JediWright.com | Number One In Tribal Entertainment

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.
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From my Twitter post as prompted by their latest feedback request.

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

From my Green Gurus consulting company’s blog today:
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Green Gurus is on the prowl for some new tech-driven team members.

Our team is comprised of a wide-range of talents from sustainable energy systems designers, feature film miniature and mechanical engineers, sustainable architects, Second Life programmers, and a host of other skills. Our projects range from multi-thousand person events, to on-air consulting, to feature films, to eCommerce, to manufacturing, and much, much more.

We’re well connected and very active in the Los Angeles underground modern tribal scene (cliche yes, but it fits the part), utilizing a vast range of science, technologies and metaphysics.

Here are our current task priorities:

1. Our site: GreenGurus.net

We’ve got to nail down a site design fitting of our name and team’s skills. We’ll have a much better conversion rate in closing new clients if we get this locked down.

2. Our keyword domains

We’ve got around 500 domains, most of them green-themed: We’re looking into monetizing a bunch, selling some and building out others.

3. Green eCommerce platform

One of our other companies, Distinctivefabric.com has an extensive, proprietary code base that we’re looking to overhaul into a green eCommerce platform and then license and/or sell.

4. Solar powered web hosting

We’re working towards our own solar powered data center chain, but until we’ve raised the money to put that together, we’ll be running on a dedicated server through AISO.net, configuration with them happening right now, should be up and running within the next week.

If any of these projects appeal to you and you think you’d like to explore a potential partnership with us to help manifest any of these items, then please let us know. We’re only able to pay through profit-sharing, performance-based pay and/or sweat equity right now. Assuming we get our site up to snuff, we can really start creating some exciting and meaningful compensation opportunities.

We continue to receive steadily increasing inquiries, have got some great natural page ranking on Google, especially under “green consulting” search terms, our team member’s individual projects and companies continue to complement our own here, and much more.

You are adept in any of these programs/languages/CMS:

PHP, MySQL, Python, Perl, Ruby, RoR, Ajax, Java/JavaScript, XML/XHTML, Drupal/Joomla/etc., WordPress (including installs), Apache/Debian, Photoshop/The Gimp, Illustrator, Quark, InDesign, AutoCad, Maya, Flash, ActionScripting, API interfacing, version control systems, Unix, ProTools, Logic, Ableton Live, and any other language or science you’re competent with in producing results.

You have experience from school and/or on-the-job training, can provide live and close to or fully completed projects online, have a working/proficient understanding of iterative, agile and atomic coding techniques/philosophies, and are otherwise a bad-ass online.

Preferably: you work in open source, off a Mac or Linux box, but have some working understanding of PC to get around should the need arise; live within the US, ideally w/in CA > Los Angeles…if not, possibilities still exist. Telecommunicating okay.

Please submit any relative content, links, resumes, or other media format…just be creative, inventive, entrepreneurial, and socially/eco-conscious in your approach to contacting us.

Okay maybe Tool wasn’t there last weekend at the latest Alex Grey / CoSM fundraiser but the next best thing to that was their music and larger than life banners of Grey’s art.

The event was held downtown at Club 740, which had apparently once played host to Charlie Chaplin and Prince.

The venue itself was pretty cool; another hidden gem in the muck of downtown LA (been living and working there for far too long…). As it was moved last minute from Crash Mansion, things got started late and Alex Grey seemed (perhaps) forced to rush through his presentation, which included a slew of slides, including some great renderings of the new Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, along with his talks flavored with the concept of “Anthropocosm”.

He also played one of Tools videos (which got drowned out in bass for nearly half the vid), which was cool, but perhaps better suited for another place and time (disclaimer: I absolutely love their music but short of a live performance in public, especially in a mostly DJ-music setting, is kind of vibe-killer I think).

Anyway, gonna’ wrap this up short for now, today’s kind of low point for me and I don’t want to give the wrong impression: Any Alex Grey event is well worth attending, especially if it’s your first time. So if you get the chance, check him out.

I’ll post some pics later on, for now here’s one of Tristan later on in the evening, while waiting for Treavor to come on. We had a lot of fun with the old staircase deco and her new birthday coat from Shrine:

2007 was an amazing year of growth and change, on many levels; also, this year’s end saw my one and only Golden Birthday:

(Check out the rest of my birthday pics from at the Edison)

The year started out with a 3-week visit home after my mom broke her arm, shortly after New Years 2007. I spent almost 2-weeks at home with her to help out with her rehab, got her set up with a new Mac, and generally just spent a lot of quality time catching up with her and some of the other family members.

I then bounced down to Florida for a week-long visit with my Dad, step-mom and some old friends from the River: Tim and Doug.

Then it was back to Cali to return to work on Dianovo, but I just couldn’t get back into it or much of any other work: I was uber home-sick and caught up in the slow-pace that the East Coast so often is. So I decided to pack up my things and move back east, but first stopping back over in LA again to dump said stuff in storage and prepare my other business for my departure. But not surprisingly, I got caught back up with my friends and loved ones in LA and decided to push off my departure for a few months.

I hopped back on board hardcore with The Do LaB, for an amazing few months of work on Coachella, then Lightning In A Bottle, the Beverly Hills White Party, and then it was into summer with a 2.5 week long trip to Guatemala. My time there gave me a lot of opportunity to reflect upon what was important to me and what I wanted to pursue personally and professionally. So when I returned to LA in early June, I began in more earnest, to work on both my romantic relationship and professional path.

I continued working with The Do LaB, resumed work on Green Gurus and continued work on my relationship. Then in mid-summer I went back east again (and therein lies a constant theme for me and home) to help head up the Green Spot construction of The Do LaB’s lumi pods and towers at the Virgin Music Festival in Baltimore, followed up by another visit home.

While at home again, I heavily re-visited my passion for the outdoors as it related to my old job at Hidden River Adventures and my future plans for Rivertribe, but realized it still wasn’t time for that pursuit; I still needed something more from my investments living out West. So after some much needed time re-connecting to the river with some great kayaking trips, I headed back to LA.

One of my investments or more aptly, reasons for moving out west, was school. So the first thing I did was re-enroll in school at SMC for the fall semester. Then I headed up another gig for The Do LaB at the Future Ape festival, followed by one last get-away before the start of the school: this time back to Santa Cruz to watch my old house and base of operations for Dianovo.

Then it was a head-first dive back into school for an intense 3.5 month-long semester in computer science, design and programming; an intense and seemingly appropriate step with regards to my romantic interests; followed by a long-awaited move into the Sugar Shack, then my foray into local politics, the loss of my oldest friend Charlie, and continued work on Green Gurus.

I also worked on the last few gigs for the year with The Do LaB, at the Global Mala Project and a random job for Goldenvoice. Also during the last half of my semester, I started counseling for the first time in years, to help kind of clear some of the noise in my head from everything that year, followed by a renewed start in work on my longest running romantic relationship, through couples counseling (which has been a great decision).

Another big event of the year was my first surgery, in which I finally went in and had a lumptectomy performed to have an overly uncomfortable and ample-sized cyst removed from directly beneath my left nipple; the surgery was flawless and there was very little pain involved afterwards, thanks to the great job performed by my doctor.

While there have been countless other events and random bits of interest from this year, nothing is more noteworthy than the pending sale of my first internet venture. The sale was posted back over the summer and negotiations have been taking place on and off for the last few months with several different parties. Now it looks very close to happening, perhaps within the first month of this new year, so I have been doing a lot of work to prepare for this possibility, both for the business itself and my own well-being; it’s definitely one of the biggest, most life-changing steps I’ve had to prepare for in a long time. But I definitely believe it’s time to make this change and what better time then at the start of the new year?

So as this year starts to unfold and all the previous year’s seeds start to yield their fruits, I look forward to the work in store: for my companies, myself, my family, friends, and the world. I am going to make this my best year ever and I hope you are able to do the same!

Much love and blessings for everyone’s prosperity, health and happiness.

As December comes to a close, my first internet venture wraps up its fourth year in business and prepares to enter its fifth.

Wow. Let me just say that again, so it starts to actually sink in…our fifth year.

It’s been a great couple of years getting our operations together and have only begun easing off from startup mode over the course of this year. Some of its customers might have noticed in this time, that our fabric selection has been trimmed back a bit and that the rate of new fabric additions to the site have slowed down too.

Well, rest assured that this isn’t permanent but just a time of reflection that we’ve taken to better assess the health and direction of our company, where it stands, who its core customers are, and much more. It’s been an interesting year as we’ve come to realize just how integrated our company and its website into the world of internet fabric sales, DIY-ers, Mom-and-Pop shops, designers, and many others. We’ve got a great core customer base which certainly shows in our day-to-day sales.

One of the great things about running an internet-based store, rather than retail, is the flexibility it offers the company in its operations. Early on in our operation, we experimented with a number of different methods for nearly every aspect of our operation. But at least one area that’s remained consistent is our commitment to serving our customers, as best we can. We totally pride ourselves on this and think it’s one of the qualities that keeps so many of them coming back, so regularly and consistently.

Regardless of anyone’s reasons to continue shopping there with us, it’s been a real pleasure to continue serving them all and I know I look forward to the years to come as we continue to explore new avenues for growth and fulfillment of their fabric needs.

Yesterday marked the 5-year mark until 2012.

And now it seems, everything’s lost its meaning: school, work, relationships..everything just seems kind of blah. Or, maybe, I’m just completely fried from the last 3.5 months of one-too-many things vying for my attention and energies.

I started school full-time, while running one existing company, started up another, continued work for another that I’ve been involved with on and off over the years, ended one relationship, started another, moved into a intentional, urban community, lost my oldest and best friend to a fatal accident, started my initiation into local politics, had my first-ever surgery with one of the countries best for…a lumptectomy, started counseling, ended short-lived new relationship, resumed other on-and-off again of 5+ years, began discussions and negotiations of potential sale of first company, started couple’s counseling in attempt to sort fact from fiction, and am now entering in on full-on negotiations for potential sale of said, first company.

Whew. I need breather or, a vacation from living for awhile…yeah, that would be nice.

What’s next on the horizon? Hmm, time will certainly tell.

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.

People are forever challenged by understanding the thoughts, words, actions, or other medium employed by another.

Today’s communication, while seemingly enabling an infinitely easier time to make one’s point, is far from clear. Even with all the technologies at hand: personal email, company email, social network email/messaging, instant messaging, text messaging, VoIP, direct connect, tele-conferencing, landlines, cell phones, fax, static communications like a personal webpage or profile, and on and on; there’s just no shortage of tools to communicate with.

But what all this technology fails to provide is the motivation and commitment between people to maintain open, clear and concise communication with one another. Regardless of the tools at hand, people still operate from within their respective bubbles of solitude. They forget that there is almost always someone on the other end, directly or indirectly involved and invested in what you have to say.

These are strange days we’re living in, married to a never-ending parade of gadgetry, all in the name of progress (supposedly). I think the best is yet to come, however. I think all these tools and devices are simply stepping stones enabling us all to regenerate and tap into our latent, higher powers of communication that are far superior than anything high-technology will ever deliver.

Just look at the simple act of making a cellphone call: your fingers articulate some pre-defined number scheme, you hold your hand up with said device to your head, more specifically your ear, then perhaps wait a few moments, in which case often times you’ll urgently call out in your mind (out loud if you’re really in need) for the recipient to answer your call, saying “come on, come on…pick up, pick up” or some such thing. Then finally someone answers, perhaps not the person you intended in some cases, but apparently someone was within range to “pick up” and answer your ‘call’.

I think this example clearly illustrates what’s happening and more importantly, where things are going. Next time you see someone making a call, just take a minute to watch them. And I mean, really watch them. Try to sense what’s happening as they go through the motions of this seemingly inanimate action. If you have to, squint your eyes or something to alter your pre-conceived notion of what’s happening; try to expand your consciousness outward with the call and maybe you’ll just ’see’ what’s really happening.

This old Chicken Little fable resonates ever more strongly for me as the world speeds closer and closer to…something.

I’m not going to say destruction, because I doubt we’re capable of completely destroying Her, but I do feel our own mortality draws exceedingly close and sharper. Whether it’s an end to life as we know it completely, a drastic redesign of our current system (of living), or something else entirely, I have no doubt that something is occurring and at a rate that’s growing exponentially.

With the world’s current pace of evolution out of control, I think people are too busy fighting/working to maintain status quo, to really take stock of what’s happening. Either that, or people are just plain terrified of the technological and industrial horrors we’ve unleashed on our planet; the times are uber-freaky for sure.

Oil spills, wars, human and animal abuse and destruction, rampant self-abuse and destruction, and a million other signs of life now ending/changing while nothing new for centuries now, seem to be accelerating even more rapidly to some final act. But will it be one great act of creation or one great finale?

Only time will tell.