The Savage Philosopher

I am beginning to wonder if there is a difference between malignant and benign influences. Without getting into a full debate today about the relevance of good and evil; I want to highlight an observation: An unseen power flows through repeated messages. Only recently I have begun to watch TV again. After five years overseas there was no point to watch the local cable stations. And now that I’m back in the states, over the last two weeks I have been taking advantage. I have concluded that those who have chosen the programming do not know what they do. As the word suggests, programming is a deliberate intent to create actions by convincing the cognitive space. I understand the economics of advertisement and the systems that employ them. I do not think that those who schedule the programs really understand how they affect the cognitive space outside of purchasing a consumer product. Being reborn into this environment I was not prepared for the psychological battle I would h

Showing up This week I learned the value of simply showing up. Simply by getting out of bed and putting on pants, I gained six hours of one on one coaching and business development with a specific focus on a business I am trying to do. My initial expectation was to make a couple of networking contacts and possibly learn about some local resources. But by the end of the day, my expectation was blown away. A couple of weeks ago I called my uncle about learning how to run a small business. He took over the family business a number of years ago and figured that he had some good insights on situation. Well, he directed me to go to the library and see if they were sponsoring any business classes. I have been to the library before and I did not see anything on that subject, but I also wasn’t looking for it. So the next time I took my daughter to get another 10 books to read over the week; I took the time to see if my uncle is right. And of course he was. In about two weeks from th

For those who are following along my little journey, here are my results: Feat 1: Education. The goal was to have everything done so that I can start school.  I’ve completed 75% of what I need to do. All my transcripts have been sent except for the last school I was going to. I still need to send them back the books from my last classes, which of course are in one of the many boxes in my garage from the move. A perfect intersection of this feat with Feat 3. Feat 2: PMP Certification. I have ordered the hardcopy book to study from and have it with me now. This week I will put my hours in the PMI website, and next week I can schedule the test. So I’m at 30% here. Feat 3: Home Ready for Guests. We have squared away about 25% of the boxes. Unfortunately the items in the boxes have not been completely put away yet. Once that is done, then we can work on the boxes that are in the garage. Feat 4: Write a Book. I am at 0% complete. Feat 5: Conquer Life Admin. OK, me and the wife hav

What does it take to make the impossible look possible? Elon Musk at SpaceX have given us a glimpse of that yesterday (25 Jun 2017). SpaceX flawlessly launched the Falcon 9 rocket with a multiple satellite deployment and returned the booster to the floating dock in the pacific. It is hard to put into words how impossible this was just a few years ago. This may be a turning point in human history. The place in time where we look back and say, “This is when we started to make a difference in space operations.” The only thing that has been prohibiting us from doing this sooner was cost. The cost was too high to go through the failures that are required to achieve breakthrough technology. SpaceX have effectively cut the current cost in half and the next phase of tech will cut it down to almost ⅕ the average. This will allow for more launches and more opportunity to improve on the technology at a faster rate than anyone else. Here is an excerpt from SpaceX on the launch ye

I have two daughters and I am always looking for female role models to inspire them to be strong and independent. As a long time comic book fan, there are few heroines compared to the number of heros available to model. The choices range from super sexy Black Widow to muscle bond She-Hulk. Both are awesome, but neither represent the values I would like my daughters to center on. Here comes Wonder Woman to save the day. The on-screen adaptation in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was as awesome as it was inspiring. She was portrayed as elegant in long evening gowns and then as fierce in her armor. I was very happy to see this dichotomy accepted by both my daughters. That a woman can be strong and feminine. And in Wonder Woman’s case, her feminism is her strength. I believe that having role models is very important in forming who we think we are. As part of the Human species, we tend to learn best by watching others. How to act and react to life’s situations are programed in

I took a couple of days off from this series to build up some successes (or failures) that were worthy of talking about. Our last discussion was very bland as I started to engage into a more optimal battlerythm. We left off with some simple goals of increasing the number of blogs and getting the dishes done. Well, with such low goals, I can say with complete confidence that over the last couple of days I had complete success….yea me. I did though begin to stretch into a couple of different areas and techniques that I think are pretty cool. I started to do some of my blog posts from my phone. I have the ‘blogger’ app on my phone and when I combine it with the voice-to-text technology, I am able to produce a 300-400 word blog without a keyboard. This freedom from the computer will allow me to blog more when I am not home and only have access to my phone and wifi. Another thing I started was drinking MCT Oil (C:6,C:8) with my coffee in the morning. So far I am very excited about

Yesterday was mostly successful. I have found that eating one meal a day is very difficult unless I am with people that eat one meal a day (or by myself). Other than that, I did get a couple of blogs out and had the time to research how to write a book and the volunteer opportunities in my area. Every day I seek to learn more about myself and the reasons why I do what I do. Yesterday I struggled to keep my cool while my pre-teen daughter did what pre-teen daughters do, drive their fathers crazy. I was good initially and then got tired of the attitude and then realized that I simply did not have the skills to handle it. So I called the Mom. She brilliantly deescalated the situation and we made it through the rest of the night. What I learned is that I still have some learning to do. So I will add building a stronger relationship and reducing the frustration between me and my daughters to the list of accomplishments I want to have on this reset. Review of Yesterday. As I ment

How to have a kickass day.  I want to take a few moments this evening and talk about how to have a kickass day by creating a morning ritual. The purpose is to prime your day the same way everyday, so that you can have consistent results.  Start the morning right. Here are three simple steps that I use every morning to get ready for the day. Do not be underwhelmed by there simplicity. I recommend you practice them with an experimental mindset and see the results for yourself before you judge them.  1. Make your bed. I get up really early and my wife is still sleeping. This does not stop me from taking my blanket, folding it half long ways, and laying it down on my side of the bed. After I take a moment to smooth it out, I top it off with my pillow. This is the first thing I do right after my feet hit the floor.  This first step is the trigger for the next thing, writing in my gratitude journal. It also puts me into a productive mood. I can say at the end of the day th

Before we get started, we should first define fear. According to our good friend Webster, fear is “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger”. If we were to dissect this definition a little, we realize that there are two parts. The first is the “anticipation or awareness of danger”, and the second is the reaction to that perception with a “strong emotion”. This is important because I believe that the reaction is dependent upon the perception. This also gives us a possible lever of control. If we control our perception, than we can control our fear. Basically, we are only afraid of dangers that we know about. If this is true, then we could purposefully redefine what we consider as dangerous. In today’s world we are not normally chased by lions and tigers, but our fears of failure and loss trigger the same emotion. So, if we want to control our lives and make choices (the key to being Human) then we need a way to control our mind to minimiz

I wanted to take a minute and discuss what a typical day for me looks like. This is to emphasis two things. The first is that it takes Willpower to do things you don’t want to do. The second is that the body and spirit has limits. Note, while the daily details change, the amount of effort remains the same for every day I choose to be free. 0400 - Wake up after only getting about three hours of sleep. This happened because I am currently in my transitions class and all the new information is creating a whirlwind of thoughts. I finally lay down, my brain continues to compute my new future. 0400...0600 - I am currently enrolled in the veteran Boots2Business class, and I had to catch up on the homework and watch a 30 minute video. When I was done; I started laundry, shower, get dressed, and wake up the kids for school. 0600...0700 - I struggled to get the kids up, fed, and lunches made. I didn’t have time to actually see them off to school. I had to trust them to leave 15 minutes

Who owns you? To what obligations have you promised? Do you have freedom of choices or freedom of choice? Every day I evaluate my life and try to measure what I am doing to what I believe I can do. I find that most days, my assessment is aligned. If I believe I can do it, then I normally accomplish it. But this makes me wonder about the limitations of belief. What would happen if I suddenly chose to believe that I could do something I never had done before? Let’s say it is something that ‘has’ been done before, just not by me. If I believe that I could do it, then could I? And now let’s take this up to the next level. There are an infinite number things that we could do that haven’t been done yet. How do we assess the reasonable from the impossible? Or is it all possible with enough ingenuity and creativity. These particular Human attributes that define us from the other species on this planet. This takes me back to my original question of ownership. Freedom is the state of belief.