heathervescent

People do Change

We die to each other daily. What we know of other people is only our memory of the moments during which we knew them. And they have changed since then. To pretend that they and we are the same is a useful and convenient social convention which must sometimes be broken. We must also remember that at every meeting we are meeting a stranger."
- T. S. Eliot's _The Cocktail Party_

and

"Yes people often change, but memories of people can remain."
- The Kinks

Path to Tao

"Path to Tao"

Seek Knowledge to Strengthen Will

Strengthen Will to Transcend Your Boundaries

Transcend Your Boundaries to See Non-Locally

See Non-Locally to Learn about Yourself

Learn about Yourself to Unlearn Yourself

Unlearn Yourself to Widen Your Senses

Widen Your Senses to Find Self

Find Self  to Dissolve Self

Dissolve Self to Find the Tao

- Tatsuo Hirano

Kudos to remember

Yesterday I got one of the best compliments I think I have ever gotten, and from the one and only David Allen himself!

I was showing him my GTD methodology (which was strange and embarassing in itself, because what do you say when you are talking to the man who documented the method which changed your life?!) which includes my:

1. Calendar - a weekly moleskin calendar book
2. My GTD notebook - a modified large moleskin book
3. My notes book - a composition notebook
4. My 2008 Guidebook - meditations on my yearly topic (this year "the mainstream")

I also have my GTD methodology online on two sites

1. My GTDed gmail (which honestly gmail sucks for GTDing, but I'm migrated there and the pain, the PAIN to switch....
2. Basecamp Project list

Anyway, I was showing David Allen my GTD book and calendar and he responded with glee in his eyes "You're the biggest train wreck of left and right brains I've ever seen!" We all laughed and were having a good time.

In fact, yesterday was one awesome day. Everyone I met at DavidCo was great and I'm revitalized and ready to implement a better weekly review, Agenda and Project list. Oh, and I think I've finally seen the power of mindmaps.

I also found out that my YouTube videos on GTD had been sent to the entire company! Talk about a strange feeling of embarrassment and delight.

Thanks Dave Patrick, Rachelle and of course David Allen. 

Adventures and Enlightenment

Shannon came down to LA for a long weekend in the desert. We always have fun adventures and this weekend was no different. I was feeling super foggy and unconnected. I feel so stuck in this world and not connected to the "out there". I suppose that's good, but at the same time I miss the clarity. Shannon in the opposite place and it took us a few days to equalize.

We drove all over Wonder Valley, 29 Palms and Joshua Tree looking at land and old homesteading cabins. We both decided to go in and get one together. I had brief fear of another Gloria situation - and since Shannon was there through all that we had a very frank discussion. It's a partnership of enabling, no burdens. We found some promising places and we have more research to do, but I'm excited to start actively working towards my dream of a desert ranch. We tentivaly named the ranch - The Wonder Valley School for Hyperactive Girls. And yes, it is going to be a cult and we will be the cult leaders. ;) I've always wanted to start a cult.

Then we went through Joshua Tree on the way to Palm Springs. There were purple flowers in bloom almost the whole way. See pictures. Later, after we showered we found ourselves at a swanky restaurant with pink Neon. We were easily 20 years younger than anyone in the place (except for some of the employees). We had champagne and steak and gave our waiter (who carded me) a good hard time.

After our Palm Spring interlude we headed to Salvation Mountain - which was truly inspiring! It was there we experienced our <3s Desire and lived out the dream. There is more to the weekend, but I'll have to tell it in my own way in another post, at another time.

 

Feb Geek Dinner Recap

Was that really last night? It feels like a week ago (must be my busy day). Anyway, that was a rocking time we had at uWink last night. If you didn't make it - you did miss out.

In addition to
> drinks on Nielson Media (Thanks Lambie!),
> ipod/iphone giveaways from Wm. Marc Salsberry and MStation | mophie
> free Community Next ticket
> 20% off Community Next code (geekdinner) good until 9pm on Thursday
> a free SXSWi ticket (thanks Hugh!)
> and uWink t-shirts

we played a lot of games, had some food and generally everyone had a great time. (And we only crashed the system once I think)

Anyway, the big winners were

Cliff Allen for CommunityNext ticket
Bino Gopal for SXSWi ticket

Congrats!

The Streamy Guys took in several of the uWink t-shirts (gamers!)
and we 8 of you got ipod and iphone covers courtesy of mophie.

Thank you again to Nielson for the drinks and Thank you to YOU who came out. It was fun fun fun.

See you at Canters on March 18 - where I will have more conference passes and giveaways (from my most favored guru!)

<3,

-Heather

ps. use your CommunityNext 20% pass by 9pm tomorrow (thursday) and see you there!

Feb Geek Dinner 2nite!

It's the geek dinner tonight. On the board are some super-duper awesome giveaways!!!!

• One ticket to SXSW interactive - yup you heard me. SXSW wants you.
• One ticket to CommunityNext - coming the end of March
• A super sekret special code for CommunityNext if you didn't get the winning ticket. (Avail only at the geek dinner! Even better than ones posted on the barcamp list)
• Free drinks from Nielson Media!

And it's at uWink - the geekiest restaurant in California (take that Silicon Valley!)

See you there. Details and RSVP (sorry guest list closed).

uWink

 

    Westfield Promenade, 6100 Topanga Canyon Blvd. 2310
    Woodland Hills, California 91367  

Fun with your perception

Seeing is not believing, but it's all we've got. These two videos about optical illusion and the attention of your perception are astounding! Thanks for the pointers Marcel.

Naked Sushi in the Press

The photo accompanying this story was taken at my Naked Sushi Birthday Party last year. You can see more of Kevin's photos here. I know, I know this is totally fun and kicks so much ass. What a trendsetter you are Heather. The funny thing is, two people I used to be friends with will probably see this and have no clue the connection. What an obscure funny world it is we live in. I LOVE IT!

Enjoy this shot from the evening.... I'm in the blue.

Borges in the Brain

It was another night of crazy dreams.  There was the MOMA exhibit of toilets, but none of them worked and I had to go to the bathroom. There was the huge jar/pot (the size of a small car) with a smaller jar/pot inside it. There was someone inside the larger jar and a snake in the smaller pot. I buzzed my lips and the snake started to wake up. I couldn't tell if over which pot lip I was buzzing and whether I was the person in the pot or out of it. I didn't want to get bitten by the snake.

Back in the this life I have become re-obsessed with stunt car driving again. Like I wrote before, I wanted to take stunt car school for 6 years - and I finally did it this past year. It was hard! Really hard and I was not the immediate expert I had hoped to be. I had a lot going against me - my arm muscles, my uncalussed palms. That's ok, I still loved it. I would become great - but I needed a lot of practice. The problem was - where to practice? It's not like I've got a track in my backyard and I respect the laws enough to not practice on the streets.

Anyway, I am working to remedy this problem, to get more training and practice to actually be able to do some driving (maybe not stunt at first) for the moooovies. (You know that small text "Closed Track, Professional Driver"? Yeah, I wanna do that.) Has heathervescent finally gotten hit by the hollywood bug?

All I know, is that I love driving, I've loved cars, driving from the moment I was born. And speed. I like to go fast too. But ya gotta build up to that. Piuma canyon is still my favorite and my recent craigslist and eBay searches have included "purple camaro" from the 70's.

Ah, dreams - you gotta love them.

Dear Blog,

I have neglected you. I have stopped telling you my stories. But it's not because I have stopped doing things. Oh no. I would like to say I am busier than ever, but I still have open spaces for projects, clients and activities. I have been up to a lot of very exciting things.

• Improv Anywhere has it's first LA mtg and mission and I was there! I had a blast and met a lot of new people.
• I've been doing a lot of work on the house. Now that it's stopped raining, I've refreshed the patio, bought some new plants, moved things around and even tried out the fire pit! Whosh - it was a little big - but I didn't catch anything on fire.
• I've been working on the the kind of stuff I love.
• I didn't tell you that I finished the entire Dune series, including the final book (published in 2 books) by his son. The series was great to read.
• After Dune, the boyfriend got me Asimov's Foundation series. So I've been inhaling that one too. I feel like the Foundation is Leto II's Golden Path.
• I'm skipping Fusion this year and focusing on building my own local goal driven mastermind.
• I'm planning some travels to the southwest. Especially excited for the Science of Consciousness conference at the University of Arizona in April.
• Contrary to the lack of coverage on my blog, I have not forgotten about the LA Tech Scene.
• I already did my taxes. It was my first full year working under The Purple Tornado and I did really well, considering I worked about 30% of my potential. (Let me clarify - I did paid work for about 30%. The rest of the stuff I did was community building and my own projects.)

So that is what is going on in my little world.

The Spotlight Challenge

Despite a trip to the emergency room due to a gogo boot related accident, the Bootie LA show last night was a blast. There was champagne backstage and we really did have 99 red balloons that we unleashed into the crowd.

Jillian was my most awesome pregnant backup dancer (I mean, if the pregnant lady can do it, what's your excuse?) She wrangled Kate, who had these awesome leopard print boots and really rocked the last minute dancing! Carmen put on the judge wig and robe and rocked the authority. It all came together at the last minute - as it always does.

Photos coming soon! Video is here.

Happy Birthday Mom

Thanks for being you. Thanks for taking me on all those international trips before I was 16. Thanks for being from California. Thanks for sacrificing so much of yourself to raise me and C as a single mom. Thanks for being who you are (not my mom) and telling me your stories and surprising me with your skills. Thanks for having a love of drama and performance (I must have gotten that from you.)

There's been a lot of transitions in the past year and I'm really happy you are where you are. It's time for life to stop being so hard and for you to enjoy everything you have.

Love,

-Heather

Grumble

My love/hate inner conflict with boingboing continues. But it's all good. I love the byline. If only they saw the internal project list....

A Rough Time

I'm hardcore back into aikido. That means practicing with an active intent towards my next test - 3rd Kyu - and growing the dojo. That means practicing on a regular basis. When I was serious about aikido, I used to practice 2-3 times a week. I was aggressive and violent and pushed my body to learn. But I also skimped by. I was fast and smart, and thus able to use my talents to learn the techniques.

My brain would shut off and half the time I didn't know the name of the technique I learned. When it came to test time, I would cram the names into my head using mnemonic devices. My favorite sections were the sword/weapon kata displays and freestyle.

I knew someday I would have to learn - hardcore - the names of everything. And that one day I would know the names of all the techniques instead of just doing them. If I had continued practicing at that level, I would have become a black belt in 2002. Instead I took a meandering path. Well, that's the style of my aikido dojo anyway.

And here I am back. Exactly where I need to be. Learning the techniques all hardcore with their proper names. Except I have a lot more weaknesses and experiences now. I know a lot more about myself. My body has more wear and tear. I'm tight and not as fluid as I used to be. And yet I'm more flexible and don't shy away from dealing with hard things.

Take practice last night. We were doing an irimi where my uke was an obstacle. I don't do well with obstacles. I don't like confrontation. I prefer to re-position and turn. But not last night. The obstacle was really in the way of where I wanted to go. I kept trying to do the tenkan variety of the technique. No No no.

I felt much resistance. I felt very vulnerable and fearful. I started getting sick to my stomach. I wanted to puke. I wanted to do another technique. I wanted anything except to deal with this confronting person front of me. It's not like he's attacking me. (He is, but he's my uke.) And then I see - this is a metaphor for what's happening in my life. There are things, people, confronting me, and I've been squirming, repositioning try to differential myself from them. But what I really need to do is just continue on my path. When I stop focusing on my uke, my energy moves right through. It is my rightful path. These obstacles in my way are only here for my practice.

That makes this practice, even though I feel like puking, all the more important. It's here on the mat, with my partners that I can explore fear, aggression, confrontation and lots of other fun things in a safe way. I'm glad to be practicing again, even though it's not that fun right now.

Saturday Night Celebration

Snipped from the BootieLA Email list:

Midnight mashup show starring: Heather Vescent & Friends
Birthday Mashup Show!

This Saturday night, it's Heather Vescent's birthday, so she's celebrating in style – with a midnight mashup show! Her and her friends will be putting a fresh spin on Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walkin" ... with a little Pink Floyd thrown in! She also has another surprise in store.... Here's a hint: red balloons.

Come on out to join in the celebration. Normal and Jillian are taking the stage with me.

I've heard the Illuminoids who are DJing at 10pm are gonna kick ass. Along with resident DJs A plus D and Paul V. Saturday night at the Echo - 1822 Sunset Blvd in Echo Park.