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Author: Stephen Pickering

  • Received a New Cloud Site Sub Account Customer

    I received a new Cloud Site Customer yesterday. A fellow named Josh Barker. He did a WordPress install for his wife’s site: http://www.dahliasfloral.com/

    It’s a really great looking site. I’m envious! But I really appreciate the business and the kind words he wrote me at the end of yesterday:

    “You are so quick- I really appreciate the responsiveness.  It was your responsiveness that enabled me to get my wife’s site up in a day!  You’re just as good, if not better than Rackspace’s support!

    http://www.dahliasfloral.com/

    Regards,
    Josh”

    Also, I learned something from Josh that I didn’t know about Cloud Sites. As he is an ASP.NET developer he was able to inform me that Rackspace Cloud Sites could be enabled to run ASP.NET or as the Tech from Rackspace put it, whom I chatted with, I guess it’s also known simply as .NET 4.0.

    I always knew that Cloud Sites could be enabled to run either Linux/PHP or Windows/.NET or actually have both technologies enabled on the same site, but I didn’t know that there was a special ‘flavor’ of .NET called ASP and that it could be enabled, upon special request, as a technology for your Rackspace Cloud Site.
    Cool too know. And great to learn something new. Thanks again, Josh.
    If you are interesting in purchasing a Cloud Site Sub-Account from me, here are my plans and pricing: http://stephenpickering.com/rackspace-cloud-sites/
  • Talking Heads: Quit Calling Ron Paul an Isolationist

    Just because he doesn’t want to bomb other countries. Just because you don’t want a ‘World’ government, a centralized control system that takes away the liberties of the individual, doesn’t make one “Isolationist.” He wants to be friends with other countries, trade with them, visit them, have them visit us, respect their sovereignty. That’s the opposite of “Isolationist”! That’s engaging the rest of the World in friendly, sincere way. And not wanting to be some kind of control freak of a country which in essence is no different from bigotry and Imperialism.

    “Calling Ron Paul an isolationist is like calling your neighbor a hermit because he doesn’t come on your property and break your windows” -Chris Lyspooner
  • Cosmic Consciousness Quotes Vol. 1

    “When Man make plans, God laughs.”

    “When the philosophy comes in, the art goes out.”

    “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” — Pablo Picasso

    “I want every person on the edge of saying no, say yes because you’re worth it.” — Chase Jarvis 

    “Do what you love. Get your mind off what pisses you off!” — Tim Brando

    “Find out what you are good at and do it on purpose.” — Dolly Parton

    “Your superpowers don’t work from the sidelines.” — Michael Neill

    “The insecure way is really the secure way.” — Joseph Campbell

    “The total number of minds in the universe is one. In fact, consciousness is a singularity phasing within all beings.” – Erwin Schrödinger

    “We are asleep. Our Life is a dream. But we wake up sometimes, just enough to know that we are dreaming.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein
    [Link to Deepak Chopra saying these lines on Facebook Video at about the 10:20 mark.]

    “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” – Søren Kierkegaard

    “I understood that our entire universe is contained in the mind and the spirit. We may choose not to find access to it, we may even deny its existence, but it is indeed there inside us, and there are chemicals that can analyze its availability.” – Dr. Alexander Shulgin, creator of MDMA or “Ecstasy.”

    “If you completely accept something, it changes. If you completely accept it, it shifts.” – Eckhart Tolle http://youtu.be/AO3wRY9lWSk

    “Resist nothing, and you will receive unconditional love.”

    “You are the one. You have all the answers.” – Taylor Marie channeling spirits during a Ayahuasca experience.

    “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust

    “It’s weird, huh? It’s like the minute you kinda give up control you just know what to do without doing anything.” – Aubrey Plaza’s Character from “The To-Do List” movie, exactly at the 45:05 mark.

    “When we heed the call of our deepest desires, we fulfill our true destinies.” – Deepak & Oprah

    “You are no more in your body than Beethoven is inside your radio.” – Deepak Chopra

    “Faith, consciousness, and awareness all exist beyond the thinking mind.” – Ram Dass

    “The Self is not in the realm of thought. The Self is in the gap between our thoughts. The cosmic psyche whispers to us softly in the gap between our thoughts.” – Deepak Chopra

    “Calmness is the criterion of spiritual progress. Plunge the purified mind into the Heart. Then the work is over.” – ~Ramana Maharshi

    “The worldly person is insane from the point of view of the spiritual person.” – Robert Thurman

    “Our practice is not to clear up the mystery. It is to make the mystery clear.” – Aitken Roshi

    “If the mind would let go of itself, stop grasping to and for itself, then the real you would come out, like a genie out of it’s ‘bottle,’ and a real adventure would begin.” – Stephen K. Pickering

    “Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man.” – Albert Eintein [link]

    “God writes spiritual Mysteries on our heart,
    where they wait silently for discovery.” ~ Rumi

    “Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.” ~ Joseph Campbell

    “The earth has disappeared beneath my feet,
    It fled from all my ecstasy,
    Now like a singing air creature
    I feel the Rose
    Keep opening.”
    ~ Hafiz

    “When you follow your bliss a kind of track opens up, that’s always been there, waiting for you. And the life that you should be living, is the one that you will be living.” – Joseph Campbell

    “You must let go of the life you have planned in order to accept the life that is waiting for you.” – Joseph Campbell

    “The fundamental message of Mythology and Fairytales is that the natural energy of the Cosmos, the Universe, the Ground of Being, can’t get through, is being blocked. You’re only job is to remove the obstruction. When that’s done the energies that come pouring up through you, will automatically carry you to a life of adventure, to your destiny. You don’t have to ‘do’ anything. You don’t have to ‘try.’ These energies will automatically carry you to where you need to be.”

    “If you could release the god that is in your soul, the one hiding in embryo, then anything would be possible.”

    “The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.” – Atisha (It just occurred to me that “Letting Go” is the essence of it all)

    “Knowledge has organizing power inherit in it. It is simply enough to know.” – Deepak Chopra

    “I always tell my students follow your bliss. When you have that feeling then stay with it and don’t let anyone throw you off.” -Joseph Campbell.

    (Check out this link to Bill Moyer’s website where all 6 episodes of “The Power of Myth” are available in audio by way of SoundCloud for free!)

    “Real happiness lies in that which never comes nor goes, but simply is.” – Ram Dass

    “I want to be alone with those who know secret things, or else, be alone.” – Ranier Marie Rilke

    “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” – W.B. Yeats

    “Uncovering your real desires can be terrifying. It can also set you spectacularly free.” ~Mark Epstein

    “There is no happiness until the mind is still. The cause of all sickness and sadness is the fluctuation of the mind.” – Russell Simmons

    “Existence is awareness without boundaries. Perception is awareness with boundaries #SpiritualSolutions’ – Deepak Chopra

    “The whole universe exists inside you. Ask all from yourself” -Rumi

    “What you seek, you already are.” – Deepak

    “Your awareness has its source in unity. Instead of seeking outside yourself, go to the source to realize who you are.” – Deepak

    “When the mind is still the whole universe surrenders” – Maharishi Yogi

    “Space and time are not objects of perception, but qualities of awareness” – Deepak chopra

    “All descriptions of matter are descriptions of modes of human perception within consciousness.” – Deepak Chopra

    “The Universe is a mirror of consciousness…” – Deepak

    “Be still and know…”

    “You cannot find it anywhere because it is inside you. Happiness is your natural state.”

    The “watcher” or the Atman (the god inside U) is everlasting & blissful when the noise is gone. All that’s left is the “God consciousness”

    The spirit or the consciousness that “watches” never dies. Step back and “be the watcher.”

    “Craving security is the cause of insecurity. Freedom is knowing that the only point of arrival is now.” – Deepak

    “Consciousness experiences, brain records the experience.”

    “Meditate on every sentient beings happiness for the new year. If it doesn’t work for them it will work for u!!”

    “When we transcend our own thoughts, we get in touch with the womb of creation.” – Deepak Chopra

    “The bad news is you’re falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is there’s no ground.”

    -Chogyam Trungpa via Ram Dass’ Facebook Page.

    “When you’re inspired by some great purpose some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds, you’re mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new and a great and a wonderful world, and then he said dormant forces, things that you thought were dead, dormant forces, faculties and talents, come alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be: you discover yourself to be God, and these dormant forces just follow after you and take care of it for you.” – Dr. Wayne Dyer quoting Patanjali in conversation with Eckhart Tolle

    Related Posts:

  • Some Blogging Advice: Continually Update Your Old Posts

    I haven’t given any ‘blogging’ advice in a long time. And whom and I to give it?

    But I have noticed one little thing that can help get your posts a little edge. Maybe it’s this increasingly ‘real-time’ World, or maybe they’ve always done it, but Google is so much constantly crawling, that when your content changes, even on an older post, the Google ‘bot’ almost immediately notices and comes running to check it out. So in this ‘timely’ World, it could get you a spot on the top or at least on the front page of results, for your particular topic. In other words, one gets the since that ‘timeliness’ is increasingly an ingredient in the secret ‘sauce’ of Page Rank.

    Also I’ve noticed another benefit: It sort of gives you a sense of continuum and wholeness to your ideas if you’re keeping them alive in this way. In other words, if you add to them when some new material arises, simultaneously your subsconscious goes to work, ‘effortlessly’ bringing you some new creativity and synthesizing your main ideas, perhaps by doing it’s own ‘crawling’ in the otherwise overlooked areas of your mind.

  • Will Democracy Kill the Iowa Caucuses?

    Do words and principles matter?

    I saw a headline on Drudge this morning entitled “Iowa Gov: Ignore Paul Win.” which links to a Politico article entitled “Will Ron Paul kill Caucuses?”
    So, does the Iowa governor decide who the nominee is? Or is this a democracy? The caption of the photo says, “GOP elites in Iowa are worried about the ramifications of a Ron Paul victory there. | AP Photo”
    What are they worried about? That democracy may prevail? The jist of the article is that a Ron Paul victory there would discredit Iowa as a whole, and especially as the “lead off” state in the Primaries.
    So let me get this straight: They’re worried about their status as being a lead off state, but what is the point of being a lead off state if you’re not allowed to have a choice of whom to vote?

    Would you rather be the lead off state in a totalitarian regime or the last state in a true democracy?

    Would you rather be the lead off state in a Propaganda machine, or the last state in a country that values real principles over sound bites?

    Is Ron Paul an ‘Isolationist’?

    Towards the end of the article, Politico makes the statement “Paul’s isolationist foreign policy views came to the fore at the Sioux City forum.”
    That really caught my ire. Because rather Democrat or Republican, the Establishment seems to label anyone who doesn’t want to use force or “bully” the rest of the World an “Isolationist.”
    Is that their definition of Isolationism: Not using force to coerce the rest of the World? Respecting other countries’ sovereignty, treating them as equals? Wanting to be friends and have free trade?
    That’s the opposite of isolationism. That’s having the rest of the World really respect you and your principles.

    In short, if Ron Paul, or anyone else, doesn’t win in a fair and free election, that’s fine with me. But if people don’t vote for who they want, and instead only vote for their leaders, whether in the media or political establishment, “ordain” or “nominate” then how is that a democracy? If someone says to themselves, “I’m not voting for him because they say he can’t win” how is that a democracy?

    Update: 12/27/11:  I saw this article today come through my Facebook feed:

    Ron Paul building a solid Michigan base

    Encouraging title and article, but also what caught my eye as it relates to this post is the first replier to the article said this to the author: “Ms. Schultz, please learn the difference between non-interventionist and isolationist; Ron Paul is the former. He’s the opposite of isolationist.”

    I was glad to see someone shared and understood my same view that I wrote above, i.e., not only is he not an ‘isolationist’ he’s the opposite! More likely to earn us goodwill around the World. Amazing what some principles can do.

    I replied to him:  “Exactly. The press seem to think not wanting to attack another country or otherwise manipulate them with money or threats to do our bidding is “isolationist.” Being friendly with other nations, which is what Paul wants, treating them respectfully, respecting their sovereignty, and otherwise ‘engaging’ them as equals and partners, instead of places that are somehow ‘beneath’ us is the opposite of ‘Isolationist’ and might actually garner some real respect. As well as being the moral thing to do.”