I've had my kundalini awakened by a Siddha Yogi in India, visited ma ayahuasca with shamans, participated in white tantric yoga, become certified in reikki and breathwork, worked with the akashic records, practiced guided and silent meditation for years, experienced lucid dreaming and out of body experiences, and even once spent a night in jail, but nothing could quite prepare me for my recent 10-day vipassana seminar near Dallas, Texas hosted by dhamma.org.

I have to say first-hand that it was a life-changing experience, and in great alignment with my philosophical beliefs. The retreat taught me a new way of meditating that has made it a great pleasure to meditate for long periods of time while sitting still; witnessing sensations arise and pass with objective equanimity has also led me to approach the world in a different way.

Since being back (it's been two weeks as I write this), I've been meditating twice a day, averaging at least 90 minutes of meditation per day, and in those times, really getting to know my body, mind, and senses, inside and out. This practice is one that I can see carrying on for a long time because it is so empowering, and it allows me to journey within myself for the answers by exploring sensations arising from within. As I continue to meditate daily, I can literally feel physical healing, and I am more able to connect with others to "be there" with an few extra moments to listen before letting my thoughts and sensations lead me to a hasty response. I've also totally lost interest in facebook debates, politics, and other argumentative divisive activities disguised as worthy philosophical discussion. In fact, reading some of my older posts on this site yesterday, I can see a growth in my thought processes. Certain things, which used to sometimes consume me, have just become irrelevant, and I don't even need to try to explain anymore. "Change starts from within" has a more genuine meaning to me now. I see a vibration shift, and I can see how this helps me focus on giving more time to positive contributions. The work continues, but it's been a great start.

Here is a blog I wrote about the retreat on my Guided Meditation Treks site with more details. I highly recommend that ANYONE gather the motivation, strength, and courage to take a 10-day retreat with Goenka. It will change your life... actually YOU will change your life! - READ MORE

I've been doing software development for a long time, and recently, I've been working on some newer stuff with my startup, Synervoz. We are creating cutting-edge technology to bridge gaps in the realms of music and talking with our app TurnMeUp. For example, how many times have you been listening to music with earbuds or headphones when someone in the room is trying to talk to you? Our app lets you hear them without taking off your headphones. Not only that, but our technology lets people not in the room to talk to you in real-time without making you answer a phone call or interrupt that important Jamiroquai song you are listening to in the moment. Here is an outline of some of the technologies I've worked with on this project (and otherwise), which I find to be some of the most relevant technologies in the 2010's, yet they didn't even exist ten years ago!

My good friend told me to create an account on steemit and start posting some stories, so here is my first one. It's about the ideas and concepts behind burn events like Burning Man and how we can incorporate the good parts into our daily lives without having to go into the desert.

Why I stopped going to Burn Events, But Still Live the Good Parts

I recently rewatched the cult classic movie They Live, and I was reminded how poignant this movie from 1988 remains to this day. Starring former professional wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, the movie is about a global conspiracy of intergalactic beings who have infiltrated Earth to use humans as their slaves, all while giving them the illusion of happiness under the guise of consumption. After Piper's character begins to "see" what's really going on, he tries in earnest to wake up other humans, but so many times in the movie, the humans try their hardest to stay asleep, culminating in an overly drawn-out wrestling throwdown in a back alley with one of the other main characters. When interviewed once by a radio host, Piper said that the movie was actually a documentary, not fiction.

I originally published this article with Austin Daze back in 2013, but I've been seeing the images disappear on my original article, so I wanted to reprint the article here for eternity! Rumor has it, Jamiroquai is about to release a new album in 2016. This month marks the 3-year anniversary of their Latin America tour. Back in February of 2013, Jamiroquai played a show in Monterrey, Mexico. Local Austinites took a trip to give you this report:

Usually, when I travel, the first thing that people say when I tell them where I’m going is, “Wow, that’s going to be awesome!” When I said we were going to Mexico to see Jamiroquai, the response was, “Be careful.”

Knowing that attitude is everything, my buddy JB and I figured embracing every moment with positive intentions and no fear would result in a great trip, and we’d be totally safe the entire time. With that, we drove to Laredo and ditched JB's car at Wal-Mart so we could take a cab to the bus station. By the border in downtown Laredo, bus companies abound, and each bus leaves at a different time. We meandered for 15 minutes, missing each by 5 minutes until we found one. We boarded it 3-hours direct to Monterrey. Though we saw a beater of a bus at the border that was worse, Greyhound was definitely not the nicest bus option. Ours was a luxury coach with only 2 other passengers, and the trip was only $25 each.

I once posted a review of two of my saxophones on Facebook before realizing that i could additionally share this analysis with the world. So, here are some screenshots of this post, which is an analysis of two saxophones made by the same company about a decade apart and the technological advances in saxophone making during that time in the 1930s and 1940s. The King Zephyrs of the late model are the precursor to the famous King Super 20 saxophones and can be found at about a fifth the price with an arguably similar sound.

Here is my analysis of the findings...

The zephyr and voll true II sound similar, like they are obviously in the same family, but, the Zephyr is...
1. Less stuffy
2. more easy blowing
3. more edge
4. more ergonomic
5. the high register really sings and the low register really booms.
6. Newer horn does not hiss
7. Not as pretty, but it's all about the sound

People get uncomfortable when called out on their stuff. I know I do, anyway. Sometimes, an individual gets called out, and sometimes it’s a group or culture. For example, I often post intense political or scientific ideas on Facebook, such as alternative views on reality that are not currently accepted by the mainstream. Most “Facebook debates” are framed into a dichotomy. Someone is either on the popular side of the argument or the unpopular side. Nevertheless, as much as we might try, it can be nearly impossible to find truth between only two choices. To take the evolution versus creation debate, I believe there is evolution, but there is also an unseen creative consciousness beyond entropy that shapes it. Since this theory doesn’t fit into the black/white dichotomy between Darwinian evolution and biblical creation, people get uncomfortable.

I'm working on a new album for Guided Meditation Treks that has nature sounds looped infinitely. Here are some nature videos I shot in Alaska this past summer, mostly of waterfalls, my great friends in nature.

In 2015, I attended a publicity conference to learn how to land radio interviews, and since then, I've been going on the radio to talk about my projects and causes! Specifically, how to save money on cheap flights around the world, how to use social networks like Couchsurfing to meet locals and live with them for free, and how to travel mindfully. I've also done a couple of interviews about my Guided Meditation Treks project, and one about my silent disco project.

I love to do radio interviews because they help me verbally express ideas in a concise manner. The added pressure of a 'performance' situation has always helped me be at my best. Knowing that I have a limited timeframe and that potentially many people are listening, combined with the fact that I try to tape most of my interviews for eternity means that these narrow windows of communication have the potential to spread information and knowledge far and wide. Tuning into the brainwaves of a good radio host is also a great practice as well. Their penchant for brevity and packing lots of info in a short space to people with a limited attention span helps me to get my points across in the most efficient way possible. Here is a collection of radio interviews I've done to date:

• Interviews on Travel: Spin the World Around
• Interviews on Meditation: Guided Meditation Treks
• One time when I called into the Alex Jones Show way back in the 00's
• An interview on Meditation I did on a meditation podcast
  
• Another interview about Meditation.
  
• A recent travel interview.
  
• An interview about Austin Silent Disco.

I love a good radio interview as part of a wider approach to getting the word out.