The Answer.

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Originally uploaded by charles.hope

I'm moved.

I'm not sure how to describe my feelings exactly... just that I'm so moved being here in Korea. I think the Nata Village story in Botswana really moved me too, learning about it and witnessing it, and feeling connected to it. Is it funny to say I'm "feeling global" lately? There are people from all over the world here at the OhMyNews conference, and I'm learning so much. And people are so kind. I'm just so very moved. This trip will sink in slowly for a long time, and influence me in ways I don't even know.

People are changing the world here. I'm so utterly in awe, and inspired. The world is beautiful if you are open to it, and if you are lucky.

Thanks JD Lasica of OurMedia and OhMyNews for bringing me to Korea. It's also been my great pleasure to spend some time with Lisa Padilla, Ethan Zuckerman, and a bunch of other cool people.

STAY HUNGRY. STAY FOOLISH.

I just got done reading Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech. I feel so satiated, and a little winded. It's good stuff. Somewhere in a pile of my junior high junk, there's a collage full of magazine cutouts: Fishing, Mustangs, computers and...Steve Jobs, my hero.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Sometimes I half-joke with Lori about getting a part-time job at Target or IKEA. A little sorely-needed extra income, not to mention the discount. I always think she'll jump on it and say "Yeah!" Nope. She doesn't want me to stray from my path, whatever path I'm on. She wants me to be creative and explore and realize the ideas I have, even though it means sacrifice. I feel bad because we can't spend as freely as we used to. She's dying to buy some summer clothes. I definitely owe her a big shopping spree, when the seeds I'm planting now blossom. And, somehow, I know they will.

Forget-me-nots from Lorika's garden

Vlogger Jan sings a really lovely rendition of Bob Dylan's Wallflower. It'll make your day.

ACTION JACKSON, THAT'S ME

Seth Godin offers some words of fire and inspirado:

Maybe you already have a clipping on your mirror that asks you what you did during the 1990s. What's your biggest regret about that decade? Do you wish that you had started, joined, invested in, or built something? Are you left wishing that you'd at least had the courage to try? In hindsight, the 1990s were the good old days. Yet so many people missed out. Why? Because it's always possible to find a reason to stay put, to skip an opportunity, or to decline an offer. And yet, in retrospect, it's hard to remember why we said no and easy to wish that we had said yes.

The thing is, we still live in a world that's filled with opportunity. In fact, we have more than an opportunity -- we have an obligation. An obligation to spend our time doing great things. To find ideas that matter and to share them. To push ourselves and the people around us to demonstrate gratitude, insight, and inspiration. To take risks and to make the world better by being amazing.

Anybody who wants to raise a toast to me quitting my job and jumping off a cliff, come on down to the Black Dog coffee shop/wine bar in Lowertown on Monday -- after 6-ish. Buy me a drink, or I'll buy you one if you bring me some hot freelance action!

Sharyn suggests this might be a good, uhh, revenue stream.

Hey, I'm Google's top pick for quitting my job. And tofurkey day.

I QUIT MY JOB TODAY

Chuck, about to jump off a cliff

Seriously! More later.

PROPHETIC WORDS

LIFE EXPLOSION WOMEN

"This is the zero hour."

Sharyn climbing the 50,000-word mountain, stretching in every direction like a Ralph Steadman creature, possibly touching the void. Don't slip! (I'm prepared to really like The Arcade Fire.)

Dooce: I AM SO THANKFUL TO BE ALIVE.
Space Waitress: 23.  I believe I have a soul.
Lorika: I forgot. Yes, people are cruel.
Me: Crazy busy. Please standby.

Go give Juliah a big cyberweb interhug. She's having a poopy week. Rejection letters and more. I know! Let's write her acceptance letters.

We, the blogosphere, are happy to accept your right to write and vent, and to not give up.


"So, wow, life is kinda annoying"

Ciri: There may not be a promise land, but there are dreams out there for the claiming.

The Polyphonic Spree makes everything better [Quicktime, 3 MB]

INdTV

I'm getting excited by INdTV. They're looking for indie producer-types, comfortable on-camera, with a documentary/comedy vibe. Uhh, hello? Like, umm, hello?

Umm, helloooooo? A-doy much? Drrrrrrrr...... (farting noise) Yeah, umm, hi.

Why TV sucks.

TRIPPI AND ME

Joe Trippi discusses his new book TONIGHT at Ruminator Books in St. Paul, 7:30 PM

I started reading The Revolution Will Not Be Televised at the beach; a perfectly bright, warm Minnesota summer day. Lorika was reading House of Bush, House of Saud getting pissed off while I was drinking the Kool-Aid and getting inspired. We make a good team.

I realized my life parallels Trippi's in many ways. Politics and technology have been powerful threads throughout my life. My earliest television memory is of Jimmy Carter walking down Pennsylvania Avenue. Mini-me in a shag carpet living room, old enough to push the button and see all the happy people. Politics was subliminal background noise except for the biggies - Reagan getting shot, Iran/Contra. The shit hit the fan in 1991, when I feared being drafted for the first Iraq War. Last weekend, in my mom's basement, I found the cheap black vinyl jacket I used to wear in those days, with a red peace symbol and faded blue stripe. Totally badass... in a college freshman sort of way.

I also unearthed my first computer at my mom's - the Atari 400. I was born a G33k - highlights here. It is my heritage. From taking apart my DataMan, to the Atari to the Vic-20 and C-64, the first Mac, BBSs, Email, Gopher, and the Web. Fascination with technology - and all it's possibilities and promises - is part of who I am.

It wasn't until BLOGS came along that I really had the opportunity, ne burning desire, to meld my two passions. And we all know... blogs lead to the overthrow of everything!

JUST BEAUTIFUL

Robyn Ochs and Margaret Preble wed in Brookline, Mass. [via Brian Flemming]

Beautiful in a different way: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster is releasing weekly "webisodes." See Hetfield and Lars have a pissy-fit!