Weekend Pearl: The Best Place to Learn Guitar

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

~Berthold Auerbach~

I love music. A lot. For years, my love was limited to appreciating the work of others, then I learned to play guitar. Now my love borders on obsession. The ability to play has really enriched my life, and I want to share with you what I have found to be the best site to learn how to play. Its Called Chordie.com. You don’t need any formal training or knowledge of guitar in order to get started. In fact, with a little persistence you could probably learn a simple song in just one day. There are even diagrams to show you how to play each chord. Check out this public songbook that has some easy to play songs. So use the weekend and open some new doors in your mind!

Vapid dialogues and Shallow Demagogues

“What is your substance, whereof are you made,
That millions of strange shadows on you tend?”

~William Shakespeare~

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of hearing about the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama’s racist, anti-Semitic minister. I know, I know, it’s important to the campaign. And it’s not that I’m sitting in Obama’s corner wringing my hands about his chances of winning the primary elections. I’m simply weary with the fact that we as a people haven’t moved beyond this. In my estimation, the dear Reverend isn’t even the main issue here. There have always been and always will be madding, divisive demagogues spewing forth their vitriol to the masses. The question that looms in my mind is, when the masses will stop listening? The real moral tragedy isn’t that the Reverend hates me because I’m white, or hates me because I’m middle class, or hates the Jews. The tragedy is that he has been able to make a lifelong career out of playing the race card and harming his own ethnic community through his attitude of learned and eternal victimhood. If he was one crazy, hateful man, it wouldn’t matter. But he’s not. He’s one hateful man that has 10,000 people in his congregation who evidently really enjoy listening to his drivel. THAT is a moral travesty. My suspicion is that, as senator Obama maintains, many in the congregation aren’t even listening to what he’s saying, perhaps the senator and many others are only there to enjoy the reality-TV-show like shock factor. Regardless of the reason, this huge following is very telling. Our popular culture seems to be more fixated on ideas and people that are shocking or entertaining than upon those that have substance. Our world has become so superficial that we have in many ways regressed into a pre-enlightenment dark age in which spectacle reigns supreme. We look with horror or morbid amusement at the savage glee surrounding witch hunts, but have we not become the same? Giving our attention, and often times support, to an idea or public figure merely because we are amused by the grotesque nature of them? In the last few decades, we’ve lost our moral anchoring, and drifted into hedonism. Now I fear that even hedonism has lost its allure, and something darker and uglier is beginning to hold us in its thrall. Are we becoming modern barbarians? Fixated on the spectacle of watching proverbial blood spill? Only time will tell. We desperately need a grassroots movement that champions ideas , entertainment , and people of substance. The greatest hope for this, I believe is in the free exchange of ideas we find here, on the web. So let’s stop having vapid conversations about hateful men, and move on the dialogues that have some substance!

Use Multitasking to Enhance your Focus

Vision, discipline and focus. With these three life skills in abundance, there’s very little that we can’t do. I like to think of my life as blank slate upon which I am free to express myself as I choose. But what if you or I lack one of these skills? Does missing of one of these hold us back from becoming who and what we want to become? When I look at them, I can see where a deficiency here does indeed hold me back. For me, its focus. I have always had a distinct vision of what I want to do with my life, and medical school has taught me a lot about discipline (though I’m still learning). What really holds me back from my aspirations becoming reality is my lack of focus. Maybe it’s that I have a touch of ADD, and maybe it’s that I just have a busy mind, but it seems that throughout life, I’ve had trouble focusing on a task, and completing tasks. Of late though, I’ve been becoming much more productive through the art of conscious multitasking. This really first occurred to me when I realized that I constantly broke up my study by doodling, or checking on something on the internet, or just walking around my apartment. I just couldn’t seem to focus for more than about 20 minutes at a time. And so, as you can imagine, my productivity was horrible. That’s when I decided to consciously multitask. Instead of just performing random activity when my attention needed to focus, I had other things I could do that would be a productive distraction. Now I can set out things at the start of the day, and when I feel my attention drift, I pay bills, answer email, write my blog post, or study something entirely different for about ten minutes. Even on medical rotations, there is often an opportunity for some calculated distraction (ie, reading a handbook on downtime, etc). This has allowed me to indulge my desire to multitask, and actually become more productive. I realize that not everyone is like me. I have friends who need to be distraction free in order to concentrate. But if you’re someone who finds it maddening to try and focus in a “quiet study environment”, then maybe it’s time to stop fighting your nature. Put on some music, go with your flow, and be productively distracted. [photo via businessweek]

5 Steps to Enjoying Each Day

“Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going to fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.”

~Eddie Cantor~

Anyone who’s been watching the field of tech knows that the future is mobile. We all want our computers a little lighter, a little smaller, with more battery life and internet capabilities. Why, you may ask? Well so that we can get more done of course. So we can now take work with us wherever we go. As I was pondering this, it struck me as how we are all really missing the point. The original purpose of the computer was to free up more time, not take up more time. It’s the same with most of our technology. I didn’t have to bring in wood this morning, yet I’m warm, and breakfast is cooking. I didn’t have to draw and heat water over a fire when I took my shower, etcetera. We have all of this technology in place to save us time, and so it has. It is what we have done with our time that is the problem. Instead of using our free time to enjoy each day, we’ve used it to do more each day. Instead of allowing us to slow the pace of life a bit, it has allowed us to speed it up. Today we leverage the time saving aspects of technology so that we can maintain a quick, almost frantic lifestyle. Our lives have become so fast that even our leisure time is stressful and expensive. What would happen I wonder, if instead of filling our new found time to the bursting point we filled it with just a reasonable number of good things? What if we used our time to just stop and enjoy our day? Here are five steps that I have found help me make the most out of my day, instead of just doing the most:

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1) Get up early- I have consistently found that my best days are those in which I get up early. There’s something about not being rushed during those sacred morning rituals that really helps start the day off right.

2) Turn it off- We all love our gadgets, myself very much included. But if you can just turn it all off for even half an hour, you will be well on your way to really being able to enjoy the day. Our computers and phones speed us up far more than I think we often realize.

3) Don’t try to do it all- this applies to work and leisure. Take your day, pick only those things that absolutely must be done today, then do them. Then pick only a few things that you want to do, and really enjoy them. If you want to go to a movie, go to a movie. Don’t go shoppingthentothearcadethentotheputtputtcoursethenamovie. Just pick one thing, and really enjoy it.

4) Get outside- Walking to your car doesn’t count. Actually step out of the door and enjoy the day, it won’t hurt you. Literally take time to smell the roses, or whatever flower happens to be nearby.

5) Learn to say no- This is perhaps one of the most valuable skills that you’ll need to acquire if you want to enjoy every day. You may have succeeded in slowing your life down, but it’s all a moot point if you allow everyone else to speed you up again. Its hard to say no to coworkers and friends, but if you want to be able to slow down and really enjoy life, instead of just blitzing through it, that’s a skill you’ll need to master.

The Imperative to Create

“True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.”

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery~

Last weekend, I went to a cabin retreat with some friends. It was just a time for everyone to relax and unwind (and contributed to the absence of posts this week). I considered working on a new post over the weekend, but I couldn’t quit fiddling with my rekindled interest in ink sketching. Micalyn and I had bought art supplies to play with since the forecast called for rain, and I chose some ink and nibs. Initially when I sat down with my new supplies, I just doodled. As I continued to play around however, some great ideas began to flit back and forth in my mind. Then I really found my muse, and for the rest of the rainy day, that’s what I worked on. In that moment I had an epiphany that has been burgeoning in my mind since I began writing for SqueezedFresh. I had forgotten the joy of creating. I had forgotten the catharsis of making something, instead of consuming something. We have become increasingly a culture of consumers instead of creators, and have forgotten the joy in producing something original and uniquely ours. In a prior post, I wrote about the potential power of the web to bring forth a remix culture, but I didn’t really stress how important I feel it is to the human soul that this culture grow and spread. Throughout our past, individuals have always created. Many times this creativity was spurred by necessity. In this modern time, where our every need is met, what is the spark that will bring us back to the act of creation? I think that in this time of convenience and consumerism, we need desperately to rediscover the unique joy of being creators. We need to learn not only to enjoy works of art, music, and cinema, but to produce them. The tools are at our fingertips like never before. So let this be your wake up call. Get out there and cut, paste, draw, write, act, play, and create!

5 Blogs that will improve your life

Anyone who has ever read a book knows about the potential that a good read has to mold your philosophies and changed your perception of life. Well, a good blog can do the same thing. In fact, a blog arguably has more potential because of the increased intimacy between the blogger and their audience. Below you’ll find the five blogs that have enhanced my view on life in a very positive way. They have made me a better person, so I thought I’d share them with my readers.

Zen Habits- This is overall my absolute favorite blog. Leo is a fantastic blogger, and his consistently thoughtful and gracious writing has many times changed how I view the world. I couldn’t speak highly enough of this blog.

Life Remix- The recently launched Life Remix is a collection of the crème ala crème of personal development blogs. It’s a great blog for discovering other writers that you really enjoy.

Lifehacker- For all things digital, it doesn’t get any better. Lifehacker has multiple writers so it’s constantly updated and consistently useful.

Get Rich Slowly- Money isn’t what happiness is all about, and it much easier to accept that when your not struggling with debt. This blog will change how you think about money.

Lifedev- Productivity can be about one of two things. It can be about getting more done in your day, or it can by about getting your day done in less time. Whichever one of these scenarios fits you, you’ll find lots of ways to achieve it on Lifedev.

And lastly of course there’s squeezedfresh! I created this blog because I could never find anyone who was writing consistently on our ever shifting culture. So read on, and make friends with some good blogs.

Culture Trends in America: intellectual property and the information age

“So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in culture that we don’t even question when the control of that property removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture democratically.”

~Lawrence Lessing~

I have a confession to make; I have trouble feeling bad about file sharing. And I am not alone. p2pnews reports that as of October 2004 over four and a half million p2p users online at any given moment. Amazingly, that’s just the statistics for American IPs. Add in the global IPs and you can tack on another two million users. Mind you, these are not monthly or even daily numbers; they are a moment by moment average of users. The obvious question that these statistics being up is this: why is it that so many people don’t find an issue with crossing intellectual property boundaries? Is this just perhaps a practical extension of the maxim that everyone would be a thief if they knew they would be caught? After all, though there is some chance of litigation against a file sharer, its likelihood is truly remote. Lifehacker puts the matter succinctly: “The RIAA has conducted about 26,000 lawsuits, and there are more than 15 million music downloaders. Mark Mulligan of Jupiter Research said it best: “If you’re a file sharer, you know that the likelihood of you being caught is very similar to that of being hit by an asteroid.” So is that it? Are people just amoral when they don’t fear punishment? While I agree that may be part of the answer, I don’t feel that it is the whole of it. Other concurrent trends are emerging that point to a complete shift in the way we think about intellectual property. One of the most prominent of those trends is the growing community of writers, artists, musicians, and software developers who embrace the concept of remix culture. Remix culture is a term first coined by creative commons founder Lawrence Lessing to describe a culture that embraces the natural creativity of the individual. In a remix culture, changing and improving music, literature, art and software is not just tolerated but encouraged. Furthermore, the individual would be free to use the creator’s intellectual property in any non-commercial way (Mr. Lessing has written a freely available e-book on this topic). This vision of a free information society is really resonating, and has already produced some amazing but controversial works of art, music and software. One of the most notable is the grey album by dj dangermouse. This freely distributed album was a creative remix of the black album by Jay-Z and the Beatles white album. Another thriving creative commons community is sourceforge. Sourceforge is a community of software developers, and most work under creative commons license to write software for the masses. These are but a few examples of how our culture is evolving into a free information society. I think that the attempts of the RIAA , MPAA and other corporate entities to strictly control their intellectual property is not a matter of catching pirates, but of trying to stop an entire culture from undergoing a paradigm shift. That, I believe, is why these organizations will ultimately fail. The future of intellectual property demands new methods of monetization. The old models are broken, and trying to fight a culture shift is just a good way to get plowed under by the ideas of the future. While the RIAA may be having a fit, this brave new cultural frontier is actually very exciting for the individual and the creator. A remix culture will bring about a new level of intimacy between the creator and the consumer, and will empower the average individual to produce and create without the need of an expensive and restrictive middleman. It’s the future, and I say bring it on!

Culture trends in America: Connectivity and isolation in the 21st Century

The cat is out of the bag, as it were, on Google latest attempt to dominate the digital world. Unstrung reports that Google put in at least a 4.6 billion dollar bid for the700 MHz spectrum of wireless bandwidth. Unstrungs Dan Jonas reports:
“ Google (Nasdaq: GOOG – message board) has added to the pressure on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt a more “open” approach to the forthcoming 700 MHz wireless broadband spectrum auctions, saying that it will meet the minimum price of $4.6 billion for a specific bandwidth block if the commission accepts four conditions it wants to apply to the auction winners.”
What exactly Google will be wanting to do with this bandwidth is still subject to speculation, but one thing is clear Whatever it is, it’s going to make us all even more “connected” than ever before. Ten years ago, if you wanted to have a conversation with someone, you had only three choices. You could call their house, you could send a letter, or your could drive over for a visit. About that same time a novel technology called email had just began to come of age for the average American. Since then, advances in information technology have revolutionized how we connect with each other. Today, I can be reached by landline, cell phone, email, snail mail, AIM, MSN, facebook, myspace, and text message. Oh, or you could just come visit. So with all of these new ways to connect, why is that we as individuals feel so alone? Rachel Baldino at sixwise reports on a recent study exploring social isolation in the United States:
“Lynn Smith-Lovin, a sociology professor at Duke University, and one of the key researchers involved in conducting this in-depth, comprehensive study, says the findings indicate that one fourth of Americans reported feeling that they have nobody with whom they can discuss their innermost thoughts, worries and woes. According to Shankar Vendantam’s recent Washington Post article about this study, this is “more than double the number who were similarly isolated in 1985. Overall, the number of people Americans have in their closest circle of confidants has dropped from around three to about two.” This study is a powerful affirmation that simply being connected digitally isn’t the same as being in connection with others. You’ll notice that the number of individuals that feel isolated has doubled in a timeframe that has been marked by the rise of the internet and the cell phone. Is there a correlation between these two facts? I would have to say I believe that there is. In fact, I think this answers some of the more puzzling questions concerning the way that people interact in modern culture. Almost certainly you’ve seen in the news recently individuals who have ruined their own careers by disclosing intimate and at times sordid details about their personal lives online. Why is it that we as a people are gravitating towards the exhibitionism of full disclosure to strangers, while at the same time we seem irresistibly attracted to voyeuristic reality television? I think the answer, or part of the answer, lies in the findings of the aforementioned study. As an individual’s circle of friends continues to shrink, there will be an ever increasing need for someone to tell our troubles too. We just want someone to care. And at some point one becomes so desperate that the comments page on facebook or myspace becomes an acceptable replacement for true intimacy. Likewise, reality TV has become our replacement for keeping our friends secrets. Instead, we have the weak substitute of watching reality show contestants and celebrities air their dirty laundry. What a sad sick “connection” between people. Yet this is exactly the type of connections that we seem to be having more and more. Facebook instead of friends, Survivor instead of being someone’s confidant, and of course, we substitute pornography in place of actually being lovers. This could be an entire article unto itself. Even if we set aside for a moment the moral aspects of sexual addiction, the statistics tell a disturbing tale.
In a survey of 5,750 participants, 78% said they were addicted to pornography. 51% said that they viewed pornographic material daily. Sex is the #1 searched for topic on the Internet (Dr. Robert Weiss, Sexual Recovery Institute, Washington Times, 1/26/2000), and the number of pornographic web pages now tops 260 million, a growth rate of nearly 20-fold since 1998.(N2H2 Incorporated, “N2H2 Reports Number of Pornographic Web Pages…”2004).[Source] It’s abundantly clear from these numbers that we are seeking to replace even our most intimate relationships with a shallow substitute. And I feel that once again at the root of this disturbing trend is a deep sense of being “alone together”. We have this sense that, although we are connected to each other in more ways than ever before, we are becoming out of touch with each other. I am not suggesting in this article that information and communication technologies are bad. But neither are they good. They are simple a tool and as such, they are amoral. It is up to us as a society to realize that these information technologies are merely a means to enhance our interactions with each other, not replace them. Until we cease make these digital “connections” an end unto themselves, we will continue to feel as if we’re all alone together.

Six Benefits to Creating a Personal Manifesto

“Preparation for old age should begin not later than one’s teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly become filled on retirement.”

~ Dwight L. Moody ~

man·i·fes·to (mān’ə-fěs’tō) n. pl. man·i·fes·toes or man·i·fes·tos A public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially of a political nature. intr.v.
man·i·fes·toed, man·i·fes·to·ing, Man·i·fes·toes To issue such a declaration.

Although most of us associate manifestos with communist regimes, the reality is that any group party or individual can create one. A manifesto is merely a document outlining principles and beliefs. In this article, I’m going to elucidate the benefits of creating your own personal manifesto. This article will be followed up by a Howto on exactly how to go about writing yours.

Six Benefits of writing your manifesto

1) Know thyself

Writing your principles, goals, and intentions out is a great way to engage in some self exploration. In fact, you may actually be surprised by what you discover about yourself when you actually sit down and make yourself articulate what you want.

2) Solidify what it actually is that you want out of life
Many times we don’t get what we want out of life because we don’t really know what we want. We drift through each day with only a hazy set of goals and aspirations. In such a state, it’s easy to make missteps. Writing out your goals in life is a one effective method to really define to yourself what you want.

3) Reassess your life’s direction
When you do write out your manifesto, you may be shocked to realize that what you want out of life and where you’re going in life are two different things. It’s very common to allow the daily grind to bury our most cherished dreams in a heap of bill paying, careless spending, and just generally following the path of least resistance. Although this realization may be dismaying, it’s a priceless epiphany if you actually want to someday live your dreams.

4) Motivate yourself
Whenever you feel like your life is going nowhere, you can always pull out a personal manifesto and draw inspiration from your dreams. If your grinding through a hard time at work or school, you can look at those dreams and know that the sacrifices you are making in your life will someday pay off big.

5) Keep a record of your personal growth
One of the neatest things you can do is reassess and rewrite your manifesto each year (or every six months, etcetera). After a few incarnations, you will really be able to see your growth as a person. It’s a fascinating and useful tool for introspection that will help you to see the person you were, as well as the person you are becoming.

6) Stay on track.
Take your personal manifesto and post it on your fridge or cubicle wall, and you will be amazed at how much easier it is to chase down your dreams. There’s something about having a tangible representation of your personal beliefs and goals that is very empowering. So go ahead create yours today!

Capitalism vs. Socialism: Why it matters in this election cycle

“Capitalism and communism stand at opposite poles. Their essential difference is this: The communist, seeing the rich man and his fine home, says: ‘No man should have so much.’ The capitalist, seeing the same thing, says: ‘All men should have so much.’”

Father knows best. At least that’s what my father used to (and still does) say when there was a disparity between my idea of how I should run my life and his idea of how I should run my life. I hardly think my experience is unique. Most parents feel they know what’s best for their children. And most of the time they do know best. But children grow up. When you’re no longer a child, a parent insisting that they know how to run your life ceases to become an asset and becomes an annoying intrusion into your life. The frank truth of the matter is that at this point, it doesn’t matter whether or not they’re right. As an adult, it is your explicit right to make your own choices. So what does all of this have to do with models of government? Well, in the case of capitalism and socialism, everything. The above analogy really highlights why I feel so strongly about capitalism. After all, the essence of capitalism is that the population at large should be free to choose how they run their own life. It’s the most practical democratic model in existence. Every person gets to vote every day on issues that matter to them. How do we vote, you may ask? Through our money. This is a really brilliant way to manage government. So you think Microsoft has an inferior product? Buy a mac. You think McDonalds is making you fat? Eat at subway. Of course there is one caveat to this system. This system assumes that the average individual is intelligent enough to make good decisions for his or her life. So what of those individuals make poor choices and wreck their lives? Well, that’s their right too. So you bought a nose job that you hate? That poor choice was your right. You ate McDonalds for dinner every night and now you’re an obese diabetic? That poor choice also is yours to make. I find that I can easily encapsulate the whole philosophy of capitalism in one simple statement: Its your life: make it or break it. Simple and effective. Of course wrapped into this statement are concepts that are hard for some to swallow such as the thought that if there is success there must be failure, and if there is personal choice then there must be personal responsibility. These concepts simply don’t fly in a society where lawsuits and learned victimization are the order of the day. Be that as it may, this system has much to recommend it. Let us now turn our attention to the socialistic model of government. As with capitalism, I believe I can sum up the tenants of socialism in one simple phrase: Its your life; but you’re not responsible enough to make choices and need the governments help. You see, much like the nagging parent, the socialist sees the citizen as an eternal child, and feels the need to constantly step in and “help” said child make the right choices. Want some examples? Sure thing. How about: The government should choose how you invest your retirement (social security). The government should choose your doctor, and should tell the doctor what drugs they can use to treat you (universal health care). The government should decide who educates your children (department of Education). The government should decide how successful a company can be before it becomes “too successful”(i.e. fining Exxon mobile for making “too much money”). Even mundane things like the decision to wear a seatbelt or the decision to ride motorcycles without a helmet are mandated by this “government knows best” philosophy. So what if government knows best? Whether the government knows best or not, it is grossly overstepping its bounds when it impinges on my freedom to choose how I live my life. Allow me now to opine on why I think so many good people can be misled by socialistic thinking. I truly believe that it has a great deal to do with compassion and kind heartedness. No one wants to see a homeless man on the street. No one wants to see a child get a poor education. And no one wants to see small mom and pop businesses go under. I feel that it is seeing the sad reality of life that causes many to consider socialism the answer to the world’s woes. But is it truly? One must remember the ugly side of socialisms allure. Where there is no failure, there can be no success; only mediocrity. Punish those who succeed in life, and this mediocrity will reign supreme. Reward people who fail at life with constant handouts, and they will continue to fail. Failure is the single greatest motivator for change, and to take that away from a person in the name of compassion is a true crime. Do I think that we should just let people fall to the wayside then? No, of course not. By all means educate them as to how to improve their lives. And certainly let us give to them charitably. The sad thing is, socialism even takes away the freedom to be charitable. When the government mandates half of my paycheck so it can be “charitable” with my money, where does which leave me? It forces me to be stingy, and denies me the pleasure of giving as I see fit. This entire discourse is particularly relevant in light of the current election cycle, and the choices that will soon be upon us. I leave it to you, dear reader, to determine on your own which candidates stand behind capitalistic principles, and which stand behind socialistic ones. By all means pick the candidate whose ideas you agree most closely with. Do you want to make your own choices, and in doing so take up the burden of personal responsibility and potential failure? Or would you rather be buffered from failure, and choice, by a comforting blanket of enforced mediocrity? No candidate is perfect or even close to it, so once again this year I’ll be voting for the candidate most likely to leave me to make or break my own life.