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Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Take a Daycation

Often we see articles about great vacation get-away locations far removed from where we are. I often read these articles and dream of what it would be like to visit there, but overlook the great vacation attractions we have right here in my local area. All you would have to do is plan as you would typically for a vacation, but with the local attractions you have at home. A daycation isn’t limited to the day and can be as short as a weekend or as long as a week.
If you have been saving a little money away each month for your vacation days, you can have much more enjoyable local vacation without the travel expense. One of the downsides of just getting out of the house for a few days is that it is more of a chore than a vacation. Making meals for the family and gathering everything needed for the grill is a part of that.
Consider a stay at the nicer hotels in your area. Room service, a massage and a relaxing mid morning nap by the pool certainly makes for a better daycation for the wife and daughter than making sandwiches. And maybe an afternoon at the local spa followed by reservations to a nice restaurant in your area would be nice. The money saved on travel expenses can add these nice touches to a daycation.
Many local boat shops will trailer a boat to the water for a weekend rental if you already have a boating license. You may even get cheaper rates renting a boat for the weekend considering you are a local rather than a tourist. This makes for an enjoyable family day on the lake. Also, you can invite your friends along rather than just sending a postcard.
Typically, there will be theatrical events and festivals in your local area that coincide with your vacation dates. Perhaps, in the past you have missed these fun events because you were abroad. A day at a local event can be made more enjoyable when spent with friends, neighbors and family!
Perhaps the most rewarding benefit of the daycation is that it can also be practical. Those plans to contract small home renovations fit nicely into this time away from home. Your contractors can have the whole week to renovate your kitchen or bathroom. This makes for a wonderful return home gift.
Compare the expenses of a full vacation abroad to one closer to home and the bottom line speaks for itself. And you can look forward to your next daycation next year!
Image Credit: Busena_Terrace-CC-BY-2.-5-Author-663highland

A Gift to my Father

What does Dad want? We ask ourselves this question several times each year.
He may be staunchly resistant to divulging his wish list. Unfortunately, this may result in some potentially horrid gifts. I have to admit, I have witnessed some awful ties, sweaters and pungent aftershaves around the water cooler after gift giving holidays. In confidence, I have even worn a few. What would perhaps be considered the best gift for Dad doesn’t cost anything. It is more than the gift of our time. Maybe we do spend a lot of quality time with Dad, but we are talking about something more substantial than the afternoon beer on the porch. As we get older, we may have forgotten that Dad was once the authority on all life issues we faced.
Our ascension into adulthood did not make him any less the authority. I’m reminded of a time when I faced a potentially volatile crisis. I looked over to see my dad staring back at me intently. I asked him for his advice to which he replied, “I’m glad you asked.” 
Someone once said it takes a village to raise a child. It definitely takes a family. Although some are better than others, good parenting is not a talent but a skill handed down from generation to generation. Often we use our own parents as models for how we raise our children. We hope to use the same good judgment in some situations and avoid their mistakes. I regarded my father’s parenting advice with my children as invaluable. More importantly, my father was more to my children than the nice old guy who always had a dollar to give.
My children will tell you, granddad was Marlon Brando in The Godfather and Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition. He was iconic to them. It is ironic that while parenting is a word, grandparenting is not. Perhaps this is a term that refers to something that only I knew in my own family. There is no difference in the respect I gave my father and the respect I expect from my children. He sat at the head of my table across from me when we ate together, and my children knew he commanded my respect.
As a result, my children showed him the same honor and respect. This would have remained true if he had lived to be a century old. There is no name for this gift I gave to my father every day of my life. I continue giving it in the way I live my life today even after his death. Quite simply, my dad was a father every day.
And perhaps, this gift was the love, honor and respect of his family.
Image Credit: MorgueFile By Alvimann

About My Name: Edenjaid is SEO Infamous!

Your Name Can Be The Strongest Tool You Have in Search Engine Optimization or The Worst
My name is actually not special, John D. Cumberland. John is what hospitals name you when they don’t know who you are. Jaid is derived from my initials, J.D.C. I was referred to as J.D. growing up because of the prevalence of other family members also named John. We have quite a few Janes as well. Despite the lack of originality in our names, we are actually a very close family and take time to get together often. My 4 year old niece loved to ride on my shoulders and would call to me to pick her up. She couldn’t yet correctly pronounce “J.D.” so she would call me “Jade”, and the name stuck. Within my family, this was my pet name and it has stayed with me until this day.
Edenjaid is the character I play on a popular online fantasy game called World of Warcraft. She leads eight guilds total with nearly 10,000 active members across three servers. Eden is infamous among this niche. And her guild, Ørion is among the oldest on the game. Before the search engines changed the way they rank searches, simply searching “Edenjaid” on Google would net you nearly 100,000 relevant hits. Today, searching Edenjaid on Google will only net you around 2000 relevant hits. But this is still quite impressive for a humble night elf. How is this relevant to SEO?
Ørion’s website and blog was displaying Google Adsense advertisement for a while as a means to supplement our site host fees. Upon checking my Adsense account, I noticed that I had a lot of clicks. I mean a lot. In our first month of hosting Adsense, Ørion had earned nearly $2000 in revenue! Over the span of 11 months we had earned nearly $30,000 in ad revenue. Now before you run out and get your Warcraft Game from Walmart and host Adsense it’s important to note that I got banned from Adsense. I had a membership base of nearly 10,000 and they were clicking my ads, thinking they were helping the site. They were, just not within Google’s terms of service. After the ban, I felt lucky two nerds dressed in smart black business suits donning Ray-Bans and pocket protectors hadn’t yet arrived at my door offering me a ride to an undisclosed location.
My experience was quite by accident, having no idea how online marketing worked and very little understanding of how advertising could be manipulated. I also had two of perhaps the most important tools in online marketing. I had a highly marketable name, and thousands of potential customers. The incident with Adsense could have gotten me into serious trouble. I only post my story to dissuade readers from making the same mistakes I did. I will never be able to have an Adsense account again. That is gone for me.
This was my first lesson in online marketing and advertising. After the Adsense ban, I noticed any site that bore the name of Edenjaid began to net big profits for online sales. Soon Eden was all over the search engines, popping up in places where she had no business being. She began to be featured in online articles having no connection to her at all. Before long, Eden even received the ultimate honor usually reserved for celebrities. She was faked and posted nude on the internet! I received none of these profits and had sullied the good name of my little night elf. I vowed to make amends.
Today, Edenjaid receives considerably less search engine results but those results are no longer questionable. Eden is turning over a new leaf and marketing her name in a respectable way. The good name of my little night elf is slowing becoming a household word again on the search engines. Having learned her lesson, she limits the use of her extensive membership base to in game raids and attacks and no longer wields them upon unsuspecting search engines.
Image Credit : Edenjaid.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Existential Crisis

Existential Crisis

This will not be gentle as I do not owe you a goddamned thing. I do not believe in a god that would wish us to kill each other. I do not believe any god who would create universal law and then bend or break that law for us. I do not believe we are here to hate or subjugate others for the color of their skin or the nature of their beliefs. I cannot believe in your gods because of the obvious lapses in common fucking sense.

The doctrine is clearly bullshit! Heaven is the same as the reality of rich people with golden mansions? Paradise is filled with subjugated virgins? We are just born to die with no purpose for being at all but to die? Did you really think this through before you made this shit up? You now judge others, indoctrinate your children and justify murder based upon this loosely aggregated fantasy you must glue together with faith in denial of simple common sense?

Maybe this is the way it is supposed to be. Maybe this world is one gigantic toilet bowl where dumb mutherfuckers incapable of grasping reality are discarded. And drugs, alcohol and suicide are the salvation from the sanctified idiots with all the answers. Maybe when I do drugs, drink alcohol or commit suicide I am not going to hell... Maybe I'm leaving it?! Either way... One thing is certain. You stupid elected motherfuckers have no goddamned clue. The dumb-asses who elected you are as FUCKED as you are.

Fuck Israel and its struggle to to overtake a god-given sliver of dirt in the middle of no where. And ask what happened to all the Native Americans that used to live here? You don't see dead people under your feet or the absence of an entire civilization that once existed here. Fuck religion and ask why slavery is such a noble life when the rich obviously do not share your convictions? Fuck your puppet presidents who inherit a legacy so fucked up no one wants the office. Fuck all of you dumb shits for paying the taxes that drop bombs and still thinking your bitching is making a difference.

I am aware that only nausea separates the wealthy from the impoverished. I see how easily I could be wealthy yet I cannot stomach the thought of feeding off the suffering of others and gorging myself while others sacrifice so that I may be obese and opulent. I cannot cut out the aware parts of myself to pretend to be as fucking shallow and placid as you. I cannot make ornate pieces of green paper my sole reason for living when I am aware of so much more.

No, I'm not politically correct. This is what an existential crisis looks like. I see it as a coming to term and a meeting with reality as it is rather than I wish it to be. The solution is pretty simple from my perspective from the outside looking in. Kill each other all at once. Or give up your ignorant bullshit reasons to kill and die and accept you are all stuck on this fucking rock for 80 to 100 years and may as well make the best of it.

I understand this world is where the doe-eyed dead come to stay dead an pretend to be alive, but I wonder why the fuck I am here? This is what an existential crisis looks like from the inside out. But perhaps you'd prefer a psychological definition. "A stage or turning point where the person is faced with finding meaning and purpose in life. A psychological or moral crisis causing a person to ask questions about human existence."

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Wet: The Broken Letter



 "Of Dreams & Destiny" from the Idolatry Series

The Farm House

            I find myself in a misty rain forest. There is typically the awareness of civilization nearby whenever one goes into nature. Even on a long excursion one is aware of the direction of people. Here is there is no such awareness. This is pristine and I get a sense that there are no people anywhere. I begin to wonder how I got here and, more importantly, how to get out. I have lost all sense of awareness and I am at the mercy of this dream. This is my reality now and the sounds of the creatures around me are as real to me as those seated around me now as I write this. Such is the nature of our perception of reality.

            Ahead of me a shadow blocks out what little light is getting through the canopy of this lush environment. I think it is large bird of prey and its massive black wingspan dazzles me. She hits the ground in front of me and takes me into her arms and huddles me beneath the brush. I peek out but she holds me. She whispers into my mind. “Don’t seek them out, they will find us soon enough. The time is running out as desperation in high. You are all grown up now, love. You can do this.”

I do not want a repeat of the zombie dreams. I am older now and I am no longer afraid of them anymore, but the thing about zombies is that they are constantly grasping. They want to take a piece of you and their sole purpose is to make you like them. Although they wander around, they are dead inside. In this, zombies are real and, even though I am not frightened by them, I abhor them. There is movement in the brush ahead and I know that we are being hunted. Eve is gone leaving me there alone.

I wander for what seems like hours and eventually emerge from the tree line to an old farm house. I enter in to the house and explore its many rooms. The paint is peeling from the walls and there is a distinct and disgusting odor of filth and stale piss. There are others here with me. I am aware they are strangers to each other as well as this place. On the table in the large den are an assortment of weapons and a phone.

The phone rings and one of the people picks it up and answers it. His eyes grow wide and then he hangs up the phone. He stares at me for a moment then takes the gun and fires it at me! I feel the sickening pain as the bullet enter my shoulder through and through. I take a solid stainless blade from the table and throw it at him. It enters into his throat to the hilt and he falls backward. There is a moment of shock and horror among those of us remaining. Then everyone grasps for the weapons and scatters.

We became aware that we were trapped on the farm. We were free to roam its boarders but any attempt to leave and we were picked off and the bodies were left laying there. And there were continuously more people arriving oblivious and confused. Those that could not grasp the rules quickly were killed by the others.

I had killed many people and now I only wanted to hide and survive. It was relentless and as night fell the screams were primal and constant. It was a nightmare but also unlike a dream. I was totally immersed and had lost myself within this reality. I could not discern it as a dream. It is rare for a person to dream of killing another human being and I had killed too many to count to save my own life.

 It was understood we killed by utilizing deceit and trickery for survival and food. Unknown masters spoke to those who held the phone and they held the advantage over the rest of us. We paired and grouped for protection, but the alliances were unsteady and brief. There was no unity or sense of trust.

I was spotted by a black man as I hid behind a table. He shot at me as I turned the table onto him. His weapon was empty and I mounted him grasping his throat. I cried as I closed my fingers around his neck and watched the life leave him. The phone slipped from his pocket and began to ring. The morning sun was rising outside.

I was done. I no longer cared if I was killed. I only wanted to walk out of the house and enter the warmth of the sun. The phone would not stop ringing. Others saw that I was no longer hiding or hunting. They began to emerge from the house behind me where I sat bloody and hurting. I answered the phone and the cold remorseless voice on the other end said, “We know your every move… continue or die.”

 “If you know my every move, then know I’m going to kill you.” The voice begins to reply. But I interrupt, “Shut the fuck up.” I disconnect the phone and toss it. I’m getting frustrated as I become aware the voice is Eve’s and this whole thing was a horrid dream. No different than the awful zombie dreams of my childhood.

I tell the others I refuse to continue playing and toss down my blades. Anyone that attacks me must attack me in the open. I walk out into the yard. They follow and for a while we all sit peacefully and friendly. I think again how petty and cowardly this game is and then the realization occurs to me the game is life itself!

The people begin to cautiously huddle together as Eve and other entities emerged from the tree line. I have always gotten a sense that this whole thing was a futile effort and much bigger than we could overcome. But I was aware that this was a new thing. Never before had entities taken people and trained them to become aware and to train others. Perhaps we have failed countless times before, but we had never been required to do anymore than see and know. We were now required to become aware of truth or die several times a night, and each and every night until we got this. Eve sat with me as I awaited my alarm clock to sound off. I was surprised at how long the experience seemed. The entire event was no longer than a couple of hours.

 “They have made your lives a competition against yourselves and a game for their amusement. If you are struggling against yourselves you aren’t struggling against them. The premise is generic is it not? How many versions of this same play have you seen in books and movies? It is generic because the ascended have been trying to make you all aware for as long as the many versions of the story have been around. Simply don’t play. And accept every challenge in the open. Like the zombies, I’m trying to show you it isn’t real. The generic premise of your lives is not real.”



Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Indian Summer

Indian Summer  

    An epic saga that spans long before the existence of our world is told by the ones who lived to see them emerge from the earth. Passed down from ancient civilizations from generation to generation lest we ever forget.

      They are the first gods and the basis from which all mankind's nightmares originated. They return to cleanse the earth and make all things new. They are the universal balance, but a deceptive bargain has tipped the scales toward chaos and mankind is hurled toward oblivion.

They return again ravenous with a hunger that cannot be sated until all the blood and flesh of man upon the earth is consumed. But even in the face of such a terrifying force of nature, mankind's lust for power may just match their hunger for blood. A spiraling game of power unfolds as the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

     Our Native heritage becomes more than lore and serves as the only guide we have to avert the seemingly inevitable. History becomes a cruel lesson as we learn it repeats across eons. The story branches beyond our world to the reaches of the cosmos where entire worlds are destroyed And love becomes a vice in a heartbreaking tryst where one must lose the one she loves or the other must lose immortality.

Synopsis:

     We share a perplexing relationship with our ancient past. We often disregard many of the beliefs and customs of our ancestors while simultaneously accepting the parts of our history as religion. As a civilization, we have a very selective memory when it comes to our past. We choose which parts we will accept as fact and which we will regard as lore. This tends to be weighed heavily toward what serves our purposes. When events are

Ascension

      Ascension is book two in the shocking Idolatry series that continues to make no apologies for its assertions, but goes even further to offer the reader a disturbingly interactive experience into discovery of the self only thought possible by gods.

    With Eve and other entities as our guides we are seduced into the hidden powers of our minds to reveal the nature of ourselves and the very real power within each of us. We only need let go of our dogged beliefs in doctrine and accept Universal Truth as the only governing force over us.

      Can humanity embrace the truth of this reality or will it continue to be enslaved by those that created our illusion of reality? Will we face cataclysmic future where death is not the worst that can befall us or will we ascend to become the universal beings we were always meant to be? Ascension forces us to answer some difficult questions and even challenges our gods as well as the masters who created them.

     We will glimpse a beautiful and limitless universe with our own eyes and be asked to choose for ourselves what is real. We will merge with ascended guides and become enlightened. We will come to know that which lay just beyond the darkness of our closed eyes and gaze into the majesty of the human ascended soul. Ascension offers us a tempting choice if we dare to deny the light.

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