The · influence · of · all

Here's a copy of my eNewsletter for this month. If you want to subscribe direclty, go to http://www.planetmidori.com/html/news.html

MIDORI'S NEWSLETTER July 2, 2008
1. Living in Interesting Times
2. July classes/events (Berkeley, SF, Denver, London)
3. August preview (Montreal)
4. Succumbed. My on-line haunts

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1. LIVING IN INTERESTING TIMES

“May you live in interesting times.” So goes a proverb, or a curse, of unknown origin. Indeed we do live in interesting times as economic woes, environmental crisis, wars, political instability, eroding civil rights and disasters, both natural and human-made, fill the headlines and impact private lives in ways we’d not imagined just a few years ago.

Times of turmoil and difficult lives test the human spirit. Some crumble under the weight of stress and circumstances, resorting to hopelessness, thoughtlessness and event cruelty. Yet others rise against the tide of grim news to bring hope, justice and joy – whether in big action or tiny gestures.

This past month San Franciscans witnessed (and still witnessing) the elation and euphoria of marriage equality, showing that there is at least still some forward progress in the area of civil rights. That was a big positive step among the gloom and doom. At an impromptu rally at the San Francisco City Hall a man handed out roses to strangers, even as bigots spewed words of hate at any passer by. In truth, the Rose Man was handing out fragrant symbols of hope. It’s amazing what a single blossom can do to light up the world with smiles.

Lately I’ve noticed small acts of heroism and kindness making a difference in the world around us. Friends are calling friends to check on the wellbeing of their hearts. Strangers helping in evacuations and disaster relief. Volunteerism, such as AIDS LifeCycle, and volun-tourism, both domestic and international, getting increasing attention. Previously politically disinterested or disenfranchised individuals’ taking up causes and issues with passion and fervor.

So as a sex educator, I turn my thoughts to how the dialogue and art of eroticism and intimacy may help bring more hope, kindness and joy to this over stressed world. Another adage, not so old, of “make love, not war” could use a dusting-off. Or how about “passionate lovers leave no carbon footprints”?

Wishing you peace, pleasure and joy!

Midori
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Last evening I was YouTube surfing. I came across some old 70's game shows. I was a VORACIOUS game show fan in the 70's.

"Match Game", "Gambit", "High Rollers", "Now You See It", "Jackpot", "Password", "$foo Pyramid", "Gong Show", "Joker's Wild"... And the real "Wheel of Fortune" with Chuck Woolery, Susan Stafford, and buying ceramic dalmatians and putting the rest on a Gift Certificate.

I ate this stuff up.

One in particular was "Treasure Hunt." A really trashy show from the mind of Chuck Barris. (Which should make that statement redundant).
( Here's the quick summary from wikipedia )

The show was undeniably exploitation for entertainment purposes.
( But then there was Emile Autouri )
And of course because I LOVE the obscure... I've faithfuly recreated a fan page for Mr. Autouri on Facebook.

Below is a YouTube exploration in abject stoicism. Back when Game Shows did fun things.

When there are a ton of books describing exactly how we're going to hell in a handbasket. And there is historic precedent as well: America's Days Aren't Numbered

Here's my theory: Prosperity and security are boring. Nobody wants to read about them. The same phenomenon occurred in ancient Rome, the last state to acquire such a firm hegemony. By the second century B.C., Roman citizens were affluent and their empire no longer had any serious rivals. With the dangers past and the money rolling in, they developed a taste for jeremiads. If you had a stylus, ink and scroll you could hardly go broke telling the Romans their empire, culture and way of life were yesterday's news.

...

The Romans may have been unquestioned masters of their world, but they sure didn't like reading about it. And when the empire actually did start its decline in the third century A.D., criticisms and predictions of collapse became noticeably thinner on the ground.

The military dictators who seized power in Rome and led the empire on its downward spiral did not much like reading about their own shortcomings, and they had ways of making sure that they didn't have to. These were the days of the panegyric – an obsequious form of literature that praised the emperor and empire to the skies. When you start seeing those, it's time to worry.

Heh.

We're gradually getting settled in at the new apartment.  I love the place, especially its roominess; 10 years crammed into our previous home has made me really appreciate room to swing my arms without knocking over a lamp.

I haven't had net access at home since we moved.  Nor have we had TV.  The all-in-one cable installation is due to happen on Saturday; meanwhile, we're living like our primitive ancestors, doing this odd thing called "talking with each other" to pass the time.  Well, actually madelineusher has found an open wifi link to leech, but I haven't stooped that low.  Yet.

This morning, I decided to try for speed on my trip to work, just to see what might be possible.  Door to door time was 45 minutes, and that was with an unusually long wait for the bus.  I'll never get my antique Masonic tomes read on a commute as short as that. :)

Speaking of which, I'm nearly done with Robert Brown's Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy.  It's a very typical "lone visionary" book -- he has one very good idea, and proceeds to apply it where it is appropriate, and then where it is not appropriate, exhaustively, stretching his argument well past the breaking point.  I also tend to distrust an author's views on sacred geometry when he can write "The radius of any circle is one sixth of its circumference" with a straight face.  Still, his core ideas are excellent, and the book has shed some intriguing and productive light on several symbols of special interest to me.  I recommend the book if you already know Masonry and astronomy reasonably well, and can thus spot when he's gone off the rails.

FYI! Pre-registration is highly encouraged.
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Mon 7/7 “Aural Sex: Seduction by Voice” at Good Vibrations with Midori

More info at: http://www.GoodVibes.com
(510) 841-8987
Location: 2504 San Pablo Avenue (at Dwight Way) 
Berkeley, CA 94702

$25 if pre-registered, $30 for drop-ins
Good Vibrations- Berkeley
Please call 510-841-8987 to reserve a seat.

"The brain is the biggest sex organ, and the voice can be a power tool to create the hottest scenes. Midori will show you how to use the hypnotic magic of voice to seduce your lover long before you enter the bedroom or the dungeon. Learn how to suggest, command, tease and take control through her practical exercises, tips and secrets for aural seduction.

We strongly recommend reserving your seat in our workshops. Some of our classes fill up and signup up early will make sure you can attend them. Other workshops have smaller attendance and we may cancel an event if only a few people are signed up in advance. Early pre-registration is the best way to avoid disappointment.

Please call us at 510-841-8987 during store hours to register for this class. We’ll need your name, phone number and a credit card number to reserve a seat. However, we will only charge your card if you don’t come to the class and you don’t cancel your reservation by 3 pm on the day of the class. Registration fees can be paid in cash or credit card when you arrive. We’ll be open at 7:30 pm and all workshops are from 8-10 pm. We suggest that you plan to arrive a few minutes early to check in at the counter."

As I scan the headlines of my favorite news sources a thought crossed my mind...
As the old "curse" goes, we now live in interesting times... The US economy is in a terrible recession. News of financial crisis abound. Daily entertainment and news-lite shows are featuring "budget living" segments. Wild fires scorch the Western states. Flood waters ravage the Middle states. Price of fuel is a daily lament. Wars. Earthquakes. Job losses. Even the Olympic Games is shadowed by scandal and politics. Global warming in crisis state and its effects have had disasterous consequences. Traveling is hell. Atrocities. Disasters... etc.... In some way or another the headlines are affecting individual lives.

Has the economic situation and environmental crisis affected your sex life?
Has this affected the way you look at sex?
Do you spend more or less on erotic pleasures because of the economy and travel challenges? Maybe you're choosing to spend your money on affordable sex toys instead of a big sexy vacation? Maybe you're not spending money on porn when you used to.
Do you seek relief from the stresses in sex or does it deflate your desires?
If you work in the erotic entertainment or sex related retail world, have you seen a shift in consumer behavior?
Anything else?

If you only have one or two television sets, AT&T Uverse work pretty well. However, if you have more than two or three sets, the service sucks.

The technical reason why is pretty simple: AT&T UVerse uses fiber-optic delivery to the neighborhood hub and then a 20 megabit DSL over copper to the home. The 20 megabit bandwidth is then split: 10 megabits for internet (with 1.5 megabits down), and 4 2.5 megabit 'channels' for television delivery.

The fact that you have four channels to the home is significant: when you change the channel on one of the television sets using Uverse, what happens is that the tuner at the AT&T hub in the central office changes the channel and starts streaming video to your home via one of those 4 channels. If you're watching HD, two of the four channels combine so you get HD at the home. And with home video recording, you can, in theory, record all four channels to a DVR to watch later.

Where all this falls down, of course, is that those four channels are a shared resource amongst all the television sets in your home. For our house, we have two TVs; this means that the two TVs can be turned on to different channels, and the DVR can also be recording two channels at the exact same moment. If the HD TV in the living room is watching an HD channel, and the office TV is on, then 3 out of 4 video stream channels are in use--leaving only one left to stream to the DVR for recording. And if the DVR is recording HD video, you can either watch a second HD channel in the living room or one non-HD channel in the living room and one in the office.

At this point, it should be obvious how quickly all this breaks down if you've got 3 or 4 TVs in the house.

This is the group that I had a significant experience with in Japan. My friend is in town, and will be doing the ceremony (with English translation!) this Saturday in Chula Vista. Please let me know if you would like to attend, since I need to give them a head count.

Here is their explanation: ( Read more... )

We're moved.

Well, mostly moved; we still have a few things to pick up from the old place, and we need to clean there as well.  But all the major furniture and nearly all of our stuff is in the new place, and we slept there for the first time last night.

And it rocks.  There's a lot more room than we had before, and far more efficiently arranged.  The paint and decor accents are perfect.  Being on the first floor is about a thousand times more conenenient than our former position at the top of several flights of narrow, steep stairs.  (I sometimes thought of the first landing above the street as "base camp".)

There are a few problems -- for example, the hot water is misbehaving, sometimes there, sometimes not.  But they're working on other parts of the building, which probably explains that situation.  The property manager says he'll get it worked out quickly.

This morning, I got to try out my new commute for the first time.  I left the house at 7:35.  The walk into Westwood Village took 20 minutes and was very pleasant, over a gentle hill along well-tended sidewalks.  I stopped for a relaxed breakfast at Noah's, then walked around the corner to catch my bus just as the 920 pulled up.

The 920 is a "rapid express" (or some redundancy like that) which only makes a few stops as it travels from downtown to Santa Monica along Wilshire.  In fact, it makes no stops at all between Westwood and Santa Monica, where my office is.  This means I travel those four miles as fast as a car would, or perhaps even a little faster as the rapid buses have traffic light influencing systems that hold green lights for them if they're nearing an intersection.

I walked in my office door at 8:40, which means that with a leisurely stop for breakfast my door-to-door commute time was an hour.  I think I'm going to like this.  A lot.

I typically get about 6 hrs of sleep per night. And that seems to be okay.

Since getting home its been a bit more. Last night it was about 8 1/2 hrs

On the one side its good. I sleep deeper. I dream more. I have more rest cycle.
One the one side... it's not so good. I awake very groggy. Not all my dreams were great fun.

Currently I'm on the bus wanting a pillow.

There will be a full weekend report coming. With everything that happened in L.A. as well as everything going on at home... there was a lot to take in.

But big props and thanks to ardras156 maeghanne (and everyone at Hazard house whos LJ's I don't have) and especially sesa777 for amazing OTO-style hospitality. Thank you for making my weekend so special and welcomed.