The Edge [of all] Journeys

[in all seriousness]:

“dad, if Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned, would squash taste better?”

(age 7)

Sitting here sipping a beer and thinking how funny it is that I used to day dream about one potential outcome of our throw everything to the road (and YHWH’s loving care) life on the edge, traveling with minimal resources… and I used to wonder if we’d ever break down in a tiny little community that Father had a purpose for us invading, with no money to fix the truck and get stuck indefinitely. Well, things aren’t quite that desperate, but it’s kind of starting to take on some of that flavor. And although I’m confident our stay here will be temporary (well, at least exactly as long as YHWH desires), it certainly is starting to stretch on longer than I had hoped.

My diagnosis and efforts to swap the crankshaft position sensor this morning (though the procedure itself was a success) turned out to be quite ineffective. But like every good story, the replacement sensor itself – as the next piece in my attempt to solve the puzzle – led to the next piece of the plot. It turns out that the parts place I bought it from – 10 miles back west along I-70 in Flagler, CO – also has a full-blown shop and a couple diesel mechanics. They also have their own wrecker, and Shane came out to pick up our truck. I turned it on for him and let him see what it was doing. He just shook his head and smiled. I could tell he shared my appreciation for the magnitude of the puzzle. Here it is getting loaded up:

So, I guess at this point our plans are on hold and we’re having Sabbath here. We always say that our Father’s plans are far better than ours, and I guess we’re getting to walk that out in this tangible way. With labor day approaching I’m hoping they figure it out quickly and that it’s something simple / easy and they can get it done before the holiday. But no guarantees. And it would be really nice if they could even tackle the leak in the steering system (hopefully it’s not the gearbox) as well as the alignment + 4 tires that we’ve been overdue procrastinating on with such limited resources available. Shane was looking at our front passenger tire (you can kind of see it in the pic) and thinking it’s a blowout waiting to happen. I’m pretty sure it would get us at least to PA, but maybe better safe than sorry.

I feel completely tacky doing this, but I’m just going to throw myself out there and slap a donation button on this post. If you know me at all you know how self-reliant I like to be and how hard it is for me to ask anyone for help. I’d much rather be on the giving end than the receiving end, and so maybe Father is also using this situation to kill more of my pride. Oh yay 🙂 I still want to figure out a way to ask without asking 🙂 but I will say it this way: if our heavenly Father puts it on your heart, any tiny amount towards our truck repair fund would be a massive blessing. We still have other repairs sitting on our credit card from before. But please do not feel obligated in any respect. Father will provide, and your prayers are even more valuable.

Even in the midst of all this I’ve been realizing how much we have to be thankful for. We have electric and A/C keeping the inside of the trailer about 79 F (26 C) while it reads 102 F (39 C) outside – YIKES! So – shelter: check. We have water. We have food. We have internet so I can post this and work and stay connected to find out about things like crazy Hurricane Isaac hitting seven years to the exact day that Katrina struck (if that isn’t a wake up call I don’t know what is, but how many will notice?). There’s a playground close by. Jim (the Shady Grove Campground owner) has been super helpful: he gave me a ride to Flagler this morning to pick up the sensor, provided a tour of the town, said he’d just open up a tab and we could settle before leaving when the time comes, and told me to ask if we needed anything). And the kids finished school today in really good moods. Even though it’s hard work, homeschooling our children is a bigger blessing than we normally pay attention to.

For example: I was talking with Shane and Jim after Shane had the truck all loaded up on the wrecker. They were briefly comparing notes about changes that have been happening in the school system here. I’m not sure if this is Colorado-wide or maybe even the whole country, but among other things the government has capped calorie consumption for children at school and it is a fixed number for all kids regardless of build, metabolism, athletics, etc. This is enforced primarily through the lunch portions, which are now very small. Shane and Jim said their kids always come home really hungry. Of course, some parents don’t do enough to manage healthy amounts of the right kind of calories for their kids. But government stepping in and regulating it is an entirely different thing. And the more sinister aspects of this that come immediately to mind:

• How closely is this related to the current food shortages and famine in this country (which you probably won’t hear about on mainstream news nor get an impression of by walking into a grocery store)?
• What are the impacts of caloric shortages on a child’s learning capacity? This will
• What about other implications like a child’s energy level, vulnerability to suggestion, etc. when they aren’t getting enough / proper nutrition throughout the day?

There’s probably more thoughts that should be probed there, but this is really just another area where we see the erosion of all things as we used to know them. I shudder to consider what my children’s generation is facing, but I also get excited to think about and anticipate what their Creator will do in their days!

Well, here’s to the adventure! Looking forward to continuing the exploration of WHY we are here and posting updates about what we discover as well as (hopefully shortly) recording our epic departure.

“dad I was running so fast my body almost fell apart and I was like the sun burning up!”

(age 6)

Well, I’ve managed to do something to my back. I probably would never even mention it either except perhaps that it’s part of the story. An interesting part for sure, because it’s amazing how quickly everything we take for granted can come into stark relief against something that challenges it all. So, the normal and routine have become epic and painfully slow. Walking, sitting, lying down, standing up… bending over, wait no that’s actually impossible right now along with other things that I could do a few days ago. I can’t even do a single sit-up for crying outloud and I tried to run a little tonight, but that was totally not happening.

So far it hasn’t stopped me from tending to most of the normal chores, but they take way longer and I can’t help but wonder if I’m only aggravating the condition with my stubbornness. I guess a chiropractor is getting added to my itinerary for the week. Too bad my buddy Will isn’t around. Arg.

You know, the really annoying thing too is that it wasn’t some heroic injury saving a baby from a burning building or anything either. I’ve had a weak spot in my lower back for a few years after wiping out while performing a ridiculous stunt for my kids that involved a hill full of snow and a body board in Pennsylvania. And it flares up from time to time, but never incapacitating like this. I guess all the winter fun – like shoveling a 300 foot path for my family in a foot depth of snow (before we had the 4×4 shovel out 😉 ) and digging out snow forts with the kids really did a number on it. One of those things that doesn’t bite until the next day, but wow it bit hard. I guess I wasn’t practicing proper form. Arg.

Well, I’m sure there is a purpose and perhaps my Creator is just trying to get my attention about something. Well, I’m close to all ears, and trying to get there, and wondering what implications this is going to stir up that haven’t occurred to me yet. I really don’t have the time or energy for this, but I guess I have no choice but to slow down and recover. After all I have a house to build.

Finally finished another episode of Journeys…. yay – I’m almost only a year behind now. Arg.

“my favorite vegetable is pizza!”

(age 6)

I’m going to take things in a radically different direction here for a moment. This post is for anyone who might be just a little too comfortable in their perfectly conceived lifestyle cocoon (including myself). And it is ESPECIALLY for anyone who relegates conspiracy theories to Hollywood and nut cases. Near Elberton, Georgia I have seen THE Conspiracy written in stone with my own eyes. Many of you might not be aware of the monument that stands there on the highest hill of the countryside in the middle of nowhere. Ever since I found out about it a few years ago, I have been extremely curious to see it for myself. In March, as we were travelling from Florida to Pennsylvania via Georgia, we added a little detour away from the east cost to check it out.

There’s a short video below from clips that I took while we were there, with a brief narration that I added later – but I wanted to expound in greater detail some additional resources for the rightfully curious as well as some of my own thoughts that I’ve collected along the way.

The Georgia Guidestones are an arrangement of massive, granite stones weighing nearly 120 tons and standing over 19 feet tall which have been engraved with 10 directives in 8 major world languages. The directives are these:

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.

You might find yourself thinking that some of these sound a little creepy but others seem like good, sound principles. But do not be enticed! Remember that a full glass of water with only a drop or two of arsenic in it will still kill you.

There is a much bigger picture at work here. These counterfeit 10 Commandments are also internally inconsistent and deceptive. They publish the agenda while attempting to temper and even conceal it with falsehood. A prime example is #1. In order to justify a philosophy that wants to eliminate roughly 75% of the entire world’s population it plays the “ballance with nature” card. But think about it logically. Population management is inherently UNnatural. Any intervention to change natural processes – from contraception to fetuscide / abortion – is in fact OUT OF BALANCE with nature!

In addition, when we critically examine the mechanisms of population reduction that are currently employed throughout the world we find a massive body of evidence that proves directive #1 has nothing to do with nature and in fact is quite detrimental to nature:

1. War (Self explanatory)
2. Foreign Corporate Water Control (For years corporations have been maneuvering to privately control the drinking water resources around the globe – particularly in third world countries where supply is limited and demand high – in order profit massively from controlling the most critical element necessary for human survival. Through the WTO and the World Bank they have been largely successful).
3. Engineered Famine (Global markets and regulations artificially restrict production by influencing prices and import/export law; genetically modified terminator seeds sold to third world countries have been engineered to be sterile – planting the seeds that come from the crop will not result in new crops; U.S. government subsidies favor farmers who grow crops for purposes other than human consumption, etc.)
4. Disease / Pollution / Contamination / Health Destruction (Vaccines, Engineered Viruses, GMOs, etc… If you think I’m off the deep end here, just read the quotes below… and then go do your research. There is almost nothing safe or healthy about our current medical establishment / FDA / Pharmaceutical superstructure. Not to mention the toxins and viruses deliberately developed and administered through a variety of subtle means to subdue population immune systems and result in sickness and death.)
5. Fetuscide (The semantically correct term for the misnomer “abortion.” Language is manipulated to confuse and deceive. What does “abortion” mean? Go look it up in an older dictionary. By definition, an “abortion” is a natural process and includes miscarriage. Fetuscide or Aborticide on the other hand are the willfull destruction an an unborn person.)

One might take issue with me connecting these atrocities to the 10 “guidelines” above and try to make the argument that the authors would also have been opposed to such morbid means and results. But I submit that the authors of the directives would have to be either completely ignorant and naive or overconfident in their cause to attempt avoiding the logical conclusions of their principles encapsulated in the 5 mechanisms above.

War is an inevitable result of at least #4, #5, and #6, because who exactly gets to determine what is reasonable, fair, and just? For instance, much of the Islamic world thinks it’s entirely fair and just that all Christians, Jews, or other infidels either convert to Islam or die.

Guidelines #7 and #8 – when considered together – reveal that the authors’ definition of “petty laws” are rather the Common Laws of inherent Creator-given rights that should otherwise protect the individual from being enslaved by the relatively modern concept of “social duties.” The very existence of “social duty” must by nature infringe on personal freedom because it requires that a fallible human source determine what is socially required, rather than every individual on a level playing field being accountable to their Creator for their conduct towards other individuals. Thus, Creator-given rights are usurped and replaced by Socially Granted rights and duties.

As characteristic of every man-made law, the lawmakers assume their laws do not apply to them. This fact is exposed by and reveals principle #9 as a complete fraud. The authors were not interested in absolute truth, but in a truth of their own fabrication. Cases in point: The mysterious spokesman for the organization that commissioned and funded the Stones used a fictitious name in all his dealings and never revealed the organization he represented. As if this wasn’t “priz[ing] truth” enough – the spokesman claimed he took the fictitious name R.C. Christian because he was a Christians himself and that the 10 guidelines were based on his beliefs. I have no idea what Bible they were reading, but maybe they should have considered the fate of Nimrod’s Tower of Babel before they added #3 to their list.

Do you think I am being extreme, even paranoid? Actually my words are too soft! The threat can only be truly driven home by the searing words of the world’s elite themselves. Go back up and re-read the list of 10 directives. Then re-read my list of the 5 mechanisms by which these directives are being achieved (just read the 5 concepts in bold). Now ponder the perceived gap between the two lists. Now, read the quotes below and marvel at the way the dots connect:

“Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind”
Theodore Roosevelt

“A total world population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.”
Ted Turner, in an interview with Audubon magazine

“There is a single theme behind all our work–we must reduce population levels. Either governments do it our way, through nice clean methods, or they will get the kinds of mess that we have in El Salvador, or in Iran or in Beirut. Population is a political problem. Once population is out of control, it requires authoritarian government, even fascism, to reduce it… Our program in El Salvador didn’t work. The infrastructure was not there to support it. There were just too goddamned many people… To really reduce population, quickly, you have to pull all the males into the fighting and you have to kill significant numbers of fertile age females… The quickest way to reduce population is through famine, like in Africa, or through disease like the Black Death…”
Thomas Ferguson, State Department Office of Population Affairs

“The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood

“In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill…. But in designating them as the enemy, we fall into the trap of mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself.”
Alexander King, Bertrand Schneider – Founder and Secretary, respectively,
The Club of Rome, The First Global Revolution, pgs 104-105, 1991

“In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it is just as bad not to say it.”
J. Cousteau, 1991 explorer and UNESCO courier

“A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people…. We must shift our efforts from the treatment of the symptoms to the cutting out of the cancer. The operation will demand many apparently brutal and heartless decisions.”
Stanford Professor ” Paul Ehrlich in  The Population Bomb

“The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.”
Dr. Henry Kissinger New York Times, Oct. 28, 1973

“Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac,”  …  “The elderly are useless eaters” … “World population needs to be decreased by 50%”
Dr. Henry Kissinger

“We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.”
David Rockefeller

“War and famine would not do. Instead, disease offered the most efficient and fastest way to kill the billions that must soon die if the population crisis is to be solved. AIDS is not an efficient killer because it is too slow. My favorite candidate for eliminating 90 percent of the world’s population is airborne Ebola (Ebola Reston), because it is both highly lethal and it kills in days, instead of years. “We’ve got airborne diseases with 90 percent mortality in humans. Killing humans. Think about that. “You know, the bird flu’s good, too. For everyone who survives, he will have to bury nine”
Dr. Eric Pianka  University of Texas evolutionary ecologist and lizard expert, showed solutions for reducing the world’s population to an audience on population control

“No one will enter the New World Order unless he or she will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will take a Luciferian Initiation.”
David Spangler, Director of Planetary Initiative, United Nations

Women in the Netherlands who are deemed by the state to be unfit mothers should be sentenced to take contraception for a prescribed period of two years.”
Marjo Van Dijken (author of the bill in the Netherlands) in the Guardian

Childbearing should be a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license. All potential parents should be required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing.”
David Brower, first Executive Director of the Sierra Club

“The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes.”
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“The Planetary Regime might be given responsibility for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating various countries’ shares within their regional limits. Control of population size might remain the responsibility of each government, but the Regime would have some power to enforce the agreed limits.”
Obama’s science czar John P. Holdren: From a book he helped write ‘Ecoscience’

“The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining supercapitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control…. Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent.”
Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976, killed in the Korean Airlines 747 that was  shot down by the Soviet Union

“Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government.”
Dr. Henry Kissinger, Bilderberger Conference, Evians, France, 1991

So, as you can clearly see – the sole motive is control and power. It has nothing to do with nature or any other “noble” cause. It is their quest to achieve absolute, god-like control over every facet of people’s lives and decisions.

Do not fear. Be aware. Be alert. Be sober. KNOW YOUR CREATOR AND BE KNOWN BY YOUR CREATOR! The only other option is to be a slave. In truth, you are already enslaved in so many ways that you cannot imagine. But there is such thing as complete freedom. And Kissinger was wrong about pretty much everything – including that “every man fears the unknown.” Many might fear the unknown, but you do not have to be one of them!

Resources:

• The generic facts about the Stones can be found in numerous places, but Wikipedia is usually a good place to start.
• My curiosity about the Stones peeked when I happened across an article in Wired Magazine.
• The Georgia Guidestones Guidebook [70MB pdf] originally published in 1981 is quite enlightening.
• That list of quotes (and others) can be found in several places, but here are two noteworthy ones:
  • http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Print-Page.htm?EdNo=001&Info=0066245
  • http://www.lifeinthemixtalk.com/?p=12412

Video:

You can’t even imagine what I’ve been up to these last couple weeks… I can scarcely believe it myself. If only income was based on how “interesting” one’s life was, we’d be insanely wealthy by now. But our Creator continues to provide for us faithfully even as we stare down the bottom of the savings barrel. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Nor would I trade all the money in the world for a life even one bit less interesting.

I will work backwards and try to remember the most noteworthy details.

1. I just started a course in the Ancient (pictograph-based) Hebrew language
2. Bennah slept outside in low 40 F weather by himself
3. I’m currently working on editing a training DVD from the footage a buddy and I shot of a seminar at a Filipino martial arts class
4. Renee and I became founding members of a company that offers every media service known to man (from video production to web sites to marketing to traditional print, writing, and editing, to technology consulting, and more).
5. I went dumpster diving with the boys to find materials for the airplane they are building to escape to Pennsylvania. I am not making this up. They are convinced they can pull it off.
6. I took Renee and the kids to visit the Air Force Academy (where I graduated in 1999)  and told them a few stories at the places where the adventures actually occurred.
7. I was on the video crew and manned the lead camera at a big Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event in Denver.
8. I started submitting photos again to the stock agencies I’m with and also ramped up video submissions significantly.

I thought the list would be more fascinating without extra commentary, but here are some additional details about each item with resources and links for those with time for chasing fun bunny trails:

1. The course is offered on-line here:  http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/index.html – It turns out that the modern Hebrew characters represent at least 3 or 4 evolutionary transitions distant from the original pictographs that would have been inscribed on the tablets of the Commandments at Mt. Sinai and used in the original writings of Scripture. Not only this, but the original pictographs also restore the grounding of the language in its original, agricultural, cultural, concrete, and practical-every-day-life base. Not only does Hebrew (ancient and modern) read from right-to-left, but the original meanings and understandings are often completely opposite from our modern interpretations. For example, we think of the past as behind us and the future as in front of us. Not so in Hebrew thought where the past is in front of us (after all it is visible and completely known) and the future is behind us (for we cannot see it and do not know what it will be). How can we correctly interpret the Scriptures when we approach it with our backwards modern thinking and expect it’s meaning to conform to our cultural biases and preconceptions.
2. Actually, all the kids wanted to sleep outside the other night. They made a tarp “tent” in the back yard and bundled up in 10 layers of clothing each. One by one they all came in… except Bennah. He toughed out the whole night. I was so proud of him. I wanted to go out there and sleep through it with him, but I knew that he had to handle this one by himself – he had to know that he could do it without any help.
3. The instructor of the seminar was Rico Cortes of Filipino Combat Systems hosted by ColoradoFCS.com and TrainFightWinFitness.com. It was an awesome class. I’m looking forward to getting the DVD ready for sale and am seriously considering going back to the great folks at the gym there to continue my own training.
4. The name of the company is Garlic Media Group and we’re in the process of spinning up the website now. I know the name sounds a little funny, but it’s good for you! And it encapsulates our character and emphasis: we can offer a spectrum of media services and packages to any company, but our forte and mission lands squarely in the arena of health, wellness, and wholeness of body, mind, and spirit whether we’re generating marketing material for another business or creating entertainment for diverse audiences. There are 4 primary couples involved at this point and among the 8 of us we have: an award winning director / producer / editor / filmmaker; a published author / nutritionist; a chiropractic doctor; musicians; a programmer / technology consultant; a connector (marketing and PR genius); artists; a graphic designer; writers; editors; our own private think tank; several children; videographers; photographers; …and… someone who has worked at the White House… sorry, just had to throw that in, as it makes this COMPLETELY TRUE list even more outrageous. We’re excited to see where it goes.
5. That about speaks for itself… I actually interviewed my 8 yr old, 4 yr old, and 2 yr old boy and they told me all about their plans for the airplane. If I ever dig my way out of all the video I have to edit, maybe I’ll post some stuff from that project.
6. The Academy has and hasn’t changed much. The SMACKS still run on the strips at least. The cadets took the hill at noon meal formation as army helicopters flew over and dropped thousands of little “go Army beat AF” slips of paper (the two Academies were playing each other this weekend). You can still get pizza and watch movies in Arnold Hall. But now all the cadet areas are secured by gate-fences with keypads and there are new id badges. I’m guessing that all went into place after 9-11. The pay phones in the back of Arnold Hall – the ones I used every weekend as a freshman – are gone. And it seemed somehow much quieter from the outside looking in.
7. The MMA event was my first time shooting with high end equipment. I had to learn how to shoot with a shoulder-mount full manual camera, walk backwards, track the fighters making their grand entrances, and somehow not trip over the 250 feet of cable I was tethered to all that the same time. For starters. Then, after the fighters were in the cage, I was up on the platform mounted to one of the posts, shooting right down into it. Yes, these were cage matches. I was on one of three cameras and our director was switching between them live, giving us instructions and heads-up as necessary in our headsets; the feed was going to the massive screen for the event and streaming live over the internet. The 3 hour event evaporated in what felt like about 30 seconds of adrenaline.
8. Starting to have to get serious about every potential revenue stream… I had a pretty good couple months with my stock video work and wanted to invest a lot more time and energy in that since it was starting to pay off. But it’s a massive ship and slow to accelerate. Photo efforts have an immediate affect, but on a much smaller profit scale. So, it’s all a balancing act. And I’m still LEARNING what works and what doesn’t.

There’s more, but that will have to wrap it up for now… I have to get back to work editing video. Stay in touch!