Are you a rebel?
Definition #2 To resist or defy an authority or a generally accepted convention.
Rebels want freedom.  They want control over their destiny and choices.  They want freedom from authority, rules, and restrictions.  We love freedom and think our democracies would be much better served if we promoted and valued our rebels more.  Marc Emery is a rebel who is currently locked up for selling seeds (a heinous crime indeed).  What rule or authority are you railing against?

Are you a jester?
Definition #3 a professional clown employed by a king or nobleman, esp at courts during the Middle Ages.
We do not want to suggest that you are a pro clown from the year 711 AD.  We do want you to be a person who pokes fun at serious stuff.  Society has modern jesters.  They host shows like The Daily Show or This Hour Has 22 Minutes.  They just don’t get their paycheck from the magistrate anymore (though technically the Queen does dole out the cash to the CBC).  If you like ripping on stuff in a way that is comedic, you are a jester in my books.  No, we cannot pay you, but if you are that funny we’re sure someone will help you go pro! :-p

Are you a believer?
Definition: #6 A person who has confidence in the truth or value of something.
This is our broadest category.  Most people believe stuff, but what we are looking for are people who believe very strongly in something.  If you have a cause, a religion, a conspiracy theory, or an opinion that you want to advance, we need you.  We need you to share that belief, so you can find others who agree, as well as, find where our values diverge.  Our belief is that questions hold the keys to peace.  What do you believe?

Are you a thinker?
Definition: #1 One who devotes much time to thought or meditation.
Philosophers, futurists, academics, and voracious readers.  You like broadening your minds and probably have thought this at least once about yourself: “I think too much”.  We definitely think too much, but meditation has helped. We need thinkers to examine and sift through the values we hold and ask the questions that will drive humanity to resolve our differences.  Without you, we get nowhere.

ACTION STEP:
1) Choose your faction
2) If you use Twitter get listed by us. Mention me and which list you want to be on.
“I am a rebel! @wizard_71 ”
“I am a jester! @wizard_71 ”
“I am a believer! @wizard_71 ”
“I am a thinker! @wizard_71 ”
3) Comment! Share your thoughts. critical feedback is what will make us great.
4) Consider following us on twitter, becoming a fan, or subscribing to the blog.

Why are we sending out the call?  We need a community of passionate, sarcastic, unreasonable, and reasonable people to test the prototype with, in the coming months.

Thanks for reading and especially for taking action!

rebels, jesters, believers, and thinkers by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

I dug this out of my archive. I liked the pictures I used. Isn’t BC beautiful? Anyways, this is from a Toastmasters speech I gave in July 2009, and it covered some of the basic problems I’ve been approaching. I want to thank Victoria Beaver Toastmasters for cheering me on. They seemed to think I was going to be rich someday. I don’t know if they were right. I think I’m already rich and I sure don’t have any money. I just want help building this thing, so I can play it and see if games really can change the world.

I think I’ve done two full iterations of the design and talked to at least seventy-five people directly about it since then and most people are really enthusiastic. I’ve only had one person say it was a terrible idea on a blog comment, I asked him to find others to berate me and stop me from going ahead, but he said it would only take one person to stop a bad idea. Anyone else think that is slightly illogical? I want war to end. Did it work?

I also want to thank Allen for coming up with this draft tweet for entry into a US contest I can’t enter. “Engage politically disenfranchised with online game which displays consolidated opinion and fuels sponsorship of political clarity #100KTwitch” It’s nice to know that someone out there is reading my blog and getting a clear picture of what it would look like to them. Any other enthusiastic readers interested in this game? I want to stress this is a text based game, not video, and not 2d graphical, but still a game with actions to take, an exciting ladder to climb with your friends, and nifty rewards to earn. I would love a set of comments saying “I am interested” or even better “I’ll do everything in my power to stop you, even if I have to do it alone!”.

Love your enemies! Thanks for reading.

the listening machine? by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

I want to quote Deepak Chopra from his book (The Return of Merlin) but don’t have it nearby.  I’ll paraphrase the important line.  A wizard walks backwards through time, seeing all that has come before and knowing that it will all come again.  If this sounds confusing, don’t worry, I don’t think it can be figured out, but it has a deep meaning to me about how I understand the world.

In November 2008 my love led me to lead.  I threw a two day event: a silent art auction and dance party to raise money for Amnesty International and raise awareness of Human Trafficking. I half-assededly tried to involve my partner in the event, because we always had a perception of us not “working” together that I wanted to overcome.  It didn’t work and I ended up doing it all my way.  She tried to help throughout the process, but she couldn’t stop me from stubbornly failing.  Thanks for supporting me, even though it was stressful and embarrassing.

I had never run anything before, and it was a huge learning experience for me.  It was a marketing and financial failure, but it was also an inspirational success.  That day my best friend Aaron had his first live art show with his newest tools and now his career is taking off.  His contribution was huge and I thank him and am glad to have showcased his work.  I showed the works of local artists and their contributions were amazing too.  My friends Nikki and Kate sold their first paintings, and my friends Tim and Sheldon spun great sets to a mostly empty dance floor.  By the time my headliner, DJ Nima Saeedi from Vancouver, arrived to play his first out-of-town set, there were at most 12 people in the 300 capacity bar and I was on the street embarrassed beyond belief that I had not produced the one most important thing an event needs.  A crowd.

I’ll never forget his words to me after the evening was over.  He told me to have courage and never give up and that he had had a great time.  My friend Tim, who hadn’t spun in a while, was reinspired to dive into his music and is now on the verge of producing some wicked tracks.  It also led Tim and Sheldon to collaborate on their passion, which has helped them both progress.  So I lost some money, and threw a flop.  It was the best dang flop I could have done to have brought so much inspiration to a few close friends.

This is what a wizard does, he loves without thought of himself and inspires the people around him to reach for more even when he falls on his face.

Now I’ve done it again.  I’ve failed the love of my life and we have reverted to friendship, because I continued to embrace my failures, rather than see and face the fears that caused them.   I didn’t know how to reach out into the world and ask for the help I need and I still don’t.  I’m afraid to be loved and this fear, along with my fear of success, has been revealed to me in all its gory detail.  I am embracing it now and love is remaking me.  I hope when it is finished I’ll finally be more than just good at failing and that my next chance to inspire people will be a huge success for everyone, including me.

Thanks for reading!

DJ Emit

DJ Nima Saeedi making us move!

my failures are inspirational by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

Thanks for reading!

self demotion by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.

What is GAIA?

GAIA is an acronym for the name of my company: Golden Age Information Architects.  It is my personal brand.  I have a logo in the works and our first product, brand pending, is in design dock.  It is waiting for me to recruit the correct group of assistance.  Then I will begin full scale development.  I’ve begun to publicize my vision and am currently enjoying the hard work of drafting my business model, estimating initial costs, and learning how to write succinctly.  I should probably get someone to do more of this stuff for me.  Then I could spend more time building my designs.  I can not wait to sit down with my first team of developers, in our first office.

What’s your current investment status?

I’m at the friends and family stage of investment.  Check here for up to date info.

What can you tell us about the project?

I recently gave a speech about my project and posted it here.  I’ve been working on combining all the pieces in my mind for over three years.  I started documenting my design in May 2009 and have developed a feature list, implementation plan, and database schema.  Since I became self-employed in September, it has been the focus of most of my attention.

How do you handle the pressure of being self-employed?

Since I devoted myself full-time to this project, it has become clear to me that I’ve found my passion for life.  I enjoy working from dawn to dusk and I still have energy to burn.  When I was working my old nine to fiver, I could barely do ten minutes of work an hour, unless the pressure was on.  It was quite pathetic.  Now that I’m working towards something I fully believe in, I feel so much more motivated than ever before.  I’ve always thrive under pressure, but until now, I never figured out how to apply pressure to myself.  It makes me feel unstoppable.

What help do you have already?

Nina, my partner, is amazing.  She’s my #1 adviser and is helping me think out decisions.  I also have an artist friend helping me with my first logo.  Last I have a former colleague, who is prepared to work on the prototype.  Unfortunately he’s very busy working his current jorb, so I need some cash to hire him full time.

I also met a very helpful individual at the Reger Group.  He gave me some very straight forward business talk, which really inspired me.

What do you need?

• I need advice on who to include on my teams (executive, development, & marketing).

• I need guidance on how to approach investors.

• I need experienced start-up people that can verify my estimations aren’t out of touch.

• I need someone I can trust with my plans and call on for advice a few hours a week.
• I need an intellectual property lawyer to advise me on how to protect my investment.

If you feel you can fill any of my needs and are passionate about helping me succeed, I’d love to hear from you.

For more info on current positions and hiring policies, see my careers page.

Thanks for reading!

GAIA Seeks Advisers by jazzmann91; Encouraging you to Question Everything.