Since Pharrell killed it this year with his song “Happy” and that term seems to be circulating all throughout our society so much lately, I figured I’d throw in my 2 cents.

So, I believe some people live pretty much miserable or sad existences, and they have glimpses/moments of happiness from the external world, which gets them by for a few hours, days, weeks, etc. After awhile, that’s all they wait on.

I also believe that there are people that live overall happy lives, and experience glimpses of misery or “bad shit” that they deal with accordingly, as it comes.

To me there’s a BIG difference between the two because in one instance, a person is waiting all their lives for moments of happiness to get them through their constant misery, and then there’s a person who is almost naively happy most of the time, but knows at some point that “bad shit” is going to happen, and they know they’ll just have to deal with it, but still must remain happy.

I’ve heard the term “fake it ’til you make it” for years and I am realizing that it might be something I do, and have been doing for awhile, except that I’m at the point where I’m not faking it (or I’m in heavy denial, but I doubt it). A lot of people that meet me, or know me, tell me that I’m weird, odd, strange, whatever, because I can be so “Buddha-like” or seem so optimistic, even when I guess I’m supposed to feel depressed or be upset about something. It’s simple. I just decided one day that there was no point in allowing myself to be swept up by emotions (which are just internal chemical reactions), that I myself control. That I did not want to feel like a victim anymore, and that I could not allow a utility bill, a financial setback, a “lost opportunity”, etc., stop my entire day and worse yet, stop my overall inner joy.

I find that if there’s an inner turmoil deep inside of someone that has never really ever “stared at in the face” objectively, or tried to be resolved somehow, they’ll pretty much be “swimming in that muck” all of their lives. On occasion, life will throw them a life preserver or a floating device of some sort like found money, a stranger’s compliment, etc., so they don’t “drown”, but they’ll still be swimming in that muck and the people in this outside world will always be able to tell energetically, that they’re swimming in that muck. I believe that if this person is constantly waiting for the world outside of themselves to bring them these life preservers or floating devices, they’ll pretty much be drowning all of their lives. So when you see them existing, it’s as if they’re constantly gasping for air.

A happy person just decides one day “Fuck it, I’m going to be happy, because it feels better than not feeling happy” and that’s it. No matter what the world throws at you, you take a breath, and just fucking deal with it that moment, later that day, in a few days, whatever, but you don’t let the situation derail you mentally for 5 minutes, let alone an entire day. The situations/experiences in this world that are lessons whether the happy person deems them good, or bad, are not allowed to take over the happy person’s life for one second because being happy is what is important to the happy person. And being happy is what every human being, whether they want to admit or not, wants to be in life ultimately.

This goes back to what many people say, as far as the external comes from the internal. Anything that exists in the external world comes from the internal world first. The internal never comes from the external first. It doesn’t work that way yo. This includes a happy state of being. You can imagine your insides as being a shell, or a container. You can fill that container with as much “happy shit” from the outside world as you can possibly find, and that container will never really be filled. It’s because the container has to be filled from within, so that it stays perpetually filled…forever. Misery, is like a bunch of holes in the container, so no matter how much you fill the container with external happy, inevitably it will leak out and all that the person is left feeling, is the holes. If you repair the holes internally, and start filling it with your own happiness, it’ll stay filled and whatever external happiness comes your way, is a bonus. The container starts to overflow with happiness, and now you have some extra happy, to share with the rest of the world.

I guess I’m saying that I believe it’s a choice to live a miserable or sad existence, and to wait for glimpses/moments of happiness from the external world, to get one by for a few hours, days, weeks, etc. or one can live an overall happy life, and know that even if you experience glimpses of misery or “bad shit” to just deal with it accordingly, as it comes.

Which one do you think is healthy?

“There is no such thing, at this date in the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.

There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the street looking for another job.

If I allowed my honest opinion to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. You know it and I know it. And what folly is this – toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance.

Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”

John Swinton

New York Times – New York Press Club (1)

In 1951 there was a movie called The Day Earth Stood Still. In this film, Klaatu –the alien visitor here to investigate Earth –is shot while trying to give a gift to the President.

Eventually, the military hunts down the alien and kills him, after which he is resurrected by his powerful robot, Gort.

At one point, Klaatu gives a message to a meeting of scientists gathered from around the world:

“I am leaving now. You’ll forgive me if I speak bluntly. The universe grows smaller every day and the threat of aggression by one group anywhere can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all or no one is secure. This does not mean giving up freedom, except the freedom to act irresponsibly. Your ancestors knew this when they made laws to govern themselves and hired policemen to enforce them. We of the other planets have long accepted this principle.

We have an organization for the mutual protection of all planets and for the complete elimination of aggression. The test of any such higher authority is of course the police force that supports it. For our policemen, we have created a race of robots. Their function is to patrol the planets in spaceships like this one and preserve peace. In matters of aggression, we have given them complete power over us. This power cannot be revoked. At the first sign of violence, they act automatically against the aggressor. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk.

The result is that we live in peace without arms and armies, secure in the knowledge that we are free from aggression and war. Free to pursue more profitable enterprises. We do not pretend to have achieved perfection, but we do have a system and it works. I came here to give you these facts. It’s no concern of ours how you run your own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned out cinder. Your choice is simple, join us and live in peace or pursue your present course and face obliteration.

We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you.”

• The Guardian, Friday 25 April 2014 12.16 EDT

A father weeps as he joins other parents of the kidnapped schoolgirls during a meeting with the Borno state governor in Chibok. Photograph: Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters

A Timeline of Sexy Defined Through the Ages

all physical matter you can see around you, is energy. it’s electro-magnetic energy held in a state of tension. so wild to me

my physical being itself is electro-magnetic energy being held in a state of tension controlled by consciousness forming my atoms via aether

da consciousness i call “Love” or All-That-Is or the Whole or Oneness that was the Big Bang explosion, created aether so atoms can form shit

it’s like holding an outstretched blanket then using sounds to vibrate the blanket and then rolling tiny pellets on it til they form shapes.

that’s everything.

our universe is the outstretched blanket, atoms are the pellets, consciousness turns on the sound & we and everything else, are the shapes.

like Cymatics.

and don’t forget, electric energy and magnetic energy are two measurable dimensions. my bio’s been said i’m multi-dimensional. we all are.

thought energy, and emotional energy, are intertwined like electro-magnetic energy is. how real is that?

once you have the basic principles understood, then everything else kinda falls into place yo.

the entire universe is energy and behind that energy is the consciousness that created it. because what else controls that energy?! exactly

our minds are each a little piece of the universe’s mind.

this reality that everyone agrees on, is a very limited experience of reality. think about it.

can you see the cells that form your body right now, with your naked eyes? no. but that’s reality. you just see one slice of reality. skin.

and skin is basically a holographic projection since within each cell that forms skin is the blueprint for the entire body. and that is…

….exactly how holograms work.

each one of the cells that forms your body is a pixel in a hologram. light shines on each pixel & is reflected and a whole form appears out of thin air.

sunlight hits our cells. our DNA. and astral light exists within us. true reality is subatomic. and ppl can’t walk around seeing that. some ppl.

we form as an entire image, the way a hologram forms an entire image. what’s the difference? the components. and your beliefs.

that’s why i know i’m not a body. my soul has a body. this is my reality. i know what forms my body. physically AND metaphysically b.

don’t fall in love with physical. fall in love with the metaphysical.

“Just because I don’t love you the way you want me to, doesn’t mean that I don’t love you with everything I have.”

someone’s need to hear “I love you” all the time or experience constant PDA says more about that person’s own insecurity, than about love

we’re all being challenged to become whole people & we attract the relationships that help us to do that.

in most relationships, one partner expresses an energy that the other has not accessed within themselves.

that’s why they found each other. to bring those energies out of each other, for each other.

wipe your ass with society’s blueprints of how things beyond the mind need to be experienced

relationships need to be viewed as the interaction of two whole ppl & not two halves seeking external balance.

because those two ppl will be lost in the sauce for a long time.

a dope relationship is based on the mutual respect of each partner for the other’s wholeness and individuality

there’s a different definition of love for almost everyone on the planet, because real love is not definable. fuck a blueprint love.

stop putting the responsibility of trillions of experiences that have to happen to you so you can grow, on one person’s shoulders. not fair

you can be in love with someone and even commit to be with only that someone sexually, but that should be a choice. not a society pressure.

and remember, it’s not really logical to think that the one person you fall in love with is going to help you experience everything you need

it’s a big planet. you’re gonna meet other ppl that present you with experiences/lessons/situations that help you evolve & grow. it’s ok.

we grow a lot more from the challenges in our lives, than the easy rides. welcome challenges.

define cheating. to yourself in your own mind. now, where’d you get that definition?

true love is not definable on human terms. it’s All-That-Is. and there’s no such thing as soulmates. all souls are 1

“You don’t kiss me and hold my hand like the couple across the street.” because we’re not that couple. we’re this couple. fuck blueprints.

if you’re doing things because other ppl are doing them, then YOU aren’t doing anything at all, really. sorry

try doing something you came up with on your own. it’s more exciting.

energetic relationships don’t operate with judgments, preconceived notions, etc. they just interact within nature, as energy. newsflash…

you’re condensed energy. act like it

your expectations about everything is killing your ability to experience things properly. you’re fucking you up.

relationships between planets & stars, water & air, hot & cold, thought & energy, are constantly creating and changing the world around us.

flow of life leads us to what we need to experience and who to experience what with, and the flow comes from within ourselves. don’t DAM it.

you create dams by having expectations. by putting judgments on yourself and others. by not letting the flow, flow.

love is beyond words.

The Law of Divine Oneness – everything is connected to everything else. What we think, say, do and believe will have a corresponding effect on others and the universe around us. This is that All-That-Is jumpoff. The most simple mathematical presentation of All-That-Is, as a rule of three, is:  a = b/c. This is another way of describing the Whole, which I’ve explained in another post.

Law of Vibration – everything in the Universe moves, vibrates and travels in circular patterns, the same principles of vibration in the physical world apply to our thoughts, feelings, desires and wills in the etheric world. Each sound, thing, and even thought has its own vibrational frequency, unique unto itself. I’ve gone into full detail on twitter about wavicles and string theory and how the center of every atom, vibrates.

Law of Action – Must be employed in order for us to manifest things on earth. We must engage in actions that support our thoughts dreams, emotions and words. Like I say, the Universe doesn’t speak English, Spanish, Chinese, etc. It speaks action & energy. It listens to what you do.

Law of Correspondence – This Universal Law states that the principles or laws of physics that explain the physical world energy, Light, vibration, and motion have their corresponding principles in the etheric universe. “As above, so below”. In every cell of my body, is everything in the universe. The same principles applied in creating a hologram, can be applied to my existence as being a reflection of the universe itself.

Law of Cause and Effect – Nothing happens by chance or outside the Universal Laws. Every Action(including thought) has a reaction or consequence. “We reap what we sow”. Sometimes we can predict the effect by the cause, but even when we can’t, this law is working every second of our lives.

Law of Compensation- The Universal Law is the Law of Cause and effect applied to blessings and abundance that are provided for us. The visible effects of our deeds are given to us in gifts, money, inheritances, friendships and blessings. What you create for others, you will experience.

Law of Attraction – Demonstrates how we create the things, events and people that come into our lives Our thoughts, feelings, words, and actions produce energies which, in turn attract like energies. Negative energies attract negative energies and positive energies attract positive energies. I’ve said this applies in electromagnetic terms as far as our physiological makeup. We are, in essence, each a magnet. If you also apply the theory of inflation in terms of our universe and the Big Bang, everything is slowly expanding, but also contracting (pulling towards itself) so we “magnetically” pull people and experiences towards us to help us on our journey of growth and evolution.

The Law of Perpetual Transmutation of Energy – All persons have within them the power to change the conditions of their lives. Higher vibrations consume and transform lower ones; thus, each of us can change the energies in our lives by understanding the Universal Laws and applying the principles in such a way as to effect change. This is where we each can become, or remember we were all, alchemists. Internal alchemy. The human body is an alchemical furnace. Remember that. You’re energy.

Law of Relativity – Each person will receive a series of “problems” (Tests of Initiation/Lessons) for the purpose of strengthening the light within each of us. These tests/lessons are challenges and remain connected to our hearts when proceeding to solve the problems. This law also teaches us to compare our problems to others’ problems, so we can put things into their proper perspectives. No matter how bad we perceive our situation to be, there is always someone who is in a worse position. It’s all relative.

Law of Polarity – Everything is on a continuum and has and opposite. We can suppress and transform undesirable thoughts by concentrating on the opposite pole. It is the law of mental vibrations.

Law of Rhythm – Everything vibrates and moves to certain rhythms.. These rhythms establish seasons, cycles, stages of development, and patterns. Each cycle reflects the regularity of our universe. “Masters” know how to rise above negative parts of a cycle by never getting to excited or allowing negative things to penetrate their consciousness.

Law of Gender – The law of gender manifests in all things as masculine and feminine. It is this law that governs what we know as creation. The law of gender manifests in the animal kingdom as sex. This law decrees everything in nature is both male and female. Both are required for life to exist.

In addition to all of these you have the laws that fall within physics obviously such as Law Of General Relativity, Laws Of Mechanics, but these of course haven’t been tested as axiomatic throughout the entire universe so, they may not apply universally so to speak. We’ll see. Besides, the Ptolemaic view of the universe soon became the Copernican view so, theories change all the time obviously.

DJI Phantom RC Quadrotor UAS Review: A Powerful Personal Drone That Knows Its Place

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Posted 03.04.2013 at 1:01 pm

It’s a sign of the times when new consumer-grade, commercially available remote-controlled drones just show up unsolicited at our offices with an invitation from the manufacturer to take them for a spin. Drones are big news these days, their reputation alternately buoyed and tarnished by their efficacy as machines of warfare and the lack of solid legalities governing their use, and likewise by their limitless potential across a range of commercial applications and their similarly limitless potential for abuse where personal privacy is concerned.

But aforementioned concerns notwithstanding, unmanned aerial systems will soon be everywhere and DJI Innovations’ Phantom is the kind of system that will surely be a part of that shift. Designed for neither industry nor government, the Phantom is a pretty serious UAS designed for you and me–the average consumer that simply wants to fly. So you can imagine the unrestrained glee with which we unboxed this unexpected arrival in the afternoon post.

WHAT IT IS
DJI is a maker of flight control systems for UAS as well as a handful of complete unmanned aerial vehicles, mostly geared toward aerial photography applications. Most of these platforms are somewhat complex and quite expensive–in other words, best suited for commercial customers or the most serious and well-heeled hobbyists. The Phantom is DJI’s attempt at packaging its technology in a way that is both inexpensive and user-friendly, so much so that anyone can get into unmanned flight. It’s certainly not the only consumer-oriented UAS (see our earlier review of the Parrot AR Drone 2.0) or the least expensive–in fact, it’s a few hundred dollars more than other recreational RC quadcopters. But Phantom lives in a space between the toy quadcopter you might pick up for the kids at Brookstone and the professional-grade hardware that aerial photographers or search and rescue authorities might use.

The features that set it apart: serious range and altitude, a durable construction that withstood the serious abuse (both intentional and unintentional) we threw at it, and a satellite-based stabilizing capability that proved quite effective. But that’s not all there is to the Phantom; there were a few aspects of this product that we found clumsy, non-intuitive, and unnecessarily difficult. So if you’re seriously interested in this kind of technology I strongly recommend you read all the way to the end of this post where Phantom gets a chance to redeem itself, because I’m going to lead off with all the things I didn’t like about this otherwise incredibly fun little machine.

WHAT’S BAD
It’s Not Really “Ready To Fly”: Consumer products should be relatively easy to use right out of the box, and indeed DJI describes Phantom as an “all in one solution ready to fly.” But unboxing the drone is not so simple. Attaching the legs with a phillips screwdriver, attaching the propellors with the provided fasteners–this is all stuff that’s expected when you purchase something with “some assembly required.” But actually transitioning from an open box to a vehicle that’s “ready to fly” requires a bit more work. The “Quickstart Manual” is a densely-worded 16 pages long. The battery charging procedure requires its own set of instructions. The calibration process (that is, the process that orients the vehicle’s assorted gyros and accelerometers, as well as syncs it up with various GPS satellites–more on those later) requires some steps that seem nonsensical, like “flip this switch ten times” (ten times!). We don’t mind a learning curve, nor do we mind a little assembly, but “ready to fly” is a stretch.

We Don’t Speak Robot: The basic interface between user and machine is a standard RC helicopter-style controller, the dual-joystick kind that has rotor throttle and vehicle rotation pegged to one joystick and lateral movements controlled by the other. But that’s where the simplicity ends. Much of the rest of the machine-human communication is conducted through a blinking LED on the rear of the ‘craft that speaks in something of a colorized morse code that you, the user, must memorize if you don’t want to keep the quickstart manual (16 pages!) next to you at all times. In different flight modes, the blinking colored lights and their many patterns mean different things. Example: When syncing Phantom to GPS satellites, one yellow blink means you have more than six GPS positioning satellites at your disposal. If you have exactly six, you get a yellow blink, followed by red. Less than five? One yellow, three reds. Exactly five? One yellow, a pause, two reds. Switch to a different flight mode, and the language (and color pattern) changes. It’s kind of like Richard Dreyfus communicating with the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind with all those blinking lights and tones. That is to say, it’s kind of annoying.

The Controller And Aircraft Don’t Talk To Each Other Enough: Aside from the fact that it’s kind of huge, we don’t take issue with Phantom’s handheld RC controller. If you’ve ever flown a RC helicopter, you’ll take to it immediately. One thing we loved about the latest Parrot AR Drone is that in “Absolute Control” mode the user can always control the drone from his or her point of view–that is, no matter which way the “front” of the drone is facing, it will always travel forward, backward, left, or right respective to the direction the pilot is facing. Phantom’s controller lacks the hardware that makes this kind of intuitive flight possible, and while it does have a couple of helpful flight modes (“Home Lock” and “Course Lock”) that peg the directional orientation of the drone either to it’s point of takeoff or the direction it’s facing at takeoff (respectively), if you are walking around and turning as you fly the drone–and you’ll want to–it’s pretty easy to lose that intuitive link between the direction you are facing and the direction the drone is facing.

No Built In Camera, No Drone’s-Eye View: Adding features adds expense, and in the case of aircraft they can also add weight which reduces performance and flight duration. But cameras are so small and cheap these days–the Parrot AR Drone 2.0, the most popular comparable recreational quadcopter, comes with two built-in HD cameras–that we were struck by the fact that the Phantom has none. While it does come with a mount for a GoPro camera (sold separately), that means that it also doesn’t offer a drone’s-eye view, which is one of the more fun aspects of the Parrot and a nice way to pilot the vehicle beyond line of sight (which we aren’t endorsing, since doing so violates FAA rules–but still).

Battery Life: I’d preface this complaint by pointing out that there is nothing about Phantom’s battery life that is not absolutely par for course. Phantom runs on a small, dense lithium-polymer brick that takes roughly 45 minutes to an hour to charge fully. DJI claims a full charge is good for ten to fifteen minutes of flight time. That’s not very long. The good news: we found that we were able to squeeze even a little more flight time than that out of our machine (perhaps because on these flights we were not carrying the added weight of a camera). And fifteen minutes is about average for this kind of product. So this isn’t really a complaint about Phantom, but it is something you should be aware of before you invest in the thing. Somebody please invent a better battery already.

WHAT’S GOOD
This Drone Knows Its Place: Now that the negative stuff is out of the way, let’s plunge into the many things Phantom gets right. First of all, the unique thing about Phantom is its GPS stabilization. That is, when in GPS flight mode Phantom is actually locating itself in space via several GPS satellites, and this allows for some very stable flight characteristics. With GPS enabled, you can be running Phantom at a dead lateral sprint and then let off the directional control. Phantom will actually pitch slightly in the opposite direction of travel (like applying brakes) and then correct itself back to the point in space where you first let off the accelerator (with GPS disabled, Phantom will right itself and cease acceleration when you release the directional control, but its momentum will continue to carry it some distance). Likewise, with GPS enabled Phantom can hover very precisely even in moderate winds, helpful for capturing aerial photography or video (more on that in a moment).

A good way to test this is to trigger the failsafe landing mode, which returns Phantom to its point of origin should it lose communication with the controller. Flying it on a soccer pitch adorned with plenty of painted lines for reference, we cut the power to the controller several times. Each time Phantom ceased lateral motion, climbed to sixty feet, slowly returned to the airspace over its point of takeoff, and landed itself on the ground below. Even with a stiff breeze blowing it never missed the mark by more than a couple feet, well within the standard margin of error for GPS technology.

It’s GoPro Ready: We love the GoPro. It goes pretty much anywhere, even where the user can’t or won’t, and returns amazing video and still images. Disappointed as we are that there’s no built in camera, the addition of the included GoPro mount is a nice compromise for the user who wants to quickly and relatively cheaply turn Phantom into an aerial photography rig.