Nocturnal Celestial Emissions from The SeaGoose Nebula

Etiquette is a code of behavior for social interaction. It is usually developed through years of interaction and formality a way to treat people well without going out of the way of insulting them. Etiquette is something adaptive to culture and location it forms independently, from house to house, situation to situation, state to state and country to country. Business Etiquette seems to be much more of a universal entity throughout the world but social etiquette is something that can be different from place to place, something you thought was OK may not be. I am not saying we must fallow these things such as laws cause if we do a people can become prisoners to their systems and unadaptive to change, and without change and growth comes death. I mention this cause I had and interesting experience that made me think about an aspect of my move to Brasil (Brazil: for those who will say I spelled it wrong.) and that is the etiquette rules here. My Portuguese lesson was wrapping up and I let my teacher open the door to my apartment, she told me that when you let a guest open the door it means you don’t want to come back, I found this interesting and it right away started to get me thinking, cause the opposite is what I am used too, when you  “show someone the door” it means you want them to leave, but if you let them open it to leave it means that you let them decide when to part from you place cause you have enjoyed their company, I honestly think the American way makes a bit more sense to me cause “showing someone the door” is just saying get out we are done here, but if I am insulting here it is good to know and easy to do. This got me to ask Cristiana my teacher to tell me some more practical etiquette rules that one would find insulting if I mistakenly carry out.

I have gotten into a good grove here I have been running (on a treadmill) and have started my P90X routine over again. I have not found a place to go and do Yoga but have been doing it at home. Also have not yet joined a gym which is something that I would like to do so I can cover some weight work that P90X does not do, only cause I use bands for the P90x routine due to that I do not have enough room for free weights or desire to spend the crazy amount of money a good free weight set costs with no practical place to put it. But with a gym I can use free weights and much more, hopefully like a sauna. I want to add if you have not tried P90X, I recommend trying it, this will be my third time doing the three month program and I have to say it works very well and does transform the body it did wonder for me.

My grandmother does not keep a whole lot of plants in the house, she stays here for six months of the year and travels to Spain for the rest of the year. Because of this she is not able to properly take care of plants. I myself enjoy plants and greenery around the place especially during my morning meditation. I bought some very nice plants for the place, and something that is cool here in Brasil the temperature and climate is perfect for Orchids and I have gotten three blossomed Orchids and six that are very young. Four of which should be blossoming here within six months and every six months on. The other two I was told that it will not start blossoming or flowering for three years so that is a long term commitment. I saw the flowers for the six plants I choose and they are amazing so I cant wait. I will take some pictures and post them on flickr to share. I got a bed as well, which is something that I was quite excited about. The bed is a whole lot bigger then the one that was in my room, and I actually fit on it. The other one was to short and my feet hung down which did not allow me to get good sleep at all. But I am now floating on clouds with a this new bed which is soft and called American style simply because it has a box spring, the size is a full, fits two people nicely, now I need a girlfriend. Everything else is going great and I am having fun, their is still a few things that I need to came this apartment a bit more homely for me. My grandmother keeps it sort of like a museum with a whole lot of things on the tables, such as highly decorated boxes and bowls which is cool and all but take up lots of space and serves no direct purpose and that is my only problem with it, one thing that I do like is the paintings their is a whole lot of original large paintings on the walls, which I like a lot, I am going to move one to put in a flat screen television but I am going to hang up else where. I am bit reluctant to move it cause I do enjoy the works. Original art is something that should be admired and I do, that is all but the painted bowls and boxes they take up practical space.

Little by little all things get done, it is what I practice and believe. Over time everything will come together, and hopefully everyone will stop trying to get me a job, my whole family have came out with stuff I can do for work some with my degree others not. I feel I need to do some learning and just being a little here before I am ready to work and what I want to do is teach English, but I also feel that dismissing offers  is shutting doors and I hate to do that. So I will keep my eyes and ears opened and if I get offered something that seems really interesting I will hear it out. That is if I cant get my English lessons going.

Final note: The Graffiti here is amazing, true art and pure talent. I have not taken many photographs lately, but not because lack of desire. I am told that carrying a nice camera like that by myself is not a good idea so I cant walk and shoot like I like to, but once I figure a way around it I will be taking lots of photos. Salvador itself is beautiful, the beaches are amazing, the people are pretty (I think that most women here are beautiful), so their a whole lot of subjects not including the stellar graffiti.

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My flickr.com account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brothershine/

Thank you very much for you time… This has been BrotherShine coming to you from the limitless void in the back of your mind. Peace.

Email Me: brothershine@gmail.com

I have made it save and sound. The above picture is a view from my balcony, where I eat breakfast in Salvador Bahia Brazil. The ocean is a about a 10 minute walk from here and it is down hill. I also was able to get the Internet as you can see. But I have been very busy doing things that came up. For example when I arrived not only did I not have the Internet but I was not able to plug in my computer to the wall so I had to find an adopter for the plug and that took several days, but once I found everything was good and I could recharge my laptop, and plug the rest of my things in such as my clock radio.

But some of the official things I had to do was to get my enlistment out of the way. Here in Brazil you have to go one of the forts around the city and pledge to the flag, every male has to do it, without doing  it you are not able to get a CPF. Without a CPF you cannot get a job, or for that matter a phone, or many other things that are needed. But today I have finally finished with all that.

I am waken up by a rooster everyday. There are no farms around here so I think the rooster is wild and rooming the streets, that is no so off their are random chickens running around that and wild pack of dogs, the dogs don’t bite they just live on the street and eat up whatever is their. Something else I found is that there is nudity in the newspaper, not just breast but full body as well, it was in the cultural section of the paper the other day, the article was about a photographer in Europe who just showed some work of the female body. Also prostitution is legal here in all of Brazil but in the newspaper in the classified section their are prostitutes adds that you can read, and if your like me get a laugh at, the words they use and the way they advertise is funny, specs.

The city of Salvador is beautiful and I really have been enjoying walking around. I have hit the beach up a few days in the morning and plan on going more often, I just have been running around everywhere getting this stuff out of the way. But now I will enjoy the sun and fun of the winter in Salvador. Yes it is winter now and it has rained every day since i have been here but it is like this, it will rain really hard for about five minutes then stop.

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My flickr.com account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brothershine/

Thank you very much for you time… This has been BrotherShine coming to you from the limitless void in the back of your mind. Peace.

Email Me: brothershine@gmail.com

Yesterday I finally completed my Yoga instructor certification, which is nice I am finally considered a trainer of Yoga. Like my college degree or anything else in life I don’t feel anymore qualified then I did before getting it, but it is just now I have a piece of paper that says I did this. But it may be something I want to do when I get to Brazil , but Yoga is something I enjoy very much and to teach it would be so much. Doing it is a way of meditation and it calms my mind and brings me to peace. One thing I was never able to finish before leaving the USA was my personal training license but that is something that should bring me no trouble getting in Brazil, or at least I hope.

(Scorpion pose, I can finally do this pose, took some time to get my balance right on it, but accomplishing it made me so happy.)

This morning it was storming very hard and my dog IO was so scared in his cage he was whining and unlike most days when I open his cage he was up and ready, usually he is asleep. But the thunder and lighting scare him badly, right now he is hiding under a table and still whining. IO is a bit of a little kid and scared of storm, but that’s OK, I love him the way he is. Hopefully it does not rain all day, I have somethings I would like to do, the rain always makes getting tasks accomplished a little bit harder cause of the added element to overcome, and while I don’t mind being wet, I mind my clothe being so.

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My flickr.com account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brothershine/

Thank you very much for you time… This has been BrotherShine coming to you from the limitless void in the back of your mind. Peace.

Email Me: brothershine@gmail.com

I had a great weekend, with a lot going on. I have a very busy next few days. I also have one hundred 9mm bullets for my gun, and so when the indoor range opens today I am going to go down there and do some shooting. I really enjoy it is, very fun.

I was thinking about some truism that I believe. The thing I have found about life is how often belief changes from day to day. Well only if you are a smart critically thinking person, we have all spoken to those people who are willing to budge on something no matter how much proof given. But for the rest of us their are some things that we learn going through our days. Some of mine are.

Every passing face on the street represents a story every bit as compelling and complicated as yours.

Anger reveals weakness of character, violence even moreso.

When people are uncomfortable with the present moment, they fidget with their hands or their minds.  Watch and see.

You never have to deal with more than one moment at a time.

Those who complain the most, accomplish the least

Putting something off makes it instantly harder and scarier.

The most common addiction in the world is the draw of comfort.  It wrecks dreams and breaks people.

Always tell people what you think of them, and never expect the answer what you want to hear from them back.

If what you’re doing feels perfectly safe, there is probably a better course of action.

Blame is the favorite pastime of those who dislike responsibility.

Everyone you meet is better than you at something.

Proof is nothing but a collection of opinions that match one’s own.

Whoever you are, you will die.  To know and understand that means you are alive. To many have a problem with this

The ability to be happy is nothing other than the ability to come to terms with how things change.

You must love yourself before you can love another, and to allow anyone else love you.

A true friend is someone who cares that you are happy, not what you have or what you can do for them.

You cant wait for something to happen, you must make it happen.

The first step is to start.

Stepping away from a problem to get a fresh perspective sometimes does great wonders.

To get a solution at times you may have solve things that don’t deal with the problem directly.

Don’t lie to yourself, it is not worth it.

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My flickr.com account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brothershine/

Thank you very much for you time… This has been BrotherShine coming to you from the limitless void in the back of your mind. Peace.

Email Me: brothershine@gmail.com

My last Sunday hodgepodge in America.

Ah the days, I like most of the week. It started with me with my ex- girlfriend Bethany during high school, she lived close to me and in the mornings I would get up and walk over to her house and we would hang out do a whole lot of nothing while listening to Jazz on the radio and smoking weed all day. But as I got older, the love Sundays kept strong and to this day I still pretty much keep the same schedule. It seems the best day to chill out cause while I have never had a office job so this does not pertain to me but after a weekend of activity taking some time to get your mind right is always good.  Speaking of cooperate or office jobs I have been rereading a few of the books I really like and have to leave due to not having enough space, one of them is The Alphabet Of Manliness by Maddox. If you don’t know Maddox he runs and is the creator of a great and funny website called The Best Page In The Universe. The book and site is a super male chovanist oriented type of work, I have to say he not only is a good author but super funny, and not to be taken seriously, so if you read his site don’t get angry, I mean what is the point really. But in the book in the Z section is for Zombies, and not the mutant sort, but the lifeless corporate drones type.

Maddox writes:

The Office Zombie

The North American Office zombie’s life begins at the early age of five. At five years old, the zombie still a child is sent to an entry -level brainwashing institution called “kindergarten.” It is in kindergarten that the child is first told that everything he does-every stroke of crayon outside the line, every malformed finger painting, and every piece of construction paper glued to a Popsicle stick-would directly determine his or her social status and financial success. This is done at an early age to create the notion of an absolute authority that wields the power to deny the child his future happiness and to sustain a constant state of failure.

The child is then “graduated” through different grades, each with a minor distinction, to give the child the illusion of progress. It is during this period that the child first esperiences isolation and hostility from other zombie children. An artificial social hierarchy will be created based on a child’s perceived popularity and economic standing, which will be strictly enforced by the more popular zombies, and even the authority figures, throughout the subject’s entire childhood.

At the age of twelve, the child is ripped from the womb of this institution and thrown into another called “junior high.” The child feels rejected and out of place as hid body experiences growth in this foreign environment. All the people around him are uncaring and unsympathetic, which makes him feel vulnerable and desperate, causing him to rebel against authority. This rebellion is short lived though, as authority figures swiftly quash the insurgency with prejudice to prevent the other zombies from having their own thoughts of independence.

The frustration of the junior high experience culminates with yet another institution called “high school.” where the social hierarchies created in the child’s youth are reinforced and the divides are deepened. Any child not yet belonging to a social group is ridiculed until he succumbs to the pressure to conform and joins a group that will accept him, only to be further mocked for joining an unpopular group. After high school, the child having spent the first part of his life completing menial tasks for the meager approval of arbitrary figureheads, will finally be prepared to enter the workplace to spend the rest of his life completing menial tasks for the meager approval of arbitrary figureheads. But on the bright side, there are casual Fridays.

While most of the students will be ready for their new homes in the office after high school, some of the zombies are coaxed into taking four more years of indoctrination in a place called “college” with promises of getting even more money in the workplace, and by extension, the highest level of happiness.

This is such a well written piece to me, I think Maddox does a great job with his writings I guess that is why I keep re-reading his book and reading his site.

Doubt, Uncertainty and Religion (a few words from Richard Feynman):

Now I have a have a video of Richard Feynman. I first heard of Richard Feynman through a book that was recommend to me by a Physics professor called Feynman’s Rainbow by Leonard Mlodinow. It is an amazing work about the author starting out in the Physics game and he looks for advice from his mentor Richard Feynman, who gives him sage like practical advice that can relate to anyone really, but what really intrigued me about the book was that the whole time Mlodinow was searching for a problem. That is as a young physicist he wanted to find a problem he could make his name. But I think that is so cool, cause you know no one looks for a problem we all want solutions. But to get to work Mlodinow need a problem that he wanted to solve, that is neat to me. But is it is an amazing heart felt and passionate work. After finish this book I wanted to know more about Richard Feynman so I read Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character), by Richard Feynman. This book is a chronicle of his life and if such a well written quick fun book, I recommend both book very much so.

Finally here is the video:

I wanna talk about some music!

This is a cool video from Bobby McFerrin (His wiki: Bobby McFerrin) during The World Science Festival 2009.  If you don’t know much about this great musician besides his hit from the 90’s “Don’t Worry be Happy” you should really check out his work he is an amazmin musician I enjoy his music quite a bit, he is an awesome Jazz musician.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

The experiment that he does using Pentatonic scale, and the power of music reminds me of another study on the power of music as tool to relate around the study. A group of people found very remote tribes who have never heard western structured music and played for the classical pieces that are considered shocking, playful, happy, and sad. This was done to see if the music could insight the same emotion even if the programming of hearing is not structured in the western form. This is if certain notes don’t translate the same emotion to western ears as the tribesman. In every case the tribesman picked right or actually as the study pointed out their is technically no right but what we associate as emotional response. I think this is just a fancy proof to the old saying music is universal the universal language of the heart. But watch the Bobby McFerrin video it is so cool.

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. – Aldous Huxley

Play some mind games with yourself.

This is an article about mind tricks and how what intake from the world around comes together in our brains to make what we experience: Mind Tricks: Six Ways to Explore Your Mind.

Playing For Change. Peace Through Music:

The idea is wonderful, inspiring and new. The idea is to record musicians from around the world playing the a different part in the same song and then putting it together, this is the simple explanation from me, check out  their website Playing For Change for more information on the whole project. I have been lazy about sharing about this and I am sorry for that, but their is no time like the present. I highly recommend their CD and it is a charity so you will be helping out. But if you want to  hear before you get it, check out this rendition of Stand By Me, it is very good. Peace Through Music.

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My flickr.com account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brothershine/

Thank you very much for you time… This has been BrotherShine coming to you from the limitless void in the back of your mind. Peace.

Email Me: brothershine@gmail.com