The Adventures of Bloggard

Been Around the Block. Got Some Stories. These are Them.

Being Happy Today

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Mt. Shasta, CA, June 2010: For several months now I’ve been engineering a secret project.

(Shhh. It’s a secret- Uh, no, wait. It’s not a secret any more. Never mind that hush-hush stuff. You can blab this all over, if you want to, OK?)ears ago, back in San Francisco, and even earlier than that, I did some counseling. I didn’t stick with it, because other things caught my interest. (Mainly women, I can admit it.)

The type of counseling I did was kind of unusual. It uses a very sensitive biofeedback meter. This thing is so sensitive that it reads on your thoughts.

And that’s why it’s so useful. If we’re in a counseling session, I can ask you questions, and then when a resulting thought occurs, no matter how quick it goes by, I can steer you to that thought again. It’s kind of like a compass and a steering wheel right inside the mind. Oh, it’s not perfect. But it’s pretty darn good.

And if that thought that just flashed by just happens to be the answer to why you feel stuck in your job for example, why you feel frustrated and can’t seem to get ahead … well, that’s a pretty handy thought to be able to track down.

And I’m going to let you in on a little secret. [Read more…]

Thanksgiving and Goodbye to an Old Friend

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Network Answering Service, San Francisco, 1984: Way back in the day, many years ago, my wife Lori and I ran an answering service on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco, with hundreds of musicians, actors, small businesses and the like for our clients.

And one day, a young woman came to San Francisco from the East Coast, to make her fortune. Her name was Andrea Lewis.

She showed up, and we gave her work, and the in-house communication training we did, and she became more and more self-confident and took on more and more. At one point, when I was off on some dumb adventure, the whole place was run by three women: my wife, Andrea Lewis, and our manager Mara Kimmel. That round-the-clock staff of 30+ was just humming.

It was sometimes tough times. And it was some really good times.

A VOICE

Andrea Lewis had a voice. A helluva voice.

She got a lot of encouragement from us, and began to sing in gigs, and found a spot on the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. They won four grammies, and performed in Carnegie Hall.

POLITICAL

Alway political as all get out, sometimes she thought I was a warm and kind fellow, and other times she opined that I was a sexist, honky, capitalist pig.

And she’d tell me about it.

I liked her.

A VOICE ON THE AIR

Not long after the end of Network Answering Service, Andrea found her true home, as a co-host on popular San Francisco radio station KPFA, and she’s been a favorite voice on the air ever since.

On November 15, 2009, Andrea Lewis, age 52, died at home of a heart attack.

And I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that she was still on this planet to give me grief like back in those days gone by.

A MEMORIAL

Her parents came in to the San Francisco Bay Area from Florida, because KPFA arranged a memorial service in Oakland.

Some of the old crew from Network Answering Service, including me, went to attend, to remember her and to think back on those days.

THINKING BACK

This woman who had come to San Francisco from Detroit many years ago, and found a home in the community that had arisen around our answering service company on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco.

With us and our gang she got employment, friends, communication training and lots of encouragement.

She went on to become a much-loved radio talk show host on popular radio station KPFA, along with achieving some great results with her music.

WE DIDN’T KNOW

When Andrea died last week, suddenly and unexpected, we were all shocked to hear the news. You see, she seldom said much about herself and we didn’t know she was seriously ill, even though for others, she used her gift at interviewing them, both making them feel at home and also getting them to open up on some of the tough questions.

Here is what her friends at KPFA Radio had to say.

A MEMORIAL

The memorial service was amazing: Attending was the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the local congresswoman, Barbara Lee of Oakland, made arrangements to read Andrea’s name into the Congressional Record, and notable speakers remembering her included a Poet Laureate of California, along with professors from Stanford and University of California praising her journalism and mourning her as a friend.

They played recordings of Andrea singing, blues and jazz. Her former jazz band played, and there was even a performance of dancing girls with huge drums. It was a heck of a send-off. The only one who would have enjoyed it even more, Andrea herself, was unable to attend. Or maybe she did.

On the huge wall above the stage in this large church, bigger than life, they showed a montage of photographs, including several dozen from our Network Answering Service days together. Eight of us Network folk had come, some for hundreds of miles, to be there. To say good bye and remember her.

The large church was so packed that many had to sit on the floor, along the walls, and stand in the lobby outside.

THANKSGIVING

And what does this tell us?

It tells us to cherish our friends.

It tells us .. not to let them slip away.

November celebrates Thanksgiving in the U.S., but there’s no reason it can’t be day of “thanks” everywhere in the world.

So I wanted to say “thank you” to all of you who have been a part of my life and times I’ve seen, down through all the years.

I just wanted to let you know I’m grateful.

Thank you for being here, on this planet, in these times.

Tiny Flowers

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Weed, California, Saturday May 10, 2008: Usually around mid-day, the dogs and I like to take a little walk around the house and the very large vacant lot next door. It’s mostly an open field, with some tall and graceful trees at the far end.

If we have walked to the end, and walked around one or more of the trees … well, we know we’ve been somewhere.

Today, the air was cool, but the sun was warm on us, and I plodded along after Charlie the dashing young boy, and I was lost in thought, watching my feet, for the now fast-growing grasses can hide gopher holes.

And I saw …

Tiny little flowers, a pale lavender color, just tiny little things.

And I remembered … back when I was four and five and seven and nine, and visiting my grandmother’s farmhouse, and how along the paved walkway to the chicken yard and the barns beyond … on the left she kept bushy thick plants with a million tiny little flowers, in yellow and blue and purple and white.

I don’t know what they were called. I had forgotten them.

And now, those tiny, tiny flowers came back, over the years. And as I walked here in the now, I realized they were everywhere at my feet, the tiny purple flowers. Everywhere. I smiled.

“Hello,” I said, “Hello, Grandmother.”

I walked on through those tiny galaxies, and once again I felt loved.

I realize: the flowers are everywhere, if you look.

The world is filled with twilight and memories and shifting shapes, if you look. The ones who have gone have left ripples, and sometimes we feel them eddy around us. And within us as well.

Tiny flowers. Filling the world.

New Mobius Megatar Digs in Weed, California

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Weed, California, January 27, 2008 — In November the Bloggard moved into new property in the historic logging town of Weed, California, and we began moving the Mobius Megatar company into the new shop building.

After setting up the spraybooth, we tested and got it working, then got the place painted, and moved the office and essential computers. All OK?

OK.

In December, disassembling the computer-controlled cutting machinery — 800 pounds! — this was a good opportunity to upgrade some electronics — and the two hired guys flaked out on moving day, so Patrick (shop foreman) and Bloggard moved it … very, very carefully. After reassembly, with the upgraded electronics it runs faster and better. [Make Tim Allen Tool Time ape noises here.]

In January, we hired a truck and two burly fellows, and ‘Everything Must Go!’ by golly! Everything moved. Now all the essential systems are re-assembled, and Weed, California is the world headquarters for Mobius Megatar.

Whew!
—

Before the move —

After the move —


[Parts Store A]


[The Bloggard makes tuning adjustments]


[Patrick the shop foreman works on a fretboard]


[Computer-controlled cutting machinery carves Megatars from wood]


[New-cut instruments on the right; finished and assembled on the left]


[Shipping station, and two boxed Megatars on the right head for Cleveland and the UK]

If you’d like to see the entire photo essay of the building of the new factory shop, just go to the Mobius Megatar News section and click on “Open the Mobius MegaBlog.”

And now, with all the moving done … we’re happy to be here!

What is Brainwave Entrainment?

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[reprinted from my former site How to Tune a Human, May 3, 2007]

As described in the “What are Brainwaves?” article, the popular term “brainwaves” comes from the electrical operation of the brain, which as it operates, causes quick voltage fluctuations in the different parts of the brain.

::: FROM DEEPLY ASLEEP TO WIDE AWAKE

For convenience, brainwaves are described by their frequency, or how fast they’re waving. This is convenient because generally speaking certain frequencies correspond with certain mental states that we know.

  • “Delta“ — Varies from .02 to 4 Hz (cycles per second). This is usually associated with deep sleep.
  • “Theta“ — Varies from 4 Hz up to 8 Hz. This is dreaming sleep, and also when you’re daydreaming, or visualizing, or using the imagination
  • “Alpha“ — 8 Hz up to 13 Hz. When you’re relaxed, but awake.
  • “Beta“ — 13 Hz up to 30 Hz. Your usual waking state.
  • “Gamma“ — 30 Hz up to 60 Hz.

So the simple way to look at this is: Different frequency = Different consciousness.

:: DOES ‘ENTRAINMENT’ MEAN GETTING ON THE TRAIN?

In a manner of speaking, it does mean ‘getting on the train!’

[Read more…]

What is the Unconscious Mind?

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[reprinted from my former site How to Tune a Human, April 28, 2007]

If you listen to Sigmund Freud or some Psychology 101 textbooks, you may quickly form the idea that there is something called either the ‘Unconscious Mind,’ or maybe called the ‘Subconscious Mind.’

Now right there is a poser, because you might think, “Well, if it’s unconscious, then how can it be a mind?”

And if you read up on this, and if you watch dramatic movies about people who have disturbed the ‘Subconscious’ mind, you could easily get the idea that the Subconscious mind is a kind of lunatic stalker which lives inside of us, and given the right situation, it might burst out and *make* you do something … bad.

Scary, huh.

Well, it’s not like that. It’s something far simpler and less mysterious, and you’ve seen it all your life, but you didn’t think about it. Here’s what it is …

[Read more…]

What are Brainwaves?

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[reprinted from my former site How to Tune a Human, April 22, 2007]

For various reasons of diagnosis or research, doctors or lab technicians have for some years used a device called an “Electroencephalograph”, which measures electrical voltages in the brain and graphs them on a long sheet of paper. (Electro=”electric,” encephalo=”brain,” and graph=”mark on paper.”)

The resulting marks on the long sheet of paper are called an “electroencephalogram,” which is therefore a fancy name for “a piece of paper with marks on it from measuring electrical voltages in the brain.”

These graphed marks look like waves, and they represent electrical signals from a large number of the neurons inside the brain. So the common way people describe these signals is “brainwaves.”

::: OTHER BRAIN RESEARCH

Other machines have since been developed that scientists and researchers can use to measure the brain’s activity in other ways, such as measuring the magnetic fields of the brain, or using near-infrared signals to measure blood flow inside the brain, and even using radioactive materials whose emission of particles can be used to create a map of the brain.

But what we’re interested in does not involve this complex technology. Neither the exact map of the brain, nor the blood flow here or there is needed for our discussion.

Instead, we’re interested in the “brainwaves,” because it has become clear that the brainwaves in your head have a lot to do with how you feel, and how you perform.

::: WHAT DOES THIS MATTER TO ME?

At any moment, your inner reality — including whether you are happy or sad, tense or calm, scattered or focussed, alert or sleepy — may be either creating a particular type of brainwave, or your mood may be the result of the current brainwaves operating inside your head.

So it matters a lot to you.

::: WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH BRAINWAVE PATTERNS?

Using simple techniques now available, you can:

  1. Learn to control your brainwaves, and directly change your internal state;
  2. Use a surprisingly easy method of resetting your brainwaves to any desired state, without spending the years of a Tibetan Monk to do so;
  3. By the regular use of this process, over time the practice clears out the accumulated “garbage” in our thoughts — old hurts and disappointments, old angers, old confusions and upsets — all gone;
  4. By the easy induction of one particular brainwave pattern, you can begin feeling calm and relaxed, when before you were tense;
  5. Using another brainwave pattern, you can experience “superlearning,” where your ability to absorb and retain new material is tremendously increased;
  6. Another brainwave pattern wakes you up and give you expanded alertness, without the dragged-out feeling of too-much coffee;
  7. The use of brainwave patterns can be combined, if you wish, with techniques from the study of hypnosis and NLP (“NeuroLinguistic Programming”), so that you can learn to reprogram your own mind, and this can be anything from getting rid of a fear of spiders or high places, to quitting smoking or losing weight, or gaining confidence for speaking in public before large crowds; and
  8. For people who are interested in such things, certain other brainwave patterns are often associated with spiritual experiences, mystical out-of-the-body experiences, and sudden enlightenment.

::: WHERE DOES IT ALL END?

Can brainwaves make the coffee and walk the dog? No, but making coffee is part of the coffee experience, and you wouldn’t want to miss out on walking with your dog, anyway.

However, you now have access to a wonderful method to empower and enhance your life, without spending the years of a Tibetan Monk to do so. Is that majorly cool … or what?

 
 

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