So... whats up Zaadz? I'm a bum, I know it. I'm a bad blogger. I don't reply to messages. I don't post in pods.

At least I got a job! I'm working for Infosys, and I'm moving to Mysore, India in a month! Woooooo. It came to be after searching during my last semester in college, and lots of interviewing with various companies. But Infosys offered me the most adventure, the biggest global impact and the greatest potential for growth. I couldn't have found any of that in any other company that gave me a job offer.

Am I excited? Hell yes. Take a look: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejo/sets/72057594065274204/

That where I will be living, studying, working and playing. I can take yoga classes every morning, for free, and study in world-class ashrams with master yogans at night. But thats just the window dressing. I'll be learning how to be a global consultant, working (hopefully) in Silicon Valley after I leave India. I'm ready to make an impact, and learn how to best improve the world around me. Anyone have some hints and tips? I would love some business insight!

Until I leave my days are comprised of exercise, reading, learning some new programming languages, meditation, a retreat, and hanging with family and friends. And being a good Zaadzser!

I've begun using a new meditation technique that was taught to a good friend of mine by his Guru.

It uses the mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum" as its vocal component. On each syllabul parna is directed from one chakra to another, or outside of the body. I am very new to this technique, as well as chanting, but after practicing it on top of Turkey Mountain last night and alone today I was able to feel a serene calmness and abiding bliss. Afterwards I sat and focused on my visual spectrum, and noticed the wall I was facing slowly turn from blue to yellow in waves. I wonder what connection this has to the new meditation. We shall see.

I have not posted in a lonngggggg time! I feel badly that I have not been as involved in the Zaadz community as I would like to be, but so often it seems like there are not enough hours in a day to accomplish what I need to. I'm back at good ol' RPI, taking 20 credits and 22 more next semester to gradute. Life moves a lightspeed here, theres always work to be done.

I've been a vegetarian for 2 months so far and I love the lifestyle change. My reasons for doing it are three-fold: To see if I can make a major change in how I live my life, because I do not think a sentient life form needs to suffer throughout its life for me to eat something (Not that plants dont have some form of sentience, but they dont suffer as long as they have some sunlight!), and because I think it's a healthier way to live. I eat more pasta than I would like, but I've been eating lots of beans, lentils, etc to get my protien. I even got one of my close friends to make the change with me!

It actually worked out really well, a month after I switched I met a nice girl, also a veggie, astro-phyiscs major with some similar views as me. She probably wouldn't have been so interested in me if I ate meat...

I've been continuing to work with dreaming and hemi-sync, but without daily meditation I am not making as much progress as I would have liked.

I promise to keep on reading, and doing more posting than I've done in moths, and be a good member of our little community. Keep on keepin on everyone!

I had come to visit mom on an island she was at. It was a very small island, with only a few building, but it was enough to house a good amount of my moms friends. We were talking, walking around the island, exploring the area. There was also a ship out in the distance, which must have been to the west because I remember the sun setting in that direction. For some reason I had the ability to see the fields being emitted by the ship. It was like being able to see radio waves. They projected far out around the ship.

At one point in the dream a lot of people were out in the water around a big buoy or dock in the water. I was watching the waves off in the distance and the fields projected by the ship. First the fields started getting distorted, and I saw the waves on the horizon getting larger. It happened slowly, but soon the waves were growing huge, a tsunami. The first wave knocked a lot of people off the deck, I got so scared because Mom was out there. I jumped into the water and found her at the dock before the next wave hit. I was next to her, and I showed her how to go underwater and hook your feet under the dock, but it didn't help and she got pulled away.

At this point I was freaking out, of course, because my Mother just got pulled away by a tsunami. So between that wave and the last, greatest one, I ran up to the top of the buildings on the island. I got up there right as the last wave hit and I was able to stay on. This is where the dream gets really intense. I think by my efforts, or the combined efforts of the people around me, I/we were able to stop the giant wave. The wave seemed to be rushing all around us, but was stationary. Me and some of the others began jumping into the stationary wave and pulling people out. I couldn't find Mom, but I found some of her friends, and some people were getting out on their own. Finally Mom jumped out, one of the last people, and I gave her a giant hug. Right when I hugged her the wave crashed down on the other side of the island and was gone.

The next part of this dream I had come back to visit the island again. Mom was living there and running a children's school. I came one night when they were having dinner and hung out with her and talked.

Through the rest of my night I would tell people about this dream, and each time I did I would relive it. All the rest of the dreams I had that night paled I'm comparison to detail that I remembered. I also dreamed 2 times of writing it down, but the first time I did it turned into a computer program...

This is what I got after sleeping for 12 hours

I was wearing pajamas, walking around some college campus. I think I was headed to either class or the dining hall. The college was built on a hill, very steep slope. It reminded me of a college I've been to in another dream. I kept walking and directed my path up a staircase. I passed a tennis court where there was a great number of people. I do not believe that anyone was playing tennis. I presume that I was walking back to the dorm when the dream ended.
 

travelling across the USA with my family. We stop at the house of some rapper, I don't know who, no one I would recognise. We get to his house andstart talking about things to do. He had a machince that lets you simulate ocean kayaking. It was multiple people to a boat, so me, my Dad, my brother and the rapper got in. We had to put on life jackets for some reason. It was in a small enclosed room to the left of the main hallway in his house. The walls were marble, the color of deeply stained wood on the bottom half, and on the top half it was a sandstone color. The kayaking simulator was in a small nook in the wall that had a strange metallic, rounded floor. When we sat in the boat someone would close wooden doors behind us and it would start.

Almost immediately after that dream I was in a dream where my family, the rapper, and some other kid I do not know were driving down a steep slope heading to the ocean. When we got down there I realized the kid were very intense, almost scary. I believe they had guns. When we got down to the beach we got ready and did some real ocean kayaning.

I was at a resturant in England. It was sort of run down, but in a way that give it a certain kind of hominess. When I went in I met the owners and we began talking about the business. They had 2 main things they did. Fried chicken and shotguns. I thought it was very funny. Not many people wanted their fried chicken, so I suggested to them to change to a fish and chips resturant. And the shotguns didn't sell very well either, because of the gun control laws in England. We began playing around with the shotguns and I got to test using a combination of a pump action and an automatic shotgun. It was very intense, although I do not think I would want to do it in real life.

This dream was strange. I was in a hallway which I knew was infested with people I had to kill. They were in various rooms that were adjacent to this hallwy. The thing was, my partner was Skully from the X-files. In the first part of the dream she went first, and she turned off all the lights and went in with me behind her. She managed to take out everyone without a problem. The next part was me going in with all the lights on and her behind me. I got most of the guys, but at the end Skully was shot in the arm. Oops!

The last dream that I remembered from this long night of dreaming was being in some crazy club with a large amount of people. After walking around through crowds my group of people settled in one area. My ex girlfriend was there and we had a conversation about something that I do not remember. A bunch of my friend were there, including Annie, Steve and a bunch of Phi Sigs.

I was walking down a street in a town. It was suburban, but with some developement. This was obviously a main road in the town. On the right side of the street were some businesses. On the right side was a McDonalds. I began walking around the back of the McDonalds, and I saw 2 kids walk out and begin spray painting the wall. One was tall with dark hair, a faded tye-dye shirt shirt and dark jean shorts. The other was short and chubby, with sandy hair and a white shirt and khaki shorts. As I come around the back of the McDonalds I walked into the side entrance. I realized I did not want to eat that stuff, so I walk out. I remember seeing an old man sitting there alone, dressed like a cowboy. I walked outside and I meet a group of people. 2 of them were younger and I began talking to them. I look down to my hand and ass that I'm holding a stick with 4 pieces of thread attached. On each piece of thread is a small butterfly. One is blue, 1 is green and 2 are orange (like monarchs, but smaller). I wave around the stick and the butterflys spin and twirl around in the air. I continue this until me and the 2 kids walk away. I see that the boys spray painting also spray painted over a car, and are throwing their cans into the woods. I get out my cell phone and call the police, to tell them what the kids did. I describe everything, the name of the street, the mcdonalds, what they look like, but the police don't care. I explained to the kids that the only reason I called the cops was I felt bad for whoever owned the car, because they probably worked at mcdonalds and couldnt afford to get their car painted. Then my alarm woke me up.

Today I went to a bar for some delicious half priced sushi for dinner. My roommate and I walk in the door, and 2 people are leaving right in front of us, so we swoop in and take the seats. A guy and his lady friend come up to us and say that they've been waiting for 45 minutes and we're about to take that spot, and asked if they could take it. I said sure, but my roommate (cool guy, I sorta know him but I'm filling a spot in his place for 2 months on an internship) got really defensive and said something like no way man tough luck. It was torn. I did not want to give up our seats only because it would make  my roommate angry, and he's usually a very nice person. But I had immediately reacted saying he could take our spots, and I empathized with the guy. I eventually got my roomate to stand up, but he was pissed off at me for giving it up so easily. I told him to think about how he would feel in their situation, and that we would eventually get a seat somewhere, and that if everyone did that the world would be a better place. He was not happy at all. I felt badly, I had made 2 strangers happy but someone I was living with wasn't. After a minute or so he calmed down some and said that yeah they should take the seats. Karma was on my side, and a table at a nice booth opened up right away. We ate, had some good conversations, and on the way out my roommate even apologized to the people for being so rude! It seems like a real justification of being positive and trying to help your fellow man. I think that something even as small as this can help make the world a better place. These little things really add up.

I had a dream last night that I was working at a hospital. I took a break and met Colin and James. We were walking around in a closed area and found the giftshop unattended. I decided we can take some stuff and I would pay for it later. I took 3 pairs of inner shoe cushions, they were that soft blue gel material. James took a red hoodie and put it on inside out. Colin took some batteries. We were about to leave when I noticed there were cameras everywhere and we knew we were caught. A loudspeaker started blaring at us that we were caught and we had to report to the security area. We did and I took all the stuff and waited in line. I went to the woman who was dealing with all the security things, I guess there were a lot of dishonest things going on (to me this part seemed to be more like an airport than a hospital, it could have been both.) I had to wait a little bit, then I told her about what went on. I told her that I needed the pads for my knee (I had knee surgery when I was 12 and running is bad for me. It's interesting, I've been thinking about getting these for my running shoes, this may have been a manifestation of a real world want in my dream). She got really concerned, and I told her I worked there and I was going to pay for it later. She got suspicious about the other things, but I mentioned the knee again and she let me go. As I was leaving I saw all this stuff piled up, and I asked the security guard if I could take some of it. He said sure. One thing was this amazing patchwork hoodie with a yellow courderoy star on the front, and he gave me a pair of skiis (ones that I already own, but smaller) and some other stuff. I went back to Colin and Sweeny, hand out all the stuff, and end up cutting my hands on the edges of the skiis (I've done that before too.) Then the dream ended because of my alarm.

I fell right back to sleep after remembering this dream. The first dream was actually quite like the game counterstrike, down to the same weapons and character models. But the game was set in a Halo 2 map... Very odd because I don't play either game anymore. I would walk around and try to shoot my enemies. I got a few of them, and eventually was hit, and that dream ended.

I know this is going to sound cheesy. I love my Mom. And my Dad of course. But my Mom's 50th birthday was this week and I'm flying home to surprise her at her party. I haven't seen her in like 3 months, which is a pretty long time. She's a hip lady, does yoga, ski's a lot and is very independent. But you only get oh so many chance to surprise someone like this, so I'm taking it. 

Family is very important to me. My brother may be a very closed minded conservative republican defenistrator but I still love him too, and I try to help him be a happier person (he's a grouch). I spent most of my life with the majority of my family within a 30 minute drive so we're close. I think family is a good safety net. They love you, no matter what kind of jerk you may have been (to a point, obviously). It's like a club that you don't get a say in being in. Just like the human race, but a small microcosm that, if you have a good supportive family, can bring not only happiness, love and companionship, but hope. Hope that the rest of the world can have as much love for one another as you have for your close family.

Sometimes it makes me sad that some people don't have that kind of love in their life. Well, it's not sadness, its compassion. When I meet people like that I really want to try to help bridge gaps like that in their lives. 

Making connections with people, not only family and friends, but just random people you meet is important. H.H. the Dalai Lama said that you should try to treat everyone as an old friend. When I walk down the street I smile at people and say hello. I try to talk to bus drivers and service people and random people I meet everywhere. If we all did that, the world would be a much brighter, happier place. Would Israel and Iran be at each other's throats if they put aside their differences and realized how similar they are to each other? I think not. And I hope that people can realize this. Maybe I'm too idealistic, but that kind of idealism is needed, especially when the world is heating up the way it is(temperature and tension). 

The more we realize that all people are the same, then we can begin to realize how similar we are to everything. We're all just crystallized energy vibrating and resonating. So why can't we silly dancing crystals of pure light just be friends? Buddha had it right. I just hope we can get it right before someone does something silly like nuking the planet into a big charcoal.

 

Peace and love

I left from an airport in Chicago and met my dad. We got car and started driving. I've never been to Chicago, but I'm sure it wasn't like my dream. Everything was reflective glass surfaces, and the closer we got to the center the brighter everything was. It was like a picture from the future. Glass and steel, some angled depending on the architecture, but all with square patterns, but completely smooth.

We left the car, and began jumping high into the air, nearly flying from rooftop to rooftop. We ran and jumped over canals, saying "Hi" to people we met. at one point there was an area I could not cross, it was a wide expanse and I kept trying to jump and get there, but every time I did I would slip and fall, and return to my starting point. so I went into a trapped door I found. I dropped down an old stone hole, dodged some swinging axes, and made my way through a dimly lit tunnel. I found and killed a blue goblin with a sword I had, and got out to meet my dad. He was very proud I found another way around. There were a few more trapped doors we encountered, one with skeletons, one with a red orc. We kept making our way toward the center of the city, jumping or me crawling through caves when i couldn't get the way my dad went.

Interpretation:
Meeting my dad - My life living with him
"Chicago" - The center of the city was the end of life, and we were moving together but with him always ahead of me
Car - It could mean that part of my life where my parents were mostly in control, and I was going along with them.
Jumping - The speed at which my childhood and adolescence passed me by.
Tunnels, Different paths - making my own journey through life.
Monsters, Traps - things I had to face alone.
Sword - The different ways I deal with things.