Put in a nutshell what I have been trying to learn in several months.
Check out Tim Denning 6 minute read article in Medium
“You Will Destroy Yourself Financially If You Save” by Tim Denning https://link.medium.com/6EOLdF4dz8
You are me
I don’t really want or need anyone to follow me.
As I have stated in my bio page I am already fulfilled when I can express my inner thoughts and emotions into words.
My only wish is that maybe while you are passing by, window shopping, this site can encourage and inspire you to
….start following yourself….
Stop underestimating and doubting yourself. You know a lot more than you realise. Deep down inside of you you already have the knowledge and tools to succeed.
Its stuff like your gut feeling, base instincts, common sense, seasonal cravings and yearnings etc.
Sometimes that one weak addiction your having issues with is your bodies way of informing you of a deeper inner issue or defiency that you are trying to cure and relieve in an unhealthy way. The list is endless.
I sometimes wonder what am I doing here, what am I talking about ? I feel as if I have very little authority to speak. I have no higher education therefore not possessing any degrees, psychology included. I also cannot present a portfolio of years of practical working experience in some of the fields I talk about.
My primary source of inspiration is based on my own personal experiences, the experiences of family and friends and an observation of the combined experiences of people in general.
And a continual thirst for more knowledge in recognition of my own ignorance. The more I learn the greater the realisation of how little I know.
This takes me off any imaginey throne of superiority. This puts me at your level. But this seeming disadvantage actually becomes a very powerful asset, an asset that I can claim to have decades of practical working experience in. I have a degree in being just an ordinary guy. (although some of my friends and family would question that ordinary part)
A degree or asset that says;
“Hey wait a minute!!”
“If he can do this, then so can I”
“If he knew this”
“then I must have known this as well”
I am you & you are me and maybe by sharing some of me you can find you ……
and move on to that next shop window or better still build your own.
From the seemingly purely selfish pursuit of wealth to the ultimate selfless act of giving.
Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels
One of the things that always impressed me about Robert Kiyosaki’s books, Cashflow Game and general philosophy was that while he promotes and teaches about gaining financial freedom and independance he also places great emphasis on giving back while you are travelling along that path to wealth.
Either by teaching what you learned or giving some of what you have earned.
Striving for riches and giving to charity always seemed like two opposite ends of a spectrum. People who seem to be selfishly preoccupied with gaining wealth as opposed to people who are selflessly sacrificing their lives for others.
But the fact is that some of the largest financial donors are those who became millionaires. They are not all mean, greedy and selfish.
I use this account to share entrepreneurial ideas and to possibly attract like minded people that can maybe inspire me. But Robert keeps reminding me never to forget those worse off than me.
I just finished reading the latest magazine from Doctors without borders. Their work has always amazed me in so many different ways and this article highlighted another aspect of their work. Not just carry out emergency operations in make stift field tents in war torn disease infected areas they also bring taboo subjects right into the open such as the continual plaag of rampant sexual violence and abuse. They not only create awareness of what is happening but also endeavour to tackle the stigma, shame and rejection that victims suffer in addition to being raped or sexually abused. The concerted therapy and group counseling that this organisation gives is helping families, local communities and governments come to terms with these horrific phenomenon that is simply not going away but they are helping their victims to heal, to be accepted back into their families instead of being cursed and rejected by them and encouraging victims to seek help as quickly as possible to at least minimise damage incurred.
One of the main reasons that motivated me to start supporting this organisation on a regular basis was their consistent refusal to be sponsored and financed by any government anywhere. Their primary source of income comes from voluntary contributions from the general public. This gives them complete control and freedom as to where and when they choose to give aid without any political or financial influence or manipulation.
So yes continue your journey to gaining financial freedom and independence but never forget to give back.
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/who-we-are/principles/independence
Text messaging – (expressing my Dutch expressive side)
Wanneer iemand zich verontschuldigt voor het niet onmiddellijk antwoorden van mijn text berichten.
Misschien ben ik een uitzondering maar ik houd mijn adem niet wanneer ik een text bericht stuurt naar iemand want ik vind juist het troef erin dat men kan een bericht lezen en antwoorden op het moment wat bij hen best past.
Als ik echt een onmiddellijk reactie of antwoord moet hebben van iemand dan ga ik gebruik maken van het oorspronkelijk hoofddoel van een cellphone……
hun gewoon bellen!!
Een korte blog bij Christopher
From the solo travellor to Soul Mate travel
http://A blog in response to a social media post from Tracy Mcmillan
……there is nothing to bring you into the present moment like travelling alone…
I have been travelling alone for several years now. At first it felt strange after living the full family life for over a quarter of a century. However I seemed to adapt to this new status very quickly and easily (maybe due to the fact that I am an only child having no brothers or sisters). I started fully enjoying the freedom of choice just as you mentioned without having to take anyone else into consideration accept myself. I did sometimes feel the depth of guilt living in this seeming height of selfishness.
But recently I am started to tire of this lifestyle and freedom. (The onset was probably the sudden death of my mother three years ago. The fact of not having anyone intimately close to me share and express my grief really highlighted how alone I truly was. I basically did not fully grieve in this lost)
I now yearn more than ever to not only to share magic moments with that soulmate again but also to experience the act of unselfish sacrifice for that person. To have to take that person into consideration and be willing to adjust and change my plans for her.
If its a choice with me doing my own selfish thing alone or to at least engaging in some form of compromise for the sake of being together then I now feel ready to take that latter path again.
However that path is not without danger.
Two failed marriages where I did concede somewhat to appease my partners wishes but where both initiated the termination of the relationship. This did teach me a powerful lesson but in addition I was never one for letting a woman fully boss me about or one that would consent to blunt demands. I have always had my limitations on just how far I was willing to go with a bottom line rule of
“agreeing to disagree”
and allowing her to do her thing without my involvement or with me having to experience the consequence of her choice or decision. That limit also has to do with not wanting to force anyone to do anything for me against their wishes. I only want to receive and experience what is given from the heart. I hate interaction based on social or cultural expectations.
I hold the act of mutual respect in very high esteem especially as regards how we speak and treat each other. I simply would block and probably stubbornly refuse to cooperate if I feel as if I am being spoken to like a child that is being scolded.
The best way to manipulate and control me is gently and subtle by simply allowing me to be a man and following me in my crazy ideas, plans and dreams (yes admittedly this person would have to have some form of mental insanity as well)
This however creates a totally opposite effect in me causing me to view and treat that person in such a way that I would want to take her into consideration in my undertakings.
If I observe and feel that she is not happy or comfortable with something then I am willing to adjust or change for her even if in some cases it would mean not being able to visit that one other travel destinations on my bucket list of ‘places you must see before you die’ 😃
My slogan being;
“if you are happy then I am happy”
I can honestly say I have experienced greater joy travelling to the local seaside resort with my family on a cool cloudy day, still wrapped in warm clothing and winter coat, trying to build sand castles, walking along the pier, eating fresh fish snacks and ice cream rather than sitting alone in a secret tropical Jamaican paradise bay with perfect blue skies and cool gentle winds, swimming in crystal clear waters, chilling on a quiet uncrowded beach while awaiting to be called to come to the outdoor restaurant area to eat my ordered freshly boiled lobster. http://www.halfmoonbeachjamaica.com/
Travelling alone – yes at times we do need to escape but being the social, love addicted, creatures we are, I still believe that….
‘The Ultimate Road Trip’ is with a Soul Mate that would have chosen the very same path.
Thank you for your sharing your journey and thoughts with us Tracy
The message I need to keep saying to myself
If I think about this whole Black Lives Matter issue in my own isolated situation I think another reason why I have not suffered so much from it is because of my built in self defence mechanism that conditions me not to expect anything from anyone including acceptance and approval. No one and nothing can hurt or break me because I have transformed myself from a human to a machine. When I walk into a shop I am already anticipating the shop assistants fear. When I have to work with new colleagues I am expecting a lack of trust or confidence in me and when the police stop me I have already assumed its because I am black.
But regularly the program in the machine gets interrupted when people including some who originally displayed initial prejudice towards me turn around and accept me and become colour blind (towards me at least). That shop assistant treats me with the same respect as any other client and is not looking at me suspiciously as a possible suspect, those new work colleagues look and view me as an experienced tradesperson and readily accept my advice and instructions and that police officer that stopped me checks my licence and insurance papers and says ‘Thank you Sir’ and allows me to continue my journey.
Because I am not expecting this it becomes like a pleasant surprise a bonus instead of what it should be the everyday norm.
Sometimes we become are own worst enemy with the preconceived, self destructive thoughts of how our world views us. Thoughts and attitudes that are sometimes introduced to us by our surroundings, education and mainstream media that focuses on the negative and neglects and ignores the positiveness of being black. Thoughts that we should be actively rejecting are allowed to settle, sprout and grow inside our minds.
In some cases we have already been judged and in others cases we have already convicted ourselves.
Black Lives Matter is not only a message to the whole world but it is also a message we need to continual say and repeat to ourselves.
Statues, victims and awareness.
I do not know what is the matter with me but I am viewing this whole removal of statues thing in a completely different light.
By removing these statues we are inadvertently deleting significant events and personages from our global history. Rulers and influential people that shaped the course of history to what it is and has become today both for good and bad.
Even if we choose to focus on the injustice, racism and evil that they caused, removing the monument will not remove that tragic history and its effects. By removing it, it’s like saying ‘it never happen’. Instead of increasing our awareness and knowledge of real history we end up contributing to even more ignorance.
If you were to take this to a global scale encompassing mankind’s complete known history what about the statues of the Roman Emperors and the monuments of Egyptian Pharaohs to name a few?
Should we not remove these monuments as well because their kingdoms were also based on inequality and slavery? But the very fact that we have reasonably updated and accurate historical records about these monuments changes our perspective, dimensions and viewpoint towards them. We do not feel that we are glorifying them or what they stood for by their continued existance. When we look at them we are increasing our knowledge and understanding of that time period as a part of our common worldwide human history.
What is one of the first things that comes to our mind when we look or think about these statues combined with the Roman Arenas and Egyptian Pyramids?
We see captive prisoners and Christians being fed to the lions in these arenas and envision slaves pulling and moving masses slabs of rock to build the pyramids while being whipped and beaten cruelly. The very existence of these statues and monuments helps us to remember and acknowledge the cruel history that took place back then and
….. keeps their victims alive in our hearts and minds.
Personally I feel that its ‘the government sponsored’ censorship of what is allowed to be taught in our schooling systems history lessons that should be pulled down immediately.
If you really want to show respect to the descendants of slavery and oppression then increase awareness instead of pulling down monuments.
Educate both the children of those that prospered from slavery and the descendants of slaves that suffered from it in uncensored history lessons but also in other school subjects dealing with economics and social injustice.
Change or add a new inscription to these existing monuments that tells the whole ugly truth about who they really are.
If you want to go a step further start erecting some new monuments alongside these existing ones in recognition of both the martyrs and survivors of those time periods.
Permanent landmarks that tell the whole complete unbiased story of where we all came from and where we must never return to.
Knowledge is the greatest enemy of fear, ignorance and racism.
Photo credits: https://skitterphoto.com/
:
“Be Aware of the Quiet Ones like Keanu Reeves — They Are the Ones That Actually Make You Think”
“Be Aware of the Quiet Ones like Keanu Reeves — They Are the Ones That Actually Make You Think” by Tim Denning https://link.medium.com/nphpoxvl36
A blog about the tense used in Ben Goertzel interview on London Real – Whats going to happen in the next 40 years?
A blog about a London Real interview with Ben Goertzel
‘What’s going to happen in the next 40 years?
(See link at end of blog.)
A very interesting interview where Ben endeavours to answer the above question based on his working knowledge and years of experience with AI technology. He basically states that ‘The Matrix’ is going to become a reality.
It still seemed a bit far fetched especially when he compared those who would choose not to be fused into the mainframe AI server would become as insignificant as squirrels foraging around in the city parks. But then it suddenly dawned on me that in another way ‘The Matrix’ has already been in existence for a number of years and we already have withdrawel symptoms when we occasionally choose to disconnect from it. It has become a necessity.
I would put it somewhere between four to six on the ‘What we need for survival’ scale being only preceded by toilet paper, oxygen, water, food, clothing and some form of shelter be it a cardboard box but definitely within mobile internet range or free public wifi. This last requirement should soon become obsolete…due to the ongoing worldwide implementation of 5g network.
…..5g network….The Matrix …..5g network ….The Matrix….????
I was also not sure if access to health care, a job and human interaction should precede or succeed the need for a ‘Matrix’ connection on that survival scale because its getting to the stage now where if we do not have some form of electronic identity that can be easily accessed and controlled online….we don’t really exist. The same goes for the job thing from applying through ‘The Matrix’ through to being employed and getting paid via that medium. Come to think of it our primary channel of human interaction and communication is through that self same ‘Matrix’ connection. Skype was one of the pioneers in using the internet as a cheaper form of human communicating via an internet connection in comparison to land and mobile telephone lines and wireless services. Eventually Skype got pushed into the background in the private consumer sector by the Messenger services of Hotmail, Facebook and Instagram. I think the major winner became Whatsapp with its exclusive mobile application and complete independence from any desktop computer operating system. The Lockdown has only served to increase our dependance on all these channels and now platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams are replacing Skype as the primary channel for conference calls, business meetings and employee employer information events. Even the sports, dance and leisure sectors are turning to ‘The Matrix’ to be able to resume some of their lost business activities, activities that previously did not need an internet connection to connect, train and motivate their students.
Another example of The Matrix@work is in the whole gaming industry. Add up the number of living hours, days, weeks and yes even years spent gaming online by a very significant segment of the human population. It’s not only the gaming in itself but it is also the ‘online experience’ that is already being elevated to the next level with the growing development and use of “Virtual Reality” technology. It is no longer about killing monsters or reliving World War One & Two in games like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Minecraft because games like Grand Theft auto brought the fantasy or historical gaming world into our present every day world of reality. So instead of going out to steal a few cars and having a shoot out you can now be ‘Michael De Santa’ in the comfort of your own home and live the life of one of the baddest criminals in the neighbourhood in The Matrix.
Gamers our already living in a parallel world where they have become part of a community that seems to be creating civilisations, building fortresses and defending their virtual empires from neighbouring opposing kingdoms. Cryptocurrency is nothing new to the gaming world because they have their own and use it to engage in virtual trading and business deals in and outside their gaming world. This is how some gamers make money in addition to professional gaming events, they exchanging their accumulated game currency for real dollar bills.
Gaming involves experiencing every conceivable human emotion from ecstatic joy and laughter to uncontrolled fits of anger and hatred. From romance and sexual arousal to being in complete awe at the incredible visual effects, colours and panoramic scenery to periods of deep dark depression when you not only failed to get to that next level after hundreds of hours of gaming but you also got demoted to a lower level. These emotions can be experienced individually or in group with fellow gamers but the the intensity of those feelings do not seem to be any different to those experienced in the real world.
But we non-gamers cannot judge or laugh at them either. It’s not that we do not go out into the real world to enjoy real human interaction, road and city trips and nature in general it’s just that we have developed this obsessive need to record and share every outdoor activity that we engage in with our virtual audience via ‘The Matrix’ . If we cannot or do not share it, it almost feels as if we did not do it. We need to constantly sacrifice our personal privacy to appease ‘The Matrix’ god so that it will accept our offer and bestow upon us the prize of approval establishing that this or that activity did actually take place in the real offline world. Its almost seems that if we cannot Instagram it …. it’s not worth doing.
It already has so much control and influence on our lives that when it turns on us negatively online it results in problems and issues offline.
This negative aspect comes in the form of active abuse where people react negatively to our comments and posts with some receiving a barrage of name calling, hate messages and even death threats. But some abusers take the negativity to the next level by carrying out one of the most deplorable acts of cruelty in the interconnected world of ‘The Matrix’ …..
they unfriend you!!
But sometimes the passive forms of abuse can be worst. At least when they are threatening to kill you you know that you are alive and are being noticed but when no one reacts to anything that you post or comment on, it feels as if you are either invisible or have already died. Everyday you keep checking your online status to see if anyone has responded to that post or comment you made and once again no reaction, nothing, nada, rien, niets, niente, not even one like. This sometimes unintentional passive form of non reaction has been known to lead to serious cases of depression and anxiety. Some have even taken more drastic measures ……. termination of their social media account!!
Can you imagine that?
but let’s be honest now going back to those squirrels in the park, what facial reaction appears on our face when we discover that the person we are casually talking to has not got a Facebook account, Instagram, SnapChat or at least a Whatsapp application on his or her means of mobile communication!!.
Our life in the real offline world has become fully entwined in what happens or does not happen to us in the virtual world of ‘The Matrix’.
There are so many other ‘Matrix’ connection facets that have completely change how we live, work and play but this was meant to be a recommendation to check out Bens interview. The level of that conversation and everything associated with the AI projects he works on are on a totally higher intellectual scale in comparison to my simplistic blog. The only area where I would even dare to disagree with is the tense being used in that interview;
” ‘The Matrix’ is not coming, it’s already here!!”
<https://youtu.be/6LbGwcDOmiQ>
Who is Ben Goertzel?
Image credits;
pixabay.com – Pexels
https://www.instagram.com/andreapiacquadio_/
Just another working day?
It’s just a another working day in a simple suburban town somewhere in Belgium. Its cloudy, cold and damp and you can almost feel it through the photograph, with the droplets of rain still resting on the body and windscreen of the car revealing the last recent shower.
But all off this just fades into insignificance as we behold the stunning appearance and beauty of this employee, a woman that somehow does not seem to belong in this background that she finds herself in, smiling very subtly, holding a lovely bouquet of flowers that although seemingly small are filled with just the right combination of colours perfectly arranged to match her hair, makeup and outfit.
No it’s not just a another working day its
International Women’s Day
https://people.com/human-interest/international-womens-day-what-to-know-2019/
