How big is your iTunes?

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Rod's World

Most of the people I know use iTunes, i recently sold 500 CD’s to my brother in laws mate for $50 – he has a son with Down’s syndrome and they go to markets and sell vinyl and CD’s as a father/son thing as the son really enjoys it. They were sitting in my garage gathering dust as I listen to my music on iTunes.

How do we as music fans source our music these days? I have over 300 musician friends on my Facebook page, My friends Kavisha Mazzella calls me a patron of the Arts as I sponsor many crowd funding campaigns and have many an obscure Australian CD through this practice. I even have a Haitian folk singer Leyla McCalla album Vari-Coloured Songs through this practice, Its beautiful but would never had sourced it except for having seen it on Kickstarter. Her name called to me so I sponsored her on a whim.

Another method I use is Op Shopping, You pay between $1.00 to $3.25 a CD which gives you the opportunity to buy several and if one of them doesn’t work out I recycle them back to the opshop after putting them on my iTunes anyway. I recently got the best of Crowded House for a dollar using this method, I gave it to my sister Ruth to listen to in the car as I know she likes the Finn brothers music, cheap presents and much appreciated.

Another site I like is Bandcamp because musicians get more money than from iTunes and being played on Spotify. I have 83 albums in my collection courtesy of quite a few Disturbed Earth CD’s. My friend Dean Richards composes under the name Disturbed Earth and sells his wide range for $3.00 an album, I have eleven at the moment, some more listenable than others, I think I’ll buy another two after writing this. I became a friend with a musician called Yesod through band camp who lives in Missouri as he contacted me and asked me why I was buying his music, I had to tell him I had got onto it because I liked the name of his band and album covers.

My brother Hugo is an announcer on http://www.3RRR.org – his show is called Frank and is on Friday mornings from midnight to 2 a.m. He is my older brother and I must give him credit for my wide music tastes and I do have quite a few CD’s he has burnt me in my collection. I try not to access music through burnt albums although I copy CD’s from the local library but never copy them for other people.

How much music do I have on my iTunes, 16 days, 7 hours and I always listen on shuffle so I am pleasantly surprised track by track. Namaste my friends, until next time.

What is your Storyboard?

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Rod's World

I recently attended a talk by Trevor Young, AKA the P.R. warrior – https://www.facebook.com/prwarrior?fref=ts who stated that all of us have a brand even if we don’t think so. He went on to ask us who was in charge of our brand, circumstance or deliberate actions. I have been thinking about this since this informative talk and suspect that I am clearly in the former at the moment.

If you did not have words to express your life and commitments such as on storyboards how would it look? Mine would have 4 episodes of psychiatric hospitalisation after the age of 50 for social anxiety disorder suggesting to some people I am not in control of my life. It would also have years of volunteering to great causes to give back to the community that has supported me during my journey including being on the board of CERES environment park for 7 years, the prominent Environmental site in Australia. It would have me being part of a group that had the main street of Leningrad disrupted as we ran along Nevetsky Prospect, the main thoroughfare on a Friday afternoon in the name of ending world hunger, the Australian ambassador in Moscow would not believe it until we should him the pictures, yes in 1990 we still used cameras and photos.

So what do you want on your storyboard to depict the things that are the power and passion in your life. I want a board depicting me leading seminars spreading the ethos of Interculturalism, Love and Respect for All, No one left out as it become the dominant paradigm across the planet. I recently registered the business name I am an Interculturalist so I have put my foot in the water, Yay!!! I also want a board depicting the disarmament of armies world wide as humanity has realised the futility of seeking peace through violence.

I have seen the possibility of Love and Respect for All, No one left Out displayed in a small way at Darebin Intercultural Centre https://www.facebook.com/DarebinInterculturalCentre?fref=ts and have taken on the commitment of having it occur across the planet. I have set up this blog and an open Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/Interulturalism/?fref=ts so that people can share their versions of it. This is how people can see my storyboard for the power and passion in my life.

So to end some questions for you:

1. Do you have power and passion in your life?

2. How do you display it?

3. Do you have a koan for it – The lift speech when you have 30 seconds to express it?

Thanks for listening, Namaste and have a great day

Let Us strive to be fully Human

Posted on September 14, 2014 by Rod's World

These words were written by Confucius 2.500 years ago as part of a quote – let us strive to be fully human and there will no longer be a place for evil. I believe there are 5 essential reasons that this has not occurred in this long, long, period of time.

1. Tribalism – The emphasis placed on tribe over humanity which leads to such shocking massacres and acts of genocide that occur around the world up to this day. Ukraine and Gaza come to mind. I think Rage against the Machines Killing in the name of expresses it beautifully, violent, out there music that shocks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNzIKoAy2pk.

2. Lack of Self Love – There are thousands of CD’s and books that tell us how to find the one to make us feel complete, then there are thousands of divorces each day when they don’t turn out to be that person. The emphasis that the answer to this is outside us is simply wrong.

3. Lack of gratitude – In this busy busy journey we call life the breakthrough in technologies have turned us into an instant gratification society. We have forgotten to remember to take time to smell the roses and be grateful for the simple things. I recommend a practice of starting a gratitude journal to get back in the habit.

4. Selling your soul for Money – I travel to where I do what I love Interculturalism on a train full of remorseful, shut down people where a word is not spoken. How did we become this from the out there life loving children we all once were. An education system that turns us into clones has a lot to answer for.

5. The death of Community – I grew up in small country towns and the best and worst things was that everybody knew everything about you. It was safe to leave your car and pushbike unlocked even your house unlocked. We have gone in the totally opposite direction to a fear based society where we do not even know our next door neighbours, Volunteering in your local community helps break this down. Ask your neighbour to join you, you may be surprised at the result.

Getting to this part in the article I realise there are a lot more things one could add to the list but lets just start somewhere, namaste my friends.

Reality Rampage of Power

Posted on September 13, 2014 by Rod's World

I’ve been doing Izabella Siodmak – http://www.izabellasiodmak.com – The Pages of Power for Him for the past month. As I wrote in a previous blog I met Izabella on line via her ex lover I did a retreat with in the beautiful Byron shire in the Australian hinterlands, we both kept liking his posts so why not befriend each other. After a few months of doing this I thought I would check out what Izabella did so I went to her website, all good thought leaders have one, I’ve got one http://www.about.me/rodwill1707.com.

Discovered that she ran a retreat centre and produced these awesome workbooks. I ordered it and it was so pretty I couldn’t write in it so reproduced the pages and am now up to my second sheet. I do them every day and am proud to say I am creating a powerful new me through this practice. Here’s a few of the questions Izabella get you to ponder and write an empowering answer to.

– I am empowered whenever I ….

– I feel strong in my body when …, we all have body image stuff.

– I stand in my clarity and certainty when ….

– I experience my power when I am around…. looking at this one I have done a bit of a clean out.

– I now embrace the power of …… create your new life

– The strengths other see in me include….. Acknowledgement is a great thing to have as part of your daily practice.

– I see the power in others when……. As is Acknowledgement of Others

and I deserve…. create an empowering wish list, not a to do list.

Thats enough, don’t want to give it all away. Theres one for her as well as him and several other goodies. Check it out, its nearly time for Chrissie presents.

The workbook ends with the aptly titled Reality Rampage of Power.

I know what I want.

Everything works out well for me.

It’s just perfect.

Life is filled with ease, grace, knowing, clarity and my alignment in my power.

I accept only the best in Myself.

It’s easy to accept only the best.

I feel my power. I am the Power.

I am the power of the Youniverse.

I trust myself in each moment.

I am immeasurably divine and I know it in every particle of my being.

And So It Is.