Living the dream here at Zaadz!

Well, the job part anyway, and even that's not quite accurate, as not only do I not think of this as a job, I just don't partition my life like that too much.  The job is a fine concept to grasp, a very useful tool and all , but misleading at the same time - is that not like everything in this relative world of ours?  All words and concepts just slice & dice 'reality' in ways for us (or at least me)...

One concept I find useful is gratitude, which I do have - for this moment, for my karma...and to Brian and Aaron for inviting me onto the team here at Zaadz  :)  I'm honored to here and am having a blast.   The team is the best.  Full of compassion and passion as a fave blogger of mine would say.  Lots of vegans and folks down with things integral  - too cool.

And so a big thank-you to all of you are taking the time to sign-up, play around, give feedback and help us build our community, even in this sorta 'pre-beta' stage.  A special thanks to all you bloggers out there who have been spreading the love and sowing the seed.   We are paying attention.

Back to the job: I do web dev (among other things - we are all here because we share the vision and are participating in many ways) here and if you have any ideas, throw 'em my way!  Or at Aaron (who is responsible for 99% of the dev here thus far. He is a Wizard indeed.).   Let me know what cool features you would like here, and I'll see what I can do.  Seriously.  There must be things you would like to see - sure it might be coming but let us know anyway. Can we use tags more effectively? What else would you like to see in the profile? Are there features on other sites like Tribe or MySpace you really miss here?  Have an idea about how Google Maps can be integrated? Feeds? Instant Messaging? Are you an artist?entrepreneur?activist?musician?mother?  -what would make this more useful to you?

loving-kindness to all you Zaadzters,

Ryan

Interesting title, isn't it?  Not surprising given that it's the title of Clifford A. Pickover's latest.  If you like his Reality Carnival blog, you'll love this book (my coolest present this year, from my bro).  What is about?  From the website:

Pickover illuminates some of the most mysterious phenomena affecting our species. What is creativity? Does language shape thought? Do beings inhabit drug-induced realities? What are hallucinogenic worms? Where are Einstein's brain and eyes? What can we learn from Thomas Jefferson's decimated Bible, epileptic religious states, uncommon psychiatric disorders, Lucia Joyce, Warner Sallman's Head of Christ, shamanist Terence McKenna, and the humming toadfish, whose incessant underwater droning at a perfect A-flat was a mystery for years.

Although the book is indeed full of mighty interesting stuff for the curious -  I could easily blog twice for every chapter -  for me the most interesting part is the "uncommon psychiatric disorders" (some of which are actually fairly common in schizophrenia) - which I've always found fascinating.  He has a really cool bit on Charles Bonnet Syndrome - where afflicted people report seeing beings from a parallel reality or something, like elves, yet are otherwise normal.  You can read his take on it here.  I'll certainly have more to say on this book and on these psychiatric disorders (I'll quickly recommend this to the already interested) in the coming weeks :)