New Collage Art and Encaustic Paintings now availble

I was looking at Susan's Blog this morning and noticed she has given some focus to a collage technique that has recently drawn attention at her Etsy site. Etsy is the online, handmade goods store that carries Susan's encaustic paintings, jewelery, art dolls and now these unique collages. Check out the blog for her notes on the items and visit the online store. The top two pieces pictured above are collages and the bottom, Blue Bird is an encaustic, (pigment suspended in beeswax), painting.

Peak Experiences....

Sometimes, there are opportunities in life that if you are not looking will pass you by. The sad thing about these opportunities is that, if you cannot see them, you never know what you missed. Tonight, I am so happy I was looking this time. Please go to the Personal Growth web site for the rest of the story.

Agassai admits he lied to tennis officials...

...Andre Agassai has written an autobiography where he admits to lying about the use of Crystal Meth in 1977.  I bring this up only to initiate discussion about drug use and specifically the most insidious side effect - lying. In the book, Agassai, in an attempt to protect his career, blame an assistant. Lying is to drug abuse what a sneeze is to a cold. No one doubts the sneeze will accompany the cold but lying seems to surprise those closest to friends and relatives using drugs.

Travel Tuesday continues in Peru...this week I finally...

...met with Anton Ponce de Leon. Anton was furtively engaged in conversation with a student that had flown to Peru from Italy to visit with him. On the day I arrived in Cuzco, the two men had travelled here to the Urubamba to stay at Samana Wasi, (roughly translated, The House of Rest). For Part 3, go to Personal Growth Productions, featured topic.

Brian...your name was drawn as the winner shortly after noon today!! Congratulations...and, as I pictured a charm in one of the announcements we drew another name as well - congrats Laurie!!

Please send an email to us by clicking here and include your name and shipping address. Thank you to everyone that participated. Both Susan and I enjoy hearing from you and it is a continual inspiration to see your smiling faces in the group of those following.

The month is not over as yet and and still....

...October is deadliest month ever for U.S. troops in Afghanistan. This is becoming painfully reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson's good intentions to end the war in Vietnam. This is a different time and place and I mean no disrespect to our President or to the soldiers in conflict but we must continue to question and seek the best answers.

FBI rescues 52 children in prostitution ring sting....

This story makes me sick. We are given precious time and have the opportunity to choose how we spend each hour...each minute. Is it greed alone that has people making these kinds of decisions about what to do with their lives? In the last 36 hours, the FBI have rescued numerous children and made nationwide arrests in Operation Cross Country IV. Details here - more later.

Stephen Stills...his voice and guitar as pure as ever....

We all have one of these in our lives and this one is the one I grew up listening to...well, him and his pal Neil Young. In the last week, I have heard both of them in live appearances...Young at FarmAid and Stills this morning on Stern. Stephen's singing voice was sterling even at 8 AM. Both guys play guitar like the instrument is an extension of their soul....effortlessly and still hot. Stills speaking voice and the discussion was painful at times reminding me of age and years past. In answering a question about prostrate cancer he described how he regained some sexual function by saying that every time you cry, the tears help you rebuild....I'll have more at the Personal Growth Productions site soon.

The plot thickens on wayward NorthWest pilots....

....the investigation into the circumstances leading to overshooting Minneapolis gathered a bit of steam today. Seems the guys were using laptops to go over schedule changes due to the recent merger of NorthWest and Delta. With holiday bids now being submitted, anything is possible. The problem: it is way against policy to use a personal computer in the cockpit or do anything that distracts a pilot from doing the job...and not the part where you try to figure out your days off. Without the data from the flight recorder...remember, it only keeps a 30 minute loop, we are not going to know any more than the content of the pilot's testimony.Unfortunately for these employees, the info so far may already call for dismissal. I'm betting this kind of thing goes on more than we might like to know as passengers but when you overfly your destination, it is going to be problematic. This could be one of those very tough public example kind of situations.

Some spooky photos from Susan's recent collection.....There is still time to enter the Halloween give-away...an original, encaustic painting. See details below the photos.

Check out my favorite artist's blog and her home site. Ghoolishly delicious! Remember, to leave a comment on Susan's blog as well as mine and enroll to follow me and win an original, encaustic painting.  See my previous entry for more details.

Join Blastoff Today!!

Hi everyone...if you have not hooked up with Blastoff as yet, you can do it right now! There's good info in this week's audio update but the here's the short story. Blastoff is an online shopping mall with a myriad of online product and service companies available. Once you enroll, you earn cash back for every dollar spent while logged onto the site. You also earn a portion of anything spent by all of those enrolled under you. You cannot join directly but I have obtained an membership and you are welcome to enroll along with me. Then, take some time to enroll your friends before they sign up elsewhere. News is still limited about the site so if you jump on this now, you can create a little extra income.

To save you a little pain, the site is slammed right now and the server is slow and some of the functionality is not yet ready. I have been unable to use the import links for address books and that is why I am putting the word out like this...the facebook link is also not working. Take a minute and enroll today and when things calm down, you can go back and customize the site and use the functions.  All the tutorial videos work and the help staff is on overdose...I saw some pretty fried people trying to answer questions.

Just do this much...click on this link to enroll. You will see my name at the top of the screen to enroll you...pick a user name, password and leave your email and get a few friends on board.

Weekly Audio Update - ShrinkWrap

....be sure you give the music 20 seconds for me...I got a little carried away with the intro.

Ballon Boy Questions...What do you Think?

Do you have the parents face the criminal charges and call it good? Or, should Child Protective Services intervene regardless of the outcome of the criminal complaint? Should the children be separated from the parents and if so...for how long and under what circumstances? Does separating the children from their parents simply extend their roles as victims of their caregiver's behavior.

Do we need to turn around?

     Yesterday, a NorthWest Airliner flying from San Diego to Minneapolis overshot its destination by about 150 miles before the pilots realized what had happened. Seems they were engrossed in a discussion about company policy. Presumably, the subject was not pilot attention span. The news was a difficult reminder of the story I posted here previously.

More on Dave Letterman...or should I say moron Dave Letterman.....

It appears I missed the mark when I used the word honest to describe Dave Letterman’s response to the alleged blackmail attempt. While I was right on target when I noted his use of humor, there is nothing funny about what has happened in the last few weeks to a mother and son. It appears what we have is just another sad attempt to recover lost youth or, perhaps more specifically…a grown man allowing the little head to think for the big head. I still say it is harder for a celebrity to live under the bright lights of fame than it is for us regular folks but, then again, they get the toys to go with the fame. Somewhere, you also have to account for the professional responsibility one assumes as a corporate citizen not to mention the most important piece…you are a husband and father Mr. Letterman. Click Here for the ... rest of this story.