Nation of Earth

People seem to be curious about the domain name.  To clear that up - fatedtoend.com is a personal site, not an organization.  I registered the domain as the continuation of the joke I made when I first created a blog at Google's Blogger service, because I couldn't think of a good name.  Fated to End Sometime seemed appropriate, because I assumed (correctly) that I would not continue to have a blog at Blogger forever.  I have since determined that I do not like the idea of Google mining my personal data and retaining all of my submitted content indefinitely.  The current Fated to End Sometime is a CMS (content management system) website hosted on my own personal server in my own home.

I offered Nation of Earth to fil because it can easily take advantage of the same CMS core as my site, which has a number of features and is modular (this makes it easy to add new features).  He had mentioned off-hand in his newsletter how it would be nice to have a forum and easier for everyone to contribute as they wish - and that he rather liked Fated to End Sometime and would like to have a similar site.  So I offered him one.  

If the domain name is an issue, it would be a relatively simple matter to register a new domain name for this site.  However, it appears that nationofearth.com, nationearth.com and earthnation.com have been registered by a third party and are being used as advertising portals, and these domains are typically sold to the highest bidder for large sums of money.  Alternatively, we could use one of the free domain names offered by my registrar (No-Ip.com) such as earthnation.servehttp.com - if you would prefer something along those lines please say so.

A little about me - obviously I'm a bit of a computer nerd and currently manage a small computer shop in the middle of nowhere - also known as Lima, Ohio.  I was formerly a tour guide for the Haunted History Tours of New Orleans, and attended Syracuse University for four years with a Major in Fine Arts - focus in Metalsmithing.  I am self-trained in computer repair and have been a computer technician for ten years.  I am familiar with all hardware and compatibility requirements of processors and motherboards starting with the 486 CPU.  I am fluent in all Windows systems starting with Windows 95, I am familiar with Windows 3.11 and DOS and Mac OS releases before OSX.  I am fluent in Ubuntu LINUX and can muddle around fairly easily in most other LINUX distributions and UNIX.  I am intuitive with all computer operating systems and with a little help I can typically figure just about any computer software out well enough to make it do what I want without training.  I am also very good at troubleshooting, diagnostics, and researching known issues to find resolutions.

I am also self-trained in a certain level of metaphysics - and to be blunt that is about all I am willing to share with complete strangers on that subject. 

If I had to pick a religious denomination I would choose Jedi - and not just as a joke (even though Jedi became an actual religion in Australia not too long ago).  As far as I am concerned the values and principles held sacred by the Jedi in the Star Wars films are the same values and principles that I hold sacred.  I do not, however, own a lightsaber or have telekinetic abilities.  I was baptised, raised and confirmed Roman Catholic before choosing to separate myself from those who call themselves Catholic.  I like the teachings of Christ and also the teachings of most other world religions, but in most cases I dislike their followers.

I am happily married, a father of three, and soon to be a father of four.  I am 33 years old until the 24th of this month.  I am a "glass half empty" kind of guy (perhaps that has something to do with the fatedtoend.com domain), but I consider myself incredibly lucky to have survived being in New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina hit and the aftermath with my family relatively unscathed.  I am regularly disappointed by humanity at large.  I am a bit on the arrogant side, sometimes to a fault, and I have a tendency to get very angry with those who are intentionally rude.  I do not suffer fools gladly.  But I do try to do the right thing and help people out as much as I can, and give people second and third chances.

That's more about me than I've ever shared on any other forum. Who's next?

As to religious affiliation(s), I myself was lucky enough not to be raised with any.  After my first church service (in extremely rural Burning Springs, WV) I asked Mom something like, "How can all those people believe that stuff?"  I was 4.  This is a very early memory, but I'm pretty sure Mom cried.  To her credit, she didn't try to take me to church after that.

At 7 I decided I was an athiest, but then somewhere around 9 or 10 I learned the word 'agnostic' and realized I really didn't know what was going on 'out there'.

Experimented with a bit of 'witchcraft' in my teens...

Later I learned about Zen, and it seemed to fit.  More recently I began to have a clue about spiritual matters, and leaned toward the gestaldt theory -- which has now been confirmed, for me, with this whole Sovereign Integral business.  Long before reading that interview, I 'knew' that we are all co-creators of our multiverse.

We had a black cat, best cat ever, that we got from the Humane Society as a kitten.  I named her Remedy, since people invariably felt better while handling her.  She became my 'familiar'...  Her corporeal end was caused by ethylene glycol (antifreeze -- apparently cats and dogs can't resist it).  The vet couldn't save her, but told me she struggled for life like he hadn't seen before.  Just last night, I thought of her and she was here.  As usual, the feeling started in my left shoulder (I once healed a friend's injury in his left shoulder, and used to carry some pain there myself afterward, and Remedy knew that somehow, and always wanted to help).  The feeling grew to encompass my whole body.  Remedy's still there, to be called upon, and is indeed here with me as I type this.  Again, best cat ever...

I was disillusioned early on, probably before birth, as my dad glimpsed that sociology had yet to become a science though peer pressure kept him form elaborating much on the subject.  I think maybe an equation that flashed into my mind in June of 1976 may be what Pierre Teilhard de Chardin referred to as the Omega point.  It is of a network that would allow for small groupings and dependence on consensus decisions to coordinate large populations of people, or any thinking beings for that matter, in real time.  Has to happen in real time cause conditions change and a new "sampling," "polling" or "survey" would need to occur regularly and quickly if there is any hope of having a viable governing system.  You can see some rather old exposition on the idea at my current web site http://www.mindsing.org .  Oh, I had a home page that roughly mirrors that Pacbell decided to keep up years ago that is still out there you can find if you search on my name.  BTW, think I do have a scientific cosmological perspective that embraces spiritual and moral understanding that does not contradict science.  Haven't really put that on the web much yet.

Wade reveals a lot of himself through his website.  Here is just one page of many that will help you to get to know him better:  http://www.ahealedplanet.net/spirit.htm

Reading this one got me thinking that whomever wrote those things about the 'sovereign integral', mentioned elsewhere on this site, got his information from Wade Frazier.  Wow.

After reading Paths of Radicalization by Wade Frazier, I've decided to reveal more of my not-terribly-interesting life here.

Unlike Wade and his associates, I've been a heretic all my life (choosing for myself what to believe), as well as a generalist.  I really don't have any one specialty.  I absorb information, have a great thirst for it, but am terribly undisciplined...

In elementary school I always got straight A's except for C's in writing -- but by 'writing' they meant penmanship or the pencil-driven equivalent.  My cursive was always bad, and later when I managed to make it look nicer it was almost illegible.

My IQ was tested for the first time in 2nd grade, and I entered the gifted program in 3rd.  In the 6th I was given another IQ test -- which only went up to 140.  I was listed as "140+", and not tested again.

Somewhere in 2nd or 3rd I briefly became a Cub Scout, but didn't fit in.  Plus, money became an issue...

7th grade (junior high) was where things started to turn.  Managed all A's except a persistent B in science.  Had a bit of a problem with lab reports, after breezing through elementary school wihout having to do any real work.

One of those A's was in Art, despite the fact that I was taking an 8th grade art class.  Being in gifted as well as band caused a scheduling issue that not only stuck me in an art class with older kids but deprived me of Shop and Mechanical Drawing, courses which may very well have helped me find a direction in life.

I've come to suspect that the gifted program may actually be designed, in some part, to derail the academic careers of free-thinking students.  If it wasn't, it at least had that effect on me.  As an artist/artisan, amateur designer, I can only imagine the effect those hands-on courses that I was deprived of might have had on me -- but if I had to guess, they may have made me realize that my path should lead to becoming an automotive designer (as a profession instead of a hobby).

Another thing that happened in the 7th grade was the 'Algebra Prognosis Test', on which I scored highest in my class -- and this brings us to my 8th grade experiences.  I was pressured into taking algebra in the 8th grade, after someone noticed I hadn't opted for it.  I don't like math, but they made their case and I had no idea of future consequences.

Thanks to an excellent teacher, I managed a B in algebra that year.

Let's backtrack a bit:  In 7th grade I became interested in Student Council, but wasn't motivated enough to seek a particular position.  Gained the title of 'Delegate at Large' for 8th grade and attended a Student Council Workshop at West Virginia Wesleyan over the summer.  Being away from home on my own for the first time, if only for a week, had its effects.  It was there that I began to consciously practice my own brand of existentialism...

Scheduled for band again (played alto sax, swear not even the best could make that beginner Bundy sound good), but our extremely talented director had moved on, and it wasn't anywhere near the same.  Dropped band.  Had 8th grade art all over again, was assigned to a desk all by myself where I could draw anything I wanted.  At the end of every 6 weeks, Mr. Robinson would write an A+ on the last page of my sketchbook.  It was nice to have the freedom, and my art did progress, but I would've been better off taking shop and mechanical drawing with 7th graders.  Right?

In 9th grade I took choir, joined the barbershop chorus, would've been in the quartet if another young bass hadn't had 'seniority'.  Filled in when his voice gave out.  Gave a tenor solo in the Xmas program on a song that seriously tested the basses, lowest notes we had to do all year.  I was the only one who could really hit those low notes, so I had to belt them out -- before and after projecting in tenor for the solo.

After algebra comes geometry, and in 9th grade this counted for the first of the 2 math credits I needed to graduate.  I got a C.  MIght have gotten better, but the teacher was more interested in Drama and was not great at teaching math.

I tend to think I would've been more interested in geometry had I been in Mechanical Drawing in 7th...  To this day, geometry is the most advanced form of mathematics I have use for.

Look, I know I'm going on forever about this, but these were formative years...

So here I am as a sophomore in high school.  Have auditioned for and scheduled choir, but found it to be less than what I had experienced in junior high, so traded it out for music theory and keyboard.  Got a C the first 6 weeks in science, followed by 4 F's, because Mr. Scarr (who was also the wrestling coach) was a complete bastard.  He seemed to take joy in picking on me in class, challenging me to defend my slackerly attitude.  The only way I could pass his course was to get an A in the final 6 weeks, WHICH I DID, much to his consternation.

During that time I managed (and it's not easy) to get my first 0.0 GPA, out of protest.

Meanwhile I had my first of 3 Al/Trig courses.  Algebra I could handle, but trigonometry just bounced off my skull.  I knew I would never, ever need to be able to remember the countless formulae, and it threatened to take up way too much time and mental effort.

For me math's a bit like chess.  I know I could be very good at chess if I applied myself to it, but it doesn't appeal to me -- and the effort would take too much time away from the things I enjoy.

Yes, I had Al/Trig 3 years in a row.  I was forced into it because I needed a 2nd HS math credit to graduate, and algebra taken in 8th grade didn't count, and I wasn't allowed to take something like Consumer Math, which might have actually helped me to balance my checkbook later on...

The realization that I was expected to complete Al/Trig, while so many others were allowed to get by with 'lower' math, was what ruined my high school 'career'.  It was unjust.  It was bullshit, and it's the reason I have a GED instead of a 'real' high school diploma.

Forget what should've been my junior and senior years -- it's all a blur, where I explored the depths of 'slack' beyond what most of you can imagine.  In the summer of 1985, after my girlfriend (who said I was smarter than she was) graduated as Valedictorian, I got my GED -- but wasn't done with high school just yet.

My parents were divorced, and Dad (whom I'll talk about later) was on disability -- so since I was 18, Mom couldn't collect the $200 a month from Social Security unless I was still a student.  Not wanting to face the kids I should've left behind at Parkersburg South, I found a way to be admitted to Parkersburg High -- by pretending that I REALLY wanted to take Latin, which was not offered at South.  They gave me Algebra 2 there...

Meanwhile I took the ACT and got admitted to WVU, where my girlfriend had gone to study pharmacology.  My time at PHS was spent largely playing the game, but I actually am glad to have learned a bit of Latin.

December 1985, dropped out of high school.  January 1986, began college.

I won't try to tell you that Heather wasn't my main reason for being there.  It was first love combined with first sexual partner combined with the AIDS scare, and I had it in my mind we'd be together forever.  I was an Art major, then switched to 'General Studies', had no ambition or drive, didn't know what I was going to do.

She broke up with me, way too gently, saying "Maybe we should just be friends for a while."  I took that way too literally, hanging out with her and wondering when we'd get back to being more than friends, meanwhile totally losing interest in college and dropping out.

Some of my courses were great, others useless.  It was nice to have the experience of being a college student, even if some aspects of that status were never explored.

Got back home and was contacted by a recruiter I'd met with in high school as a favour to an ROTC kid who was promised a promotion for getting a certain number of other kids to agree to interviews.  I was 20 and already a college dropout, blinded by a love that was lost, had no idea what I was going to do next, and dammit I decided to go ahead and join the Army.

This was 1987, and I was able to sign up for only 2 years.  Lucky?

In my training as a generator mechanic I was told that no one understands how electricity works.  Thought about trying to dispute that, but saw there was no use.  Looking back, my time in the military was very educational.  I witnessed government waste first-hand, and began to grok the cluelessness of the general population.

Wanted to have a try at college again after that, studying Industrial Design at the University of Cincinnati, but was denied because of a policy of not admitting GED recipients.

Went to an interview with the Dean of ID at UC (quite a drive in that Pinto) shortly after having been dumped on my 24th birthday -- stupid Mormon fiancee, latching onto a friend of mine with better career prospects...

There are many things in life which teach us more valuable lessons than 'school' can offer.  Thomas Paine said (something like) "Any man who is worth his salt has had a hand in his own education."

When I reached 40, I could see why people have said that life begins there.

Married and a father before 26, countless lessons learned in the interim...

Now my kids are all teenagers.  I continue to be a sponge for information, continue to be open to having my worldview altered.  I've kept my mind open, and have had some shit thrown in there, but have recovered and developed a better filter.

For those who are open to it, education does not end.  We can all learn, and learn to change, if we are willing.

Outwardly, my life may seem uninteresting -- but it's been a long, strange trip.

One thing I've learned is that I'm good at getting people together.  Watch this site as new members join.

My next post on this thread will be about my father -- and I may throw in something about my involvement with Sterling Allan's Presidential bid...

namaste

Wow. So much personal stuff shared here...I don"t quite know where to begin.....

I suppose I will start with my creative side......

I was raised with 2 brothers and later one sister here in Ohio. My Dad was one of those guys who could fix anything.....being the oldest I got sent to the hardware store alot, so now I  have a great love  of tools and well,um stuff.

My brothers and I and my Dad fixed up cars in our garage during our high school years. That was quite fun. We painted the cars in the yard, so we had multi-colored grass alot of the time, until we mowed, so the neighbors kinda hated us....not to mention the cars waiting to be fixed up to resell......(smile). Dad was always tinkering with car stuff...just recently I found plans for a '70's carburator that was supposed to allow the car to get about 70 miles per the gallon.....think my brother just tossed it...would have loved to have know how that worked...he did get it to work...sort of....

I was never raised being told I couldn't do something, so at a young age I became very curious about most stuff in life. I am a huge reader...that also started as a child. Reading has fueled my curiosity and peaked my interest in oh, so many things along the way.....

I suppose some might call me a reinassance woman, as I've done a variety of things, as most of you seem to have...that is interesting in itself. Most people simple don't seem to vary their life from one path... so it is nice to be in the company of  such electic people.

When people look at my work resume they always say...."Wow, you've done alot of stuff," and I have.....so? Hopefully, that makes me a more interesting person to know. It seems to intimidate some....I'm not sure why....

Somewhere along the way I seem to have sort-of fit into society without sacrificing my principals, curiosity or my intellect or creativity or  the love of beautiful things.

In later years of my life I have done theatrical costuming for a variety of theater venues, have taught many levels of different types of schooling, owned businesses, and have been a professional stained glass artist. Oh, and now I am a grad student...so on life flows. Next I see a return to some of my previous artistic interests, and who know what else to come??

Along with/ or perhaps the other side of me...is a very practical side. A critical thinker...a long range planner, and a very brass tacks lady. Somehow, the two sides don't seem to fight...they just work in tandem, somehow to make me. Hmm..gotta be the teacher part.

In Meyers-Briggs it seems I am an INFJ....hense the long range thinker part. I love to think of a concept and take it from concept to reality...so satisfying. I suppose that can apply to projects as well.

I love to write...but have not blogged.  I'd rather converse than blog....I too, somewhere have novels inside of me...sometime they will come,....... when they are ready.

I'm at a huge change point...AGAIN...in my life....this time it's a very, very good and positive one...for a change!

I suppose I have used at least 3 of my lives up, if we are talking cat....

I'm not going to go on  too much more...you will have to get to know me to learn some of the rest. Besides, I'd rather listen and learn about others, rather than talk about myself....

You will find me an interesting person to chat with and get to know....be warned, I do love to play devil's advocate at times! <wink> You will find me open-minded about most things.

That doesn't mean I don't have opinions...I do... and I have a good many things I love and am passionate about too....

(looking around for someone else.....) Who's next?

When I was in Grade 4 there was this great opportunity, a concert by a junior high band that played well beyond their years followed by a display of instruments and the chance to sign up for band in Grade 5.

It was the Seventies, and the band only played so well because of its director, one Felice Jorgenson.

They had played the Pink Panther theme, and I was impressed.  I chose saxophone -- but since I didn't know better, I landed on alto.  Tenor is where it's at, right?

So I got a used beginner Bundy alto sax, and played it in 5th and 6th and then 7th grade, and it never sounded very good, and all the parts I played were just parts.  It wasn't cool.

In Grade 7, though, at Edison Junior High, my bus got me to school very early -- and when I would go to the band room to drop off my instrument the stage band would be in rehearsal.  I had time to kill, and far beyond having nothing else to do it was my pleasure to hang out and listen.

It is difficult to put into words.  You would not believe how good this junior high school stage band was.  These were just kids, teenagers, and at least one still 12 when the year began.  It was all about the director, and what she was able to get out of them.  She was tough, demanded excellence -- which is what she got.

Years later I thought I would be in for a treat when I got to see and hear the Purdue University stage band, but they weren't as good.  No lie, the brass was sloppy...

Anyway, when I was 12 and 13 that 7th grade year, I got to not only witness countless practice sessions but actually travel with the Edison stage band, even though I wasn't a member.  It was pure jazz, in more ways than one.

Then 8th grade came along, and without warning Felice Jorgenson had been replaced.  She was the only band director I'd known, and I guess I hadn't had a clue how exceptional she was.  The new director was an huge disappointment, and I quit band...

...so that year I repeated 8th grade Art (having already had it in 7th grade due to scheduling conflicts with Band and the damned gifted program), where Mr. Robinson let me sit at a table by myself and draw whatever I wanted and invariably wrote an A+ on the most recent page of my sketchpad at the end of every grading period.  That year I also had a Music class, and that's where I discovered we had a choir director who was nearly as excellent as Mrs. Jorgenson had been.

You may have guessed already, or may have known this, but yeah, in my 'Freshman' year I was in choir, and barbershop chorus, and would've been in barbershop quartet more than just as a substitute if some other kid hadn't had 'tenure'.  I was even in honor choir...

...but then high school came along, and the director at Parkersburg South didn't have what Mr. Miller had -- so I begged out.  Took keyboard and music theory, and that was the end of my 'training'.

I look back and wonder how different it may have been if I'd chosen tenor sax, and had had a decent horn, and if Felice hadn't reached the end of her rope directing horrid elementary school and junior high concert bands.  Maybe the Phil Smith who played sax in Haircut 100 wouldn't have been the only minor celebrity saxophone player with that name...?  Well, at least I got to sing for a while...

Much later on I was in a band of sorts, but it got broken up.  Years after that I acquired an electric bass, but as with so many other things I have only a concept of how I'd like to make the best of it.  Yes, I've played live in front of small audiences, but more with a Kenyan box rattle and a dijiridoo than with my bass -- and all that was years ago.

Possessing as I do a great understanding and appreciation of music, understandably I hold contempt for certain groups and 'artists'.  There are plenty of people out there who manage somehow to glean careers out of complete crap, and I'm guessing this is because they can find an audience of the musically clueless who identify with what they play.  I consider myself qualified to judge music, am able to recognize artistic merit where it exists even if the music itself doesn't 'resonate' with me.  In other words I like what I like, but can respect music if it's good even if I don't personally 'dig' it -- and there is quite a bit that I despise.

There are entire genres that rub me the wrong way, but that's just art that doesn't appeal to me.

Can't escape it, have to specifically express my disdain for Coldplay.  It doesn't matter how well they play their instruments, or how well their songs are composed, or even what content they express in their lyrics.  Their name is quite apt, with the stupid droning coldness of their sound.  I can't stand to listen long enough to grasp whatever it is they may be singing about.  It is an anethema to anyone who is passionate about music -- technical, dry, droning...  Hell, I can't even listen long enough to give a decent review.

But, that's me.

By the way I also generally dislike poetry, so...