What's On My iPhone? My iTunes Library, Music from my past. Allison Moyet and Jon Mark

Old cassettes used to simply disappear or wear out. CD's last longer. Digital libraries are practically forever.

Lurking in not too frequently visited corners of my digital life is a whole history of music I used to listen to. Cleaning up digitally I found some fond friends and feel encouraged to listen to music today that I haven't heard since forever.

Alison Moyet's Alf. I recently searched YouTube and found some great old clips of Alison performing. I had never seen them before because when I fell in love with her music there was no easy way accurately retrieve video from endless, endless, endless fields of data.

Just looking at the album cover words from the album flood into my memory. "I just don't want to be lonely...," "You're no longer there...," oh the tragedy of it. No wonder I grew up all melancholic! I love this album and I wonder how many others do to.

And Land of Merlin by Jon Mark...I still love this one a lot. I personally believe I am responsible for the sale of many dozens of this one.

I played this CD many times for meditation groups I started some 20 years ago in Burbank on Saturday afternoons when I was in training for ministry. So many times that I think it laid track in my memory and even today when I played it I instantly accessed that quieter mind and settled down for some peaceful moments. Frequently after the meditations people would ask "What was that music?" It is perfect for meditation in my opinion, as training wheels as or for times when the one meditating cannot still the mind with silence alone.

One year in a particularly difficult period of my ministry I played Jon Marks CD all night and it helped me to sleep in a deep and restful way that had eluded me in the preceding days.

Looking forward to hearing from you and learning about oldies lurking on your digital media.

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New Board of Trustees Induction Ceremony

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What's On My iPhone? Syncing Calendars and PC's

I like to have all my devices synced when it comes to my schedule.  I like my assistant to have access to my up to date calendar and to be able to make changes that are automatically synced with whatever gadget I'm working with at the moment.  Is it too much to ask?

Not really, there are all kinds of solutions that work well to accomplish this, but be warned, backup your calendar regularly because there are unknown forces at work in the world, seemingly determined to eat calendar data, immediately before you will actually need it.  

For a while I used MobileMe, Apple's subscription service.  But when things when crazy and I watched MobileMe's Windows version Control Panel eat my data before my eyes, screen flickering and appointments disappearing till at last I had nothing, I knew I had seen the writing on the wall, well, on the screen. Well, saw the writing disappear from the screen-wall.  Bottom line it was gone. Away.  I did finally get it back after one entire day on the phone with tech support.

To MobileMe's defense, their customer service for paying clients is excellent, however, I was quickly and politely informed that the product was never meant for business use.  Say what?  Oh, just for syncing your personal appointments to your iPhone and PC... uh huh.  

So, no more $100 a year for MobileMe, instead I use Google Calendars (free) with my iPhone and Google's free PC Google Calender Sync app.  

Here is how it works....

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How To Be More Thankful Every Day

How to be more thankful every day is something that can be developed and increased by simple practices that anyone can perform. A quick search on the internet about the health benefits associated with an attitude of gratitude should be enough to convince anyone to practice being more thankful every day. However, if that isn't enough, the feelings associated with gratitude may be. And the only way to experience those feelings is to experiment with expressing gratitude every day.

Try these easy pointers to increase the amount of gratitude expressed and experienced daily in your life. Consider this to be a three-week curriculum on how to be more thankful every day. Go about it with a sense of fun and adventure the purpose of which is to discover if you really do feel differently upon completion of the experiment.

Week One: A Week of Thank You Notes

Give yourself a whole week to enjoy this practice. You'll need at least seven thank you cards, envelopes and stamps, and a notebook. The notebook can be used to keep track of everything anyone does for you or gives to you. Then, once a day each day this week, make a commitment to write at least one thank you note. Make it short and simple. Don't get bogged down by perfectionism or concerns about producing just the right tone, etc. Don't do it via email. Don't send a text message. Send a handwritten short note or card with a simple expression of gratitude. The results of this week's practice should be delightful and amazing to you and your targets.

Week Two: A Week of Accepting

To be more thankful every day, spend one week practicing being gracious when you receive something. In the past, when someone paid me a compliment, I would downplay it and explain it away. I learned that I could easily be more thankful every day simply by saying thank you when a compliment or gift or act of kindness came my way. I had a hidden belief that my 'thank you' wasn't enough. Now I realize that all I need to do, really, is to let someone know that I appreciate what they have done by a simple statement. Thank you. Try for one week to be mindful of how you respond to others. Practice being willing to receive what comes your way. This week's assignment is a little tougher because you may feel uncertain about how to respond to a gift or compliment, or concerned about the intention of the giver, or drawn to adequately reciprocate. Try to put all of this out of your mind for just seven days so that you can focus on accepting graciously and thanking simply. It's only seven days.

Week Three: Look for Opportunities

Week three of your daily thankfulness practice is the most enjoyable. It is something you can do as a meditative practice at the same time of the day, for example last thing in the evening before bed. Or you can carry a notebook around with you in a pocket and make a game of it. The idea is to look for small things around you to be grateful for. The idea is to begin to notice the things in life that are easily taken for granted. When I do this practice, I start with the physical objects closest to me. I write on the top of the page "I am grateful for..." and then start listing the things: my clothing, the chair I'm sitting on, and so. The next day I start all over with a new list on a new page and to my surprise, there are infinite layers of objects in my world that I can acknowledge.



  

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What's On My Iphone - Productivity, Creativity, Education, I'm an Apaholic

Urgh, I read a blog by a man who called himself an Apaholic.  I examined the symptoms of his condition and it appears I suffer from the same affliction.  

So here it is, a quick look at everything that's on my iPhone.  (I'm not yet willing to discuss my iPad, oh the shame.)

By the way, if there is something in this list you want me to review, just leave a comment and I'll do so.

Social Folder

BlogPress
Posterous
LiveJournal
eBuddy

Facebook
WordPre3ss
Twitter
Y! Messenger

TweetDeck
Skype 

foursquare

Reference Folder

iTranslate

Translator

LiveTracking

Dictionary

Google

Google Earth

Ruler

KBB.com

Locution

Aroma

pUniverse

Louvre

Worlfram

TED

White House

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Have you looked at Blogger lately? Hints of the future. Exciting.

I love blogger and I'm very excited about this video and the new dashboard, content discovery, and the hints of more to come.  "And that's only what we're allowed to talk about."   Grrrrr.
I also enjoyed the reminder to use the real time stats more.  I knew they were there but haven't been enjoying them.  I am a Blogger fan and if you need help setting up your Blogger Blog, write to me and I'll help.  It's my hobby!

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What's on my iPhone: Productivity helper. Converter Application

I use this one a lot when I'm traveling.  It convert everything I need to units I understand.  Currency is updated to live rates if you have access to the internet, I love that.  Nice big display and the displayed ads that come with this application aren't bothersome like in some free apps.  Or you can get the paid version with no ads for under a dollar at the iTunes store. 


Converter is made by Globe Family which also provides a travel tip app as well as an

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What's on my iPhone: Toodledo Productivity App

It's true, I love using my iPhone for creativity, photography and staying on top of my social media accounts to keep me up to date with what is going on in my community, and....and I actually really truly do use it also for legitimate business related productivity.  I want to report this so that when the next iPhone comes out (iPhone 5 should be called something else don't you think?) I'll feel justified in buying it.  

So here's a real helper of an app, Toodledo, available also as a desktop application on the web.  It is a task list manager which is easy to look at and easy to use.  I like that I can add notes

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What's on my iPhone? Usketch Photography App - Shoot. Sketch. Share

It's been a while since I wrote about the goodies on my iPhone.  I've been pouting about the new iPad and hoping the tooth fairy will bring me one.  I've also been relentlessly downloading and trying out fascinating and sometimes completely useless photography apps, to the point where I was unceremoniously dumped from five Words With Friends games for being tardy with my moves.  Jeez.

I've also been helping to raise funds for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief fund.  Using my iPhone to keep donations posted on Facebook.

Now for what's on my Iphone:  uSketch

uSketch is a great tool for creating sketches from your photos.  Within a simple interface, uSketch allows you to take a photo, select the sketch you like and share it right away via Twitter, Facebook, Flickr or email.  The app has it's own facebook page where users share their sketches.  Grin. Here are a few sketch effects applied to a photo for examples of what the app does:

The app is made by SoftVision which on its site says it "is a leading offshore software development company in Romania with offices in San Jose, CA. We are dedicated to delivering best-value software development services and solutions to the US and European markets since 1998. As a software development practice specializing in the latest Internet and Intranet technologies, our goal is to deliver practical solutions that provide real long term value to our clients."

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Moving Stories from people in japan

http://www.facebook.com/notes/yuka-saionji/moving-stories-from-people-in-japan/10150435737595405

by Yuka Saionji on Sunday, March 13, 2011 at 6:28am

 

Moving stories of the people from Japan. I translated some from @prayforjapan, some are from TV news I am hearing. There is so much love and hope and beautiful stories even in such devastated times.

A high school boy was saved because he climbed up on top of the roof of a department store during the flood. The flood came so suddenly, that he saw people just below him.. trying to climb up the roof … being taken by the flood. But he knew that he had to leave something that showed that he and these others were alive… so he kept filming that situation. He still cant reach his parents but he says, its no body’s fault. There is no one to blame. So I know we have to stay strong and be positive. That is the mission of those who are alive.

I saw a little boy thanking the station staff saying “thank you so much for trying hard to run the train last night” the staff had tears in his eyes, and I was crying…

In the super market where all the things fell, people were picking up things so neatly together, and then quietly stand in line to buy food. I was glad to be a Japanese.

A foreign friend told me, they were shocked to see a looong queu form so neatly behind one public phone.

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Yuma Saionji: Vision for Japan

Beloved Colleagues,

Yuka Saionji is a young, darling, conscious and precious woman in Tokyo who is a member of the Evolutionary Leaders Group. Her family, particularly her grandfather, established the Goi Peace foundation that created the peace poles that so many of our centers/churches have. I just received her message below, with a wonderful vision for Japan that we can join in with her. We know how powerful combined vision and intention are!

In Love and Peace,

Dr. Kathy Hearn
Community Spiritual Leader


From: Yuka Saionji

Dearest EL members,

Thank you all... so much, for the continuos loving support and messages. It means so much to us!!! Everyday when I listen to the news, I couldnt stop crying.. and all I can feel is hurt and not knowing what we can do... its so easy to be trapped and caught in this information/situation. Watching the devastating scene over and over again, creating fear and more threat/negative info towards the future.

And my parents and I started talking, that we NEED a positive information to be put to the people. They are scared, worried and confused about their future. Yes, the whole town vanished. But then, it means we can create a new beautiful town from scratch!! .... right? We need a vision, where people can be excited about, to want to work towards, to see the bright possibility that we can all create. We don’t want to re-build the same exact town we had before. We want something better, something more beautiful, sustainable... a model to all the other world !!

So Goi Peace Foundation decided to create that vision.. that blue print, that future that we can all together create!!! GPF focuses on 4S’s- Science, Spirituality, System and Sustainability. We can now from scratch, create a city, a town that represents the new way of living. A town where all 4S collaborate and supply each other..

And we want to ask all our networks and friends, who would support us together, to create a sustainable loving future of Japan. We will work with architects, designers, professors from different field, artists,

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Varanasi: The Waters of Gangaji

A friend recently read an article in Newsweek about sacred places, and Varanasi was one of them. The article reports that the river Ganges (Gangaji) flows from the Himalayas, where it is clean and clear, and by the time it flows through Varanasi it is polluted with industrial waste, human feces (1.5 million
times the healthy rate for consumption), cremated remains, as well as uncremated bodies of infants, animals and everything else. And people swim in it. And drink it.

It's true. I saw it. People swim in the river, and drink the water, and brush their hair and teeth in it. And they do all this right next to cremation grounds and not too far away from the sewage outlets.

There are a host of problems. First: the river is considered to be sacred and cannot ever become impure. Second: what else should they do? There is no infrastructure to replace the function of the river right now. Next: religious  thought about the river makes it impossible to stop people being "dunked" in it. It is scripturally mandated I understand. And on it goes.

The banks are brown and eroded and the shores switch between scummy and  litter-strewn. People are getting in it all along the steps that line the city.  Busyness tapers off toward the ashram where I am staying. The banks are an  unexpected shout of green. The guru is developing environmental

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Denomination Bucks Trend, Reunites After 57 Years

Golden, CO…In an era when religious denominations are splitting into smaller and smaller sects, one just reunited after being split since 1954.  Science of Mind®, also known as Religious Science, founded in the 1920s by philosopher Ernest Holmes, functioned as two competing organizations for more than 50 years.  This week, delegates at their joint annual conference in San Diego approved reunification, called “integration,” with 98% of the vote.

In preparation for their integration, the two organizations, originally called Religious Science International and United Church of Religious Science, changed their names to International Centers for Spiritual Living and United Centers for Spiritual Living, respectively.  Now that the merger is official, the new organization will be known simply as Centers for Spiritual Living.

            “We are a philosophy that teaches unity, so it is time for us to walk our talk,” says Rev. Dr. Kathy Hearn, Community Spiritual Leader for United Centers for Spiritual Living.  “Our founder, Ernest Holmes, always believed the movement would come back together at some point, and the time is now.”

            “The time has finally come for our organizations to come back together,” echoes Rev. Dr.

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Book Review: Alastair Reynolds, Terminal World

One of my all-time favorite science fiction writers is Welsh author Alastair Reynolds.  I was glued to the screen of my iPad running Kindle software reading his 2010 novel Terminal World set in the distant future when I came across, as I frequently do with his writing, a paragraph that just stayed with me and wouldn't let me the page turn:

“He wanted desperately to act, but he knew it was senseless; that Meroka was right.  How ludicrous he must seem to her now, he thought: fresh from the city, stung with bruising indignation at the inhumanity he had only now begun to take notice of.  But it had been out there all along, not just for years or decades but for millennia.  A grinding toll of cruelty and injustice, going on, ceaselessly, for every waking moment of his life.”

That last sentence, “a grinding toll of cruelty and injustice, going on, ceaselessly, for every waking moment of his life,” is the type of writing I love from Mr. Reynolds.  The way he expresses himself is as captivating as the exotic, complex and colorful stories he tells.  Terminal World is not as complex, not as technically detailed and imaginative as other books by Reynolds, but when I was done with it, I wished that there would be a sequel soon.  And I love it when a book does that for me.

I fell in love with Mr. Reynolds's writing through the novels Revelation Space (2000), Chasm City (2001), Redemption Ark (2002) and Absolution Gap (2003).  On a whim I looked up Mr. Reynolds's online and found his email address in the company for which he worked at the time.  I hate to admit that I wrote him a piece of fan email at his office.  Geez.  I instantly regretted pressing send and thought my communication was destined to be filed under "weird."  And yet, he wrote back, swiftly, politely and appreciatively, cementing my fan loyalty.

Mr. Reynolds writing is the kind of read that makes me want to go slowly while I’m reading, to take in every beautifully shaped phrase.  Yet at the same time I wrestle with the desire to lurch ahead and keep up with the break neck pace of the thrilling story lines.  And about his words, he has some good words, really good words.  And he uses them in the right places making for an interesting, engaging and stimulating read.

Terminal World is the story of a pathologist who is working in the city morgue of the last human city.  After a nearly-dead being (who resembles a winged angel and lives in a part of the elevated city out of bounds to regular people) drops onto his dissecting table, his life changes and he embarks on a mission to help and save the life of his surprise visitor.  On the run, together they venture into a wild and untamed land with surprise upon surprise.

Wow.

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Parable of the Twins

Once upon a time, twin boys were conceived in the same womb.  Weeks passed, and the twins developed.  As their  awareness grew, they laughed for joy:  “Isn’t it great that we were conceived?  Isn’t it great to be alive?”
 Together, the twins explored their world.  When they found their mother’s cord that gave them life, they sang for joy:  “How great is our mother’s love that she shares her own life with us!”

As weeks stretched into months, the twins noticed how much each was changing.  “What does it mean?” asked the one.  “It means that our stay in this world is drawing to an end,” said the other.  “But I don’t want to go,” said the other one.  “I want to stay here always.”  “We have no choice,” said the one. “Maybe there is life after birth!”


"But how can there be?” responded the one.  “We will shed our life cord, and how is life possible without it?”  Besides, we have seen evidence that others were here before us, and none of them have returned to tell us that there is life after birth.  No – this is the end.”

And so the one fell into a deep despair saying:  “If conception ends in birth, what is the purpose of life in the womb?  It is meaningless!  Maybe there is no mother – after all?”

“But there has to be,” protested the other.  “How else did we get here?  How do we remain alive?”

“Have you ever seen our mother?” said the one.  “Maybe she lies only in our mind.  Maybe we made her up, because the idea made us feel good.”


And so the last of days in the womb were filled with deep questioning and fear.  Finally, the moment of birth arrived.

“When the twins had passed from their world, they opened up their eyes.  They cried for what they saw exceeded their fondest dreams.

Author Unknown

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Dr. Kathy Hearn's Message Post Integration

Hello Friends and Colleagues,

          I am back home in San Diego after a most wonderful and life-changing week at the Integration Conference.  I just want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for this beautiful evolution in the life of Religious Science, whether you, at any time…

-      thought integration between ICSL and UCSL was a good idea, or

-      held the coming together of our two organizations in your heart, or

-      prayed for this result, or

-      said affirmative words out loud about it, or

-      served on a committee regarding integration, or

-      attended regional meetings and/or teleconferences, or

-      served on module teams, or

-      attended the Integration Conference, or

-      served at the Integration Conference, or

-      did anything else or any combination of the above, or

-      you questioned the whole thing, or

-      you still question the whole thing.

We have each had our place, our role, and our contribution to this new beginning.  Thank you!

The next year will be another powerful and important one. The three documents that were so overwhelmingly passed describe the “What”  of our new organization.  Now we work on the

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Explaining the Internet Back Then

All Things Internet from back then.  You can even ....  More fun than the information are the sets, hair styles and clothing.  Explaining the internet back then wasn't any easier than it is now, apparently.  In this collection of early clips about the internet comes from news stories and other sources and actually isn't that bad.  Some of it has got to make you laugh out loud.  This video was uploaded by urlesque to Youtube.

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Ballots and Moments

Dr. Michelle Medrano signs off on the ballots' final count.




The moment of 'yes' to integration.




Photos by Michelle Medrano
Center for Spiritual Living,Seattle
Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center

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Evening Banquet

On Thursday Evening the Integration Conference of the Centers for Spiritual Living closed with a banquet at which Jake Matthews, Dr. David Ault and I spoke.  Here are some of the celebrating faces at the dinner.

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Joint Convocations 2012

Today Is the last full day of the conference. It featured more historic events: joint meetings of the clergy, musicians, laity, prayer practitioners and ministerial students.

Michael Gott co-wrote a song with Melissa Phillippe that was sung at the ministers meeting where teary eyed open hearted ministers acknowledged years of service.

Musicians and lay people met separately and I didn't get a chance to hear more than a few sentences in each meeting before heading to the Holmes Institute. The teen program room was empty and the young adults were nowhere to be seen. Hmmm.

Panels of ministers answered questions from students and all the while there was a yacht race on the bay.

By the way it's Liessa Leggit's birthday.

This afternoon Revs Waterhouse spoke about building spiritual community through sacred service, Grace Lovejoy spoke about visioning and Linda Watson spoke about the renaissance and regenesis of our communities. There was a conversation with Rev. Deborah Johnson about diversity and Rev. Louisa Gravelle talked about Interfaith Councils.

Tonight Global Youth Measenger Jake Matthews will speak, and so will Dr. David Ault and I.

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Karl Anthony: Mantra - United Centers Integration Conference 2011

Karl Anthony performed his Mantra program with laser light show culminating in a song written especially for the conference. The evening was a medley of individual mantras which the audience was fully engaged in. Wow!



After Mantra, the newly fired vessel formed from the clay of the two previous organizations was brought forward and filled with oil.



The oils was distributed into individual bowls and given to prayer practitioners who anointed members of the audience.

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Day Trip to La Jolla Cove, Southern California

Free time from the conference. A trip to La Jolla Cove and San Diego. In the background the mountains are capped in snow.

Sea Lions laze on the beach, so much so I hear there is a debate about it among locals.

Cold water 56 degrees.

La Jolla Cove

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San Diego Integration Conference

The videos are online on my YouTube account. Will post them here when I have access to wifi.

An abundance of young people makes for a fresh and exciting atmosphere

And the rest of us just as fresh and exciting.

Many people are leaving now that the vote is done. But the conference continues and there is plenty work to be done.

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