Following around my 2-year-old daughter, and making faces at my 7-month-old daughter. Hang gliding when I get a chance. Getting more than 7 hours of sleep when I can.
Music
Dave Mathews Band, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Kelly Joe Phelps, most anything on the Putumayo world music label, traditional and folk music from around the world, bluegrass, dixieland jazz, celtic, James Taylor, John Denver, Neil Diamond, Bach (especially the fugues and canons). (To answer a common question: yes, all the music that I play at the beginning of class is my own personal music, and yes, I do listen to it for enjoyment when no one else is around!)
Movies
An Inconvenient Truth (see my blog), Baraka (absolutely mesmerizing!), Wings of Desire, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eighth Dimension, Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Rudy, Dave, Dark City, The Matrix, Momento, all the Monty Python Films, The Princess Bride, Real Genius. Classroom videos: "Galileo: The Challenge of Reason," "Frames of Reference," "After the Warming" (with James Burke), "Arithmetic, Energy, and Population" by Albert Bartlett.
Television
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek the original series, Mythbusters, The Simpsons, The West Wing, Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Books
BOOKS AND SHORT STORIES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE WAY I THINK:
Cats Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, Hocus Pocus (by Kurt Vonnegut); Desert Solitaire (Edward Abbey); Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Annie Dillard); Being Peace (Thich Nhat Hanh); Walden Pond (Henry David Thoreau); The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (Carl Sagan); The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, and Last Chance to See (by Douglas Adams); The Emperor's New Brain (Roger Penrose); The Prophet (Kahlil Gibran); Godel, Escher, Bach: The Search for the Eternal Golden Braid (Douglas Hofstader); Illusions (Richard Bach); The Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu); What the Buddha Taught (Walpole Rahula); Siddhartha (Herman Hesse); Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert Heinlein); The Nine Billion Names of God (short story by Isaac Asimov); Microcosmic God (short story); Flowers for Algernon (short story); Arena (short story); Surface Tension (short story); The Most Dangerous Game (short story read in high school English class); The Lottery (Shirley Jackson, also read in English class); Harrison Bergeron (Kurt Vonnegut, high school).
------FUN BOOKS:
Absolutely anything by Douglas Adams or Kurt Vonnegut; Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman (Richard Feynman); the writings of Rumi; The River Why (David James Duncan); The Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling); Surely Youre Joking, Mr. Feynman (Richard Feynman); the short stories of H.P. Lovecraft (predictable, but what delicious writing!); The Fountains of Paradise (Arthur C. Clarke--it inspired my trip to Sri Lanka!); Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card); The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever (Stephen R. Donaldson); comics: Asterix (Goscinny and Uderzo), The Neighborhood (Jerry Van Amerongen), Dilbert (Scott Adams), Life in Hell (Matt Groening).
Heroes
Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Stephen Colbert, Carl Sagan, Dr. Albert A. Bartlett, and now Al Gore (!?!) for "An Inconvenient Truth."
About me:
CHECK OUT THE NEW ACCOUNT I CREATED, JUST FOR MY VIDEO THAT'S GOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD: SCREENNAME WONDERINGMIND42. (He's my top friend. . .)
It turns out I'm Too Awesome, so MySpace won't let me upload anymore videos on this account. So I've made the wonderingmind42 account just for these vids.
My last video, "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See," eventually got over a million views on various sites. The new version, "How It All Ends," hopefully will be bigger, because it is WAAAAAYYYY better. Help make it so, by propagating its virulence--watch it, and if you feel so moved, feature it on your page, forward it to others, nominate it for the MySpace "save the world" kinda prize thingy, capture some frames and use them to pimp your page, WHATEVER. Go wild.
You have my explicit permission to do whatever you want with the material: copy it, rip it, do a mash-up, make it your background, make a parody, even tape your own version, claim it as your own work, and take credit for it! Let's just get the reasoning OUT THERE!
PROPAGATE THE VIRULENCE!
(How's that for a tag line? What? . . .have you got a better idea? Something like “Let us choose the actions which maximize the probability of a positive outcome," I suppose? I actually found myself saying that in the very last video["Your Mission"]--thankfully I managed to catch it and make fun of myself.)
Who I'd like to meet: STEPHEN COLBERT (OMG! Can you say "White House Correspondents' Dinner??!!" I knew you could!); CAROLYN HAX (I'm not too proud to admit it--she's the "Tell Me About It" advice columnist--I started reading her just because it was opposite the comics, but now I really admire her level-headed, downright wise insight); Professor ALBERT BARTLETT, for proselytizing about how constant growth is unsustainable ("The greatest shortcoming of the human race is the inability to understand the exponential function.")
Can you help to have world leaders view 2 VEGGIE video messages in Copenhagen?
Winning films will screen in selected cinemas in the United Kingdom AND three finalists will also be chosen to screen at the Copenhagen Climate Conference.
By voting and sharing, this VEGGIE video can win the grand prize and be exposed to thousands of people! Please also leave a comment on my youtube account , I’d love to hear your thoughts so I can improve for the 2nd entry.
Press Release- United Nations International Day of Peace – “Peace begins on our Plate”
Events around the globe mark UN Peace Day by highlighting the peaceful effect of eliminating or reducing meat from one’s diets. “Peace beings on our Plate” events will help raise awareness that the pathway to peace between humans, among are animal co-inhabitants, and with Mother Nature begins with ones palate.
Want to create a “peace beings on our plate” event in your city? Send us an email at info@meatfreemovement.org and well make sure it gets added to FaceBook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Meat-Free-Movementorg/149035046797?ref=ts So far we have events in New York, Santa Monica, San Jose, San Francisco, Victoria and Ottawa as well as in Costa Rica, Chili, Australia and China.
Please view, vote, share and favorite, if you like the message. The original 30 second clip was approved as an official video response to the USA government request for video solutions and these two new videos can be too. If they are chosen to win the contest they will air on mainstream media. You can view more of the contest rules here. http://www.flu.gov/psa/psacontest1.html
Thank you for your time! If you have any questions please let me know.
view & vote on the video (it doesn't matter where you live :)
Please let your friends know via email and consider posting the youtube link on online social sites too. your 5 star rating can get the question answered!
view & vote on the video (it doesn't matter where you live :)
Please let your friends know via email and consider posting the youtube link on online social sites too. your 5 star rating can get the question answered!
Countdown to Copenhagen & Compassionate Consumption – YOUR vote will make THE difference
“Stop eating Meat - and heal our Planet!” is a document that will send a clear message to all the government leaders participating in the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.
Hey! How are you? I know you haven't been on this thing in a long time...but hopefully you will get on soon because I need to know when your book is going to be available!!
i thought you might like to vote and pass this on to people you know. top ideas will be presented to the Obama Administration
Vegan School Lunch options Require USDA to facilitate healthful plant-based school lunch options as a means of promoting public health, environmental quality, and animal rights.
What: The stars are out in Hollywood again, this time to raise public awareness of the connection between dietary choices and the dual crises of food shortages and global warming.
When: Saturday, July 26, 2008 1pm in LA (PST) SOS Climate Change International Conference
Who: With a star studded line-up of speakers and panelists, including Howard Lyman, Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Lionel Friedberg, John Raatz, Dr. Will Tuttle, Supreme Master Ching Hai and others …
the event will be televised live on 14 satellite channels around the world & on www. SupremeMasterTV. com
please help our planet, the animals and our co-citizens by: posting a bulletin to your friends maybe send out an email to all your co-workers, friends, and family help to spread the word about the latest climate change solutions
Hey. Glad to be your friend. Let me know if you have any questions about Organic Lifestyle or if you would like to request a free CD lecture about Organic food and Natural Healing. Have a wonderful day.
Thoma§ Journeyman Herbalist Academy of Natural Healing
