JediWright.com | Number One In Tribal Entertainment

It’s so disappointing to have some of your most loved and well-used sites going down repeatedly.

Not just here and there, but we’re talking multiple times, if not hours at a time, near daily. You’d think with the amount of use these sites get and the love their patrons have for them that they could find a scalable solution that actually works.

Sure would be nice. It’s gotten so bad this week that I’m spending most of my idle/networking time on I dare say it…Facebook.

So be it I guess. Maybe those other sites can get a clue take a cue or two from them.

So I got engaged last night.

An hour and a half long discussion about travel, plans, new life, etc. escalated into a full-on proposal to Tristan. I figured it would happen sooner or later. It was pretty cool ’cause we were laying in bed talking about everything we usually talk about, like we do at times (both Capricorns and worry a lot :).

Anyway, so I started from my back, to my side, then next thing I knew I was rolling over her side to the floor beside her (we’re currently living in a place the size of a shoebox and since she’s claustrophobic, I get to sleep sandwiched between her and the wall), all Ninja-like of course. Then, next thing I knew I progressed from talking on super-evolved states and what not, while standing, to kneeling on one knee and asking her to get married.

And that was that. Um, almost.

The coolest part was that I did it by the light of the (nearly) full moon and instead of your standard blood diamond ring (still working on the right fair trade diamond ring…I’m really picky :), I wove one with magical, love energy.

It was totally sweet.

Incidentally, an engagement according to Ninjawords states:

“engagement
(n) : an appointment, especially to speak or perform; connection or attachment
“the lecturer has three speaking engagements this week.”

Interesting choice of words to describe something so meaningful to most people, heh?

It’s been almost three weeks since the LIB build-out, two and a half weeks since I officially learned I’m gonna’ be a dad, a week and a day since I returned from LIB and, it’s a week into our move at Distinctivefabric.com.

Well, I think this last stretch has really taken the cake…as far as my regular scheduling antics are concerned, these few details have all been chock full, round-the-clock, full-on, life-changing things; things certainly do unfold in three’s.

The new fabric base of ops is coming along really nicely, so much so that I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see a renewed interest in it’s livelihood not unlike the early days, it’s really been fun. And when I haven’t been plowing through the tasks here at our new space (co-housed w/the rest of the Catalyst gang), I’ve been tackling the early steps of pregnancy with Tristan. It’s not been ’till just yesterday that I could start to take a few minutes and address some post-LIB tasks…looking forward to the post-wrap-party-thing coming up.

And now finally, I’m headed off tomorrow for my first on-site visit to the solar hosting provider I’m running my Green Gurus dedicated server out of. I’ll be headed down tomorrow mid-day with Ryan Wartena for a fun inspection of their ops and a little powwowing with the crew there at AISO, hoping to dive back into the solar hosting biz early next week and knock out some major issues before leaving early next month for Portugal, for another Do LaB job.

Realistically, these days will soon come to pass as memory at least a little while anyway with the pregnancy coming on strong and then delivery and child care.

Humph. Strange days indeed…curious to watch it all unfold.

p.s. oh yeah: was gonna’ try to ramp up some things with the Collective Council this month too…hmm, we’ll have to see about that.

With so much happening at Lightning In A Bottle this year, I wanted to take a minute to share some final instructions for any of my friends or contacts that I haven’t been in daily touch with regarding festival details like ticketing system, emergency calls, etc.

If you’re one of these people not in daily contact with me on these issues or are but still have questions, please read on below for some final instruction. My time is uber-tight at the moment between final planning for LIB, an emergency container pack job for The Do LaB’s Portugal job/trip, the Distinctivefabric.com build-out and move into its new space, and some miscellaneous details like trying to find a new home with my girlfriend and still somehow maintaining time for the usual with my duties on the MINC board and as a Sugar Shack collective resident.

Needless to say, the last three are falling behind to varying degrees, for which those involved have my genuine apologies, but this scheduling mayhem wasn’t unforeseen, my life is what it is.

–

Hello friends-

Hope everyone’s plans for LIB are coming along nicely! I’m really excited to connect with everyone on site, it’s going to be an amazing experience this year…just a few things to get out of the way and be totally clear on.

If anyone is planning to arrive at LIB before the gates open Thursday at 4pm, you will not be admitted unless you’re on the early arrival list.

If you’re not yet on an early arrival list, then most likely you don’t need to be as you plan to be there after the gates officially open. If for some reason you were planning to be on site before the gates open and are not signed up through the official volunteer channel, then please contact by 10am tomorrow (Thursday), to arrange these details.

For those speaking on a panel, please send me your preferred email to be used in conjunction with your event entry, details will be emailed to you, I believe (most likely with a link or print-out). Details on this still haven’t been made completely clear to me, so please bear with us as we’ve got a completely new system via Beticketing.com this year. I will make sure that the final details on this are made available to you as soon as possible…

If you have any final questions about entry, panel details, or any other needs, please be sure to email before this Sunday. I’ll be out on site as of this Sunday and will have limited time/Internet access to address last minute questions.

Please, please, please do your best to wrap things up in this time-frame: I want to take care of everyone’s needs and requests, but can only do so much, especially once we roll into high gear for build-out on site next week.

Also, once next Thursday night/Friday morning rolls around, I will more than likely be unable to reply to calls or text messages. If you absolutely must contact me and have already left a voicemail or text message once, please refrain from leaving others. If you’re at the gate and have a TRUE emergency (like your ticket print-out doesn’t work or for some freak reason you’re name isn’t on some list), then have someone with a radio there try to reach me, as I’ll be more likely to get a walkie call at that point.

Again, please do your best to finalize any details you’ve been putting off or were unsure of, now. I want to make both our experiences with this event from here on out as seamless as possible!

Thanks for your attention and cooperation with all of this. If you’re already receiving instructions from another Do LaB/LIB staff member, please just stick with them from here on out.

The user of Twitter is just one more step in our evolution as a species. Before you laugh, consider this:

The pace of our society and its technology continues advancing at an accelerated pace. Every piece of technology that comes along, from cell phones, texting, instant messaging, blogging, wireless Internet (and all that encompasses), are all but tools of communication.

Telecommunications, teleconferencing, telephone…how about telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation?

Twitter is yet another stepping stone in a collective, sometimes unconscious effort to reawaken our latent gifts.

I use Twitter to merge multiple streams of consciousness: be they businesses (I have at least 3 biz profile accounts), shared collective profiles (again, I use at least 3 other accounts), or just my personal one.

Twitter is a great melting pot for all sides to life. No longer is 9-5 separate from happy hour (or after hours), or weekends. They’re all steamrolled into one, collective consciousness.

Instantaneous news, experience, shared joys and sorrows, mundane minutia…they’re all here for us to experience one, unified lifestream of thought and action.

I use it daily even if I fail to post that day, as I still absorb everyones’ shared feeds into each other’s networks.

And of course, make use of it to plan with friends and contacts, find new ones, etc.

Lastly, though it’s tough to sum up all that Twitter offers into one ten minute post, is the artful, Haiku-like, Twitter-speak that’s evolved into an art form by some. Such posts are a pleasure to read.
–
From my Twitter post as prompted by their latest feedback request.

It’s been a busy past few weeks as I had my pilot solar powered web server configured.

It’s been a wee bit of an undertaking since quite candidly, I’d never really bothered to learn Unix and its use through the command line shell. So I’ve been scouring through several books, forums and picking several friend’s brains to get past this learning curve.

After an initial failed attempt to get Plesk installed on Debian, I switched to CentOS and then branched off into researching DNS configurations, settings, etc.

Simultaneously, I started a web hosting plan comparison (while waiting for my unlimited domain Plesk license to arrive) to start zeroing in on the services and pricing that Green Gurus would be offering.

I didn’t find many clear tutorials online or in my books (everyone always assumes you already have some foundation that I apparently still don’t :), so I called upon another one of those friends/contacts, this time Zak Brown (an Orangekid contact) and sat down with him for two hours downtown at my shared warehouse (with The Do LaB).

Thankfully, he gave me a pretty detailed overview of DNS configurations and then some help buttoning up the solar server.

Now I’m noodling around with some test domains, trying to solidify the tutorial…unfortunately it takes awhile for most things to sink into my dense, Capricorn head.

Thankfully, I’m diving back in manana with another, long-time OK friend…Steven Dalton, so it should all finally start sticking.

I believe it’s time for a Collective Council here in Los Angeles, CA (and beyond).

To that end I’m working on a new project but old idea (think Gathering of the Tribes, aka GoTT), something which I foresee benefiting all of the LA communities and others and am looking to get the word out to the various, key community leaders.

Below is an initial overview of the project. If anyone has any input on any of this, can suggest members, or wishes to get involved, please let me know.

Additionally, I see this expanding well beyond Los Angeles and our related communities at some point, as I often think big, on a global scale.

I’ve even worked on or discussed similar concepts with some of you out there before. I believe that this venture stands free and clear of anything else prior to this initiative and that any related ventures can serve some part in this. I am not looking to usurp anyone’s dreams or current ventures, but rather instead wish to connect and help strengthen them all, just as I wish to do with the community leaders and members here in LA (and beyond).

Many pieces are already in place or soon will be, to further fuel and catapult all of us to new realms of wonder and enlightenment. Some present pieces include:

Abundant Sugar, Amoration, Burning Man, Coachella, Creative Citizen, Dianovo, Empowerment Works, GLiving, GoTT, Green Nectarine, Green Sector, Growing Architecture, Hipgenesis, Lightning In A Bottle, Lucent Dossier, Moontribe, Mutaytor, Orangekids, Pocket Underground, Space Island, The Do LaB, The Sugar Shack, Tribe, Twitter, ToyShoppe Pro, WordPress, Words For The Many, Virgin Music Festival, YouTube, etc.

Official Description (subject to change):

You, the leading members/representatives from each of the major communities within the greater Los Angeles collective underground, are hereby cordially invited to join the Collective Council to help stimulate, educate and otherwise empower stronger bonds between each others organizations and the communities they represent.

I believe the time has come that each of your respective communities be brought together in a sacred and respectful manner to offer up each others strengths and wisdom to insure a healthier, wiser, safer and more protected collective community. From questions on business, to legal matters, to fundraising for projects, legal and health matters, to greater community outreach, we can all come to benefit from each others experience and wisdom for greater prosperity and evolution.

To that end I have begun several viral web initiatives including a tribe online to start connecting those that wish to play a part in this. For those who enjoy the micro-level of connectedness, a Twitter log has been initiated as well. You can find us online at these locations, more to follow soon:

http://tribes.tribe.net/collectivecouncil
http://twitter.com/thecollective
http://collectivecouncil.com

As a participating member to varying degrees, of a number of Los Angeles based collectives: Green Gurus, Green Sector, Mid-City Neighborhood Council, Moontribe, The Do Lab, Sugar Shack, etc. and as a maturing entrepreneur, Capricorn, and all around social architect if you will (those who know me well should understand this better) of collective bits, I’m confident I can help shape and lead a unifying body of consciousness to help council, develop, assist, and otherwise insure a stronger web of resources to be called upon as needed throughout all communities.

Should you wish to become active in this endeavor, I will greatly honor and appreciate you as a valued member and participant and take any suggestions, criticisms and all around council with the utmost respect and gratitude. All I ask is that you honor this vision with an equal amount of respect and formality, as this is an attempt to propel and unite each other into the unfolding universal flow and convergence that is now occurring and rapidly accelerating around us all.

I will be contacting many community members through the coming days and weeks to further shape these efforts. Plans are also loosely coming together for a first, formal meeting of interested parties.

I eagerly welcome your response, input and any questions that you may have.

Jedi Wright / Founder
The Collective Council
collectivecouncil [ @ ] gmail [ dot ] com

I hate to complain but I must voice something that just continues rubbing me raw when dealing with some people’s behavior in communal living.

When there’s a serious discussion on the table and everyone else is addressing the issue at hand with an appropriate level of attention and maturity, it becomes increasingly frustrating and even a personal insult to me, when one member disregards that level of seriousness through constant joking, sometimes outright ridicule and just an all around blatant disregard for order, respect and maturity.

Relationships thrive on communication and intentional communities require nothing less than that in a clear and respectable manner.

So when one “bad seed” if you will, starts to impede on that and is constantly disrupting the natural understanding of such things in that time and space, what do you do? Do you call that person down outright? Or do you take them aside after the fact?

I can see, perhaps, where sometimes in older times tribal societies and the like (even not that long ago in American society) that the elders might have disciplined these types of trouble-makers on the spot, perhaps humiliating them, to drive the lesson home so that respect and what not may be instilled. But now in today’s modern societies, this type of instructional discipline is way out of style, and probably in every case, rightfully so.

That doesn’t make the impulse to slap some fool upside the head when they’ve overstepped their boundaries more times than is tolerable, any less desirable. But, society dictates we reprimand in other ways.

Anyway, the next time you see someone acting out of line, perhaps you can speak up and let ‘em have it, otherwise they’ll just continue running all around uninhibited, pissing a slew of other people off.

I’ve been thinking for awhile now that Google, with its master lens and all, should consider opening a service to its users to empower their empire with an opt-in data mining feature.

While I’m sure they’re harvesting invaluable data at near God-like levels already (even if their privacy agreement states otherwise), I think such an action should be taken public and allow we, as the users, to experiment alongside them in the process.

To back this opinion up, I’ve just contacted them via their feedback form with this message:

“I’ve often wondered how much/if any of the data being passed through one’s Google accounts is actually mined for your own analytical use elsewhere.

If this really, truely isn’t being done now, I would like to suggest that you create an opt-in option for users who would be willing to experiment with such a thing.

I think it could be a tremendously beneficial service to both parties, though how the user would be compensated would need hammering out, as would a very strict privacy agreement, as this would put every miniscule detail of the users life under the Google lens.

Anyway, if this ever comes up for review and you want to start drafting volunteers, let me know.

Thanks for your cont’d efforts to master the universe. ;)”

-should be interesting to see what, if any, response I receive.

Just finished a paper with a topic on biomimicry for a sustainable future.

Why am I writing a paper on such a topic? And for that matter, why am I writing a paper at all, you might ask. Well why not? Even if I wasn’t back in school for the first time in over ten years, as a student at SMC, I think it still good practice for us all to exercise our minds in such a manner.

One of my classes is an introduction to programming, which spans a pretty wide range of computing elements, and quite frankly, has proven to be my hardest class…damned math. Anyway, we’re nearing the end of the semester quite quickly now with only a week and a half to go. Thankfully the professor offered up some bonus points with this optional project, in which we could select a topic of our choosing and write a 5-page minimum paper about it.

I’ve decided to post my first draft here in hopes of some critical feedback, I’d like to revisit it once the class is over and really run with it. I think it’s probably a little bit too general, short and well frankly…poorly researched; I should know since I only put about 10-hours or so all told, into researching and writing it.

Anyway, would love to get some feedback on it as I think it’s worth pursuing further. Also, as there were few real quality sources to draw from, I may have recycled too much from them at times. So, if anyone agrees with this and feels it’s too close to really consider viable content, please let me know immediately.