat. No. We want to kill what others want to eat just to keep them from getting it. And it's not just food in our cross hairs. We've divided ourselves into groups for a reason. Racial, ethnic, social, national groups all exist to give one group more resources

ENGINES OF CHANGE EACH STEP WE TAKE THROUGH LIFE TELLS A STORY ABOUT US. What we did right. What we did wrong. Are we good, bad or evil? Do we support our world moving forward? Do we want to just bring it all down? Do we want to prevent progress of any kind? Are we so scared of negative outcomes that we think we should, therefore, not pursue any form of advancements? Are we drug addicts? Are we mean? Do we choose to be the ones that cause trouble in our communities? Does it matter who we say is the cause of our troubles? Bad genetic combinations? Bad environments? Combinations of both? Does any of this matter? I don't think so... At any point in time a person can stop doing something, going a certain way, and strike out on a new course. A good person can go bad, a bad person can go good. AND FOR ALL YOU RELIGIOUS FOLKS THAT DON'T BELIEVE THIS SIMPLE PHILOSOPHY I SUGGEST YOU ACTUALLY GO READ YOUR RELIGIOUS BOOKS.

WORLD WAR T  If the world would have known how accurate the film World War Z would turn out to be everyone would have caught on sooner to the beginning of the real war that transpired. What we now know as World War T, a war that wiped out over half the population of Earth, started  as skirmishes among normal folks over toilet paper. Everyone was worried that the virus that was rapidly spreading over the earth, the corona virus, would have everyone trapped in their homes. The virus was deadly. The virus was fast moving. If it hit an area near you, the only thing you could do was stay at home and hide from it. So, as human beings always do, they panicked. Then they turned on one another. The fighting over toilet paper became so severe that people trusted no one. So no one communicated with others unless they had to. The news, always biased, began to go political with who was to blame for the toilet paper crisis. the Democrats wanted to give everyone free toilet

It's been said that we are better than the worst moment of our lives. We are. It just takes some of us a little longer to realize it. For some of us, our missions in life are not very clear. We go through phases where we are total assholes. We go through periods where we just don't care about much of anything at all. We don't even much care for ourselves. The missions during these times seems to just be self destruction. But what if you look at it this way--maybe these phases are just aspects of the missions we must undertake? A form of informal training. Bad ideas, and habits, lead to our being placed in situations where we are forced to think. One step at a time, our paths begin to reveal themselves to us.Our maps unfold. We were going this way, now we must go that way. There are aspects of ourselves we do not fully know. We don't see them until they are acted out. One day we epitomize bad, the next day we've become heroes.  How the hell does that hap

GET OUT OF THE WAY: The old despise the young and always seem to think the progress the young bring is the wrong kind of progress. People who perceive themselves as the owners of all things despise all those who would attempt to create new things. Ex cons are despised as the ungovernable. People who are genetically incapable of minding. Robots gone awry. Socially, morally and emotionally out of control. Different races claim to hate one another for different reasons until they come together for a common cause and then none of them can remember why they hate each other. The world is comprised of all types of cognitive dissonances. Very few are really above it all. These few steer the ship of our world through the ever present storm of human whim. These mentors and advocates force those stuck in the past to take the new generations and the outcasts seriously. They recognize talent, in whatever form it may present itself, for what it is. It is the fu

THE DARK TIMES: When you are really fucked up. So fucked up you don't know who or what you are anymore. When you've done something that has scared people around you, close to you, away from you. The clouds will roll in. The sky will darken. And all the things of nightmares will descend from the darkness to visit you. They will come for you. All of those worst aspects of yourself. And all of the terrible things, and people, they attract. Your sanity will be assailed. Your mind will be bombarded. Noise will come from everywhere. The wails of the wounded. Being forced to relive what they have done everyday. Pills. Alcohol. weed. Speed. Something to slow down. Surrounded by those who've made themselves into their own demons. They hide from themselves in hazes. You will become one. Or... Pray to whatever god you wish. But there is a reason all of the old gods are dead--they never showed up. And there is a reason yours doesn't

LABELS: Psychopath, sociopath, criminal, crook. Ex con... Murderer. Killer. Etc... Asshole, unfriendly. Impossible. Unheard of --the things you wish to do. Can't. Hated... You are the someone you have to be. Who are you really?? Those who claim to be so open minded and sincere seldom are. So they think you, like themselves, are full of shit.  Projections/reflections. Your task is to evolve through it all. Past it all... Progress is always there to be pursued. The future is always one second, one minute, one hour away... Not back, ahead. The future, your future, our future is in one direction--forward..

THE FACE: It is shadowed. Fearsome some might call it. But under other circumstances noble. Fatherly? To soft a label for it. Fanatical. Possibly--for the right cause. Tender? again to soft a word for the face that has seen so much. It reveals nothing. At times though it shows everything in the universe. Stoical?  Will from the eyes. It battles fate to secure destiny in its lines. Determination in set jaws.... The brow sticks out, kinda old school Neanderthal in there. Distrust-- Despair. Disappointment. Quick with these. It just knows what others are about. The masks of others don't work... A lot of incognito.  Not trying to attract attention... The teeth are imperfect. Kinda like a wild animal might have. The eyes don't always look at you for a reason--can see more about you when you think they aren't paying attention. Eyes everywhere and seeming to be nowhere. Affection? Outrage?