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After years of looking around the Web for places to go every morning over a cup of coffee, I decided to build this website, and by doing so, create a place for the other 7 billion humans to visit now and again.

This website was launched in December of 2010 and as you can see there have been over 1,000 visitors. The content is attributed to XOQ and a few folks have asked me who/what is XOQ?

Here is a "sort-of-simple" answer.

One day I was driving home from work, and as I often do, I was thinking about discovering or creating something new. I always hoped I might think of something that no one ever had thought of before.

That day, I decided it would be fun to create a new word and to see if that would lead me down a new road of discovery/creation. I remembered that one of my Wharton Professors told us in a marketing class about how the word Kodak was created. The founders of that film company knew from marketing research that the "k" sound attracts humans and is memorable. So I decided my new word had to include that sound.

By the time I got home and turned on my computer, I was playing with 3 letter words with k's, q's, and hard c's. I started Googling these words until I came up with one that brought back limited results. XOQ seemed to only appear as part of some software coding and as the last name of one or two people on Facebook. XOQ was my new word!

I had dinner with my son that week and we started playing with big XOQ and little xoq and came up with some great imagery and fascinating info that cemented in my mind that XOQ was interesting, cool, different and the perfect platform for me to move forward.

Lots of the early creation of the XOQ world can be found at a BETA website I created using free Wix software (you need Flash to view it.)  Click here to be transported to that information about XOQ

I am fascinated by the connection we have in our DNA and that we probably have the same original ancestor pair of male/female humans. We are linked-in to the chain of humans and more of our kind need to "step up" before humans become extinct.

When you consider the billions of years that this planet has sustained some kind of life, humans have only dominated for a few brief "moments" of that total time. We are on a very slippery slope lined with the slime of greed and fear. Are you doing your share to create change? Are you part of the solution or part of the problem?

When was the last time you did something to pay it forward?  PIF (pay it forward) is the simplest way to impact the future. Be part of the chain of events that has humans choose the correct fork in the road ahead. It is never too late.

To read more about the efforts of friends of XOQ click here to be transported to a new project that will celebrate the 7 billionth human in 2012

"I’m made as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore"

Howard Beale in Network, the film written in the 70's by Paddy Cheyefsky (click here for a movie recap) was the first character to scream out what has been on the minds of many for ages.  Most recently Egyptians, Libyans, Syrians, and others have taken up the cry in their struggle to be seen and heard and seek freedom.

There are so many wrongs going on Earth that to build a list would take volumes. A particularly dangerous and unbelievably corrupt example has gone unnoticed and unchecked in our heartland. Our farmers have been pummeled by a corporation that has changed our foods (and this writer believes our health and well being). If you have not read the details of the tactics used by Monsanto Corporation to threaten farmers into using their genetically altered seeds, take the time to read this article in Vanity Fair magazine Monsanto Harvest of Fear.

Millions, probably billions, of dollars have been raised for cancer, multiple sclerosis, autism, etc. research, but the school of thought that cannot be ignored is that Corporations produce and sell products that are at the core of why these diseases have killed and transformed the brains and bodies of so many humans in the first place. Pollution from manufacturing food and packaging food, chemicals and genetic engineering that are part of seeds and food production, artificial ingredients in most foods sold in supermarkets, affect millions, probably billions of humans.

Scientists get grants from the Feds and are paid billions by non-profit foundations to focus on symptoms and work tirelessly to investigate how diseases attack the body. They explore and test to see what happens on a molecular and cellular level in response to a disease and study the attack against animal and human systems. Science has been successful in developing hundreds of drugs that slow down the attack of diseases and in many cases have figured out how to radiate and chemically win back healthful balance as a disease is strangled and put into remission or cured.

But new rampant problems like the high percentage of incidents of Autism in children come to the foreground as the years go by. Please let us all know if you know who is screaming at the top of their lungs, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" in response to the truth that our neighbors, our leaders, and the medical and financial industries are not setting off ALARMS and waging the battle against the root cause of disease; pollution, genetic alteration of our food sources, and pollution of Earth's air and water.

Round Up the Usual Suspects

Newt Ginrich? What a joke! If you forget this guy's track record and public shame just take a minute to hit the link after the next sentence to reread history. The whole article is interesting, but head on down towards the bottom for a recap about Newt.  http://www.slate.com/id/2263736/

What prompted my decision to jump on this topic was this week's results in NY's 26th District? The following 3 sentences lifted from the Hoffington Post sums up the victory by Democrat Kathy Hochul. 

"Imagine a Red Sox fan walking into a Bronx bar on game night and walking out an hour later having convinced the Yankees fans inside to root for the Sox. Pretty unthinkable, right? Well that's essentially what happened yesterday in New York's 26th Congressional District where the Democrat, Kathy Hochul, defeated her Republican opponent, Jane Corwin, in a special election in one of the state's most conservative bastions."

The combined one-two punch of Paul Ryan's Medicare crap and its' outfall and Obama's ballsy decision to kill Bin laden, has shut-up the conservatives temporarily and influenced this election on a grand scale. 

In the wake of months of ridiculous, childish name calling and pickering over the budget solutions in Washington, the national spotlight has been absorbed by devastating weather, tragic loss of life, and now we have to hear the disgusting lies of Casey Anthony's defense team. Nightmares of OJ revisited in their new fabricated story and the family cover-up of innocent Caylee Anthony's brutal death. If you have not heard the defense teams opening statements, you will be horrified at the new version manufactured to create reasonable doubt in the minds of that jury.

The usual suspects, lawyers and politicians, will do and say anything to influence the masses to believe their agenda, earn money, gain fame, take title, and generally litter our landscape with confusion and lies.  The preacher in Oakland who raises money by alarming kids while fabricating doomsday predictions should be humiliated in the town square - publicly shame him.

The yester-year concept of the Scarlet A comes to mind. But somehow in my lifetime public shame no longer means ostracized, ridiculed and society turning its backs for ever on assholes, liars, cheats, etc. Maybe it started in public with the impeachment of Tricky Dick and the infamous photo of him entering the departing plane and turning around with a smile on his face and flashing everyone the two handed V for victory sign. 

The ultimate embarrassment of bankruptcy has turned in to a ploy to wipe out debt. This would have been career ending and shameful not long ago.  Apologies from men caught in sex lies didn't hut Clinton in the long run, and now we have Arnold and John Edwards.  Murders hiring expensive lawyers to confuse juries, and corporations settling out of court to cover claims for death, pollution and the hiding of relevant research facts is normal.

The worst example is the publics' inability to focus on harmful side effects of drugs. Every 60 second commercial abut about prescriptions on TV is filled with all the bad things that could happen if you take that drug. Even though it is right in their face, and even though their Drs' know the potential threat, humans just do not see anything but a potential benefit to making their lives better. So if Newt is your man and you don't care about the dark-side, then send him your donations and vote for him and his the lobby's waiting to take advantage of your ignorance is bliss mentality.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!"

                                                                                            ............ Al Jolson, The Jazz Singer

Most humans cannot grasp huge concepts; the size of the universe, the number of people on the planet, the speed of light. Humans are self-centered creatures, wired for permanence, but incredibly fragile. 

I spent an hour this morning looking through YouTube at videos of micro to macro views of the cosmos and quarks, and I recommend you do the same when you have time to play. There is one particular clip I remember seeing when I was in HS that I cannot find yet. It started as a view through an electron microscope at quarks (maybe it wasn’t quarks; now that I think about it, quarks may be too small for that 1967 technology. Let’s move on saying they must have started by viewing stuff bigger than quarks). 

OK, back to what I actually do remember about this clip we saw in science class. It started as a microscopic view of cell structure and began pulling back through the microscope to see neutrons, protons, atoms, then through the larger parts of a human cell until it reaches the surface of the skin. As the video continues to pull back, it views the arm, the whole person it belongs to, the room he is in, his house, his neighborhood and eventually all the way back into space viewing the entire planet Earth. The camera then flips to viewing space through ever more powerful telescopes, the solar systems and beyond. 

The one thing that sticks in mind about these images is that at one point in the microscope the atomic size particles look exactly like the telescopic view of a solar system. For all you scientists out there who know this is absolutely incorrect, keep it too yourself. My point is there is much that we are made of that looks exactly like the universe we live in. And that is remarkable to me.

Being startled, amazed, and awakened to new information is a major part of what keeps me going. And recently I have been going good. A chance to write more, express, share ideas with new friends, has been a transfusion of life juice. Yes, there are some givens that I accept and appreciate being exposed to, that keep me sane and help me get through this maze of life that I have to navigate with all these other 7 billion humans. (The truth that "the only constant in life is change" comes to mind).

Certainly I have been happiest when I have lived in rural environs. Frenchtown, NJ in 1979 was rural farm country. Sedona, AZ in 1982 was a small town going through the process of realizing its population might explode. South Whidbey Island, WA is still a wonderful paradise of rural Earth.  Borrego Springs, San Diego County, California is an incredibly vibrant small desert town with less than 3,000 permanent peoples. Oh, do I long for living in these places in their (and my) prime. The interesting key element of this joy was that these small places contained more people I could relate to then any suburban or quasi-urban environment I have lived in.

I saw a piece on CBS Sunday Morning today that confirmed why I have longed for something different. 

CBS reports: "Consider this: Today, worldwide, more than half of us live in cities. By 2050, the United Nations projects nearly 75% of us will."

And then 5 minutes later I heard a more disheartening reality: 

"Today, about 250 million Americans choose to live in or around urban areas. That means more than three-quarters of our population shares just about three percent of our land area."

The lesson for me today is that I am not like those 250 million people, nor will I be part of that 75%.  The words spoken by Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame come to mind: "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" 

The sad truth for humans is that continuing to follow this path will lead to a world jammed with those poor suckers and they will one day have a revelation similar to Charleton Heston in Solent Green: "Soylent Green is people!"

You Can't Handle the Truth

I raised my son on the foundation of the basic principle that "the only constant in life is change." It helped us through a number of realities: why his parents got divorced, why the dog died, why we lived in so many different houses. Constant change early in life makes it easier to adapt to loss and the eventual transitions all humans go through: starting High School, breaking up with you first love, and your Grandfather's death, are shared events that come to mind.

The downside of constant change in life is that somewhere inside your soul/spirit you learn to keep your distance and don't fully connect with people, places and things. Commitment issues may arise because you develop a natural defense mechanism that is geared to maintaining an easily accessible escape hatch.

Most humans adapt to conditions and environment while the brain builds a complex psychological and emotional web of responses to try to control "cause and effect". Humans with more developed intellectual perspectives tend to think their way through life's roller coaster, while humans who respond emotionally, whether it be sanguine or melancholy, ride the waves laughing, crying, crashing, and tumbling.

I used to be very judgmental about people who wear their emotions on their sleeves, because, like Spock and Data, it all seemed very unproductive. I wanted facts, truths, answers, and clarity. At some point in my 30's I began to realize that my traumatic early life had me locking down my vulnerability and throwing away the key. Having lived through big changes that included the divorce of my parents, the loss of my sister to MS, and as a young teacher the untimely death of 2 of our most popular student/athletes, I was living in my head and could not access my heart.

If it is a fact that change in the universe is constant, inevitable, and is the fabric of existence, than it is no wonder humans struggle to find peace and harmony. We spin through space and time, while the very ground we stand on is unstable. If humans fully embraced the notion that we have no semblance of control, would humans be happier? If we eliminated concepts like "mine" and "ours", if we shared all the resources on the planet with every human having equal access to water and minerals, would there be fear and greed?

Tim Badonsky in his piece, "The Notion of Nothingness" informs us that:

"When I hear the phrase "there will always be ....... war, poverty, stupidity, etc.", I find it difficult not to see those mouthing that phrase as children, intellectually speaking. For accepting one's own mortality is something that usually comes late in adulthood (if it does), and a persistent unwillingness to accept the universality of change seems to be little more than another level of immaturity ........"

The notion that a mature human would necessarily understand, accept, and be at peace with death, or that only a human with child-like intelligence would believe that there always will be anything, is a judgmental view suggesting the theory that with enough education and experience a human would evolve to knowingness.  

From my perspective, the acceptance of the inevitable (aka CHANGE) creates so much FEAR in humans that billions of people have given over their inevitability to gods, or former humans that they have elevated to god status (see Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, etc.)

No amount of worship is going to change the scientific fact of change, but there is something to the notion that too much acceptance of the inevitable makes living as a fully engaged human, with all its simple pleasures like love and hope, more difficult.

There's No Place Like Home

It's been lonely out here. Oh for sure, the sunrises and sunsets are awesome and I am moved by the power of the ocean. I constantly imagine the landscape without any development; it is mountainous and rugged. The canyons run deep and the Batiquitos Lagoon is a soothing tidal wetland preserve. But the humans I meet are from a different tribe.

Moving to a new location on Earth has been surprisingly strange. I new I'd love the Mediterranean clime, as I have had the pleasure of climbing the banks of the Isle of Santorini. But the 3 or 4 tribes of clans-people I have encountered here focus on different aspects of life than my peeps. They seem satisfied to ride the local waves, eat fast-ly prepared foods, and cruise the endless miles of freeways in their favorite possession, their ride.

Recently, I headed to a coffee shop to meet up with some folks I found while flipping through the internets and I was warmly surprised that immediately it was clear that some of my tribes-people actually live around here too. They sure were hard to find! They tell me that there are others of us around and that if we continue to commune, and drop bread crumbs as we go, before long we'll have lots of reunions, raising a glass to the good old days, and feeling more settled, connected, and at peace.

I'm glad I stayed around long enough to find my new home.

Go Ahead; Make My Day

Ending the reign of a leader has always been a huge moment of change on this planet. History catalogues the end of eras and the shifts in power in Rome, Egypt, China, Central America, and elsewhere by the murder or exile of the head of the snake.

More often than not, by the time the final day arrives when the King, Emperor, Czar, Pharaoh, General, etc. is wiped off the map, his involvement in the day to day operations of his rule has long past. Usually age, health, or ego finds the final years before his demise spent on attempts to secure immortality with slaves building oversized tombs, and the hoarding of wealth, in an attempt to leave a hardened legacy. They have already appointed successors and stamped their face on so many coins, statues, and frescos.

In the case of Bin Laden, the lack of borders, no personal army, and the decrease in his wealth, makes this period in history unique. This madman had found in Pakistan segments of the government, or army, willing to keep his whereabouts a secret, probably in exchange for millions of dollars of his family's fortune. OBL goes down in history as a truly dispicable, rogue character; taking the wealth and privilege given him early in life by his wealthy father to forge a vision and a fanatical following to wreak havoc on thousands of innocent souls on Earth. Good riddance!

He was wanted on the FBI 10 most wanted for at least 13 years and credit is due the current administration for continuing and committing to the pursuit. It is worth looking up the remaining 9 most wanted and realizing the huge difference in the crimes of those 9 vs. OBL. No murder is OK; no extortion should go unpunished, but shouldn't there be a different kind of list for mass murders and humans that believe that whole societies and religions should be exterminated?

It is clear these are different times. Terrorism is global and not being waged by one country or religion against another, or one tribe against another; but by an aberration of an ideology vs. the youngest country and its way of life. It is easy to criticize so many aspects of the financial, corporate, and foreign policy realities of the USA, but the Constitutional rights granted our citizens are the envy of all persecuted humans elsewhere.

It is a time of emotional sighs of relief. The end of a time when Americans needed justice to be served. Death is final; but people get satisfaction when the killer is dealt with. We will watch the tragedy of next couple of years, to see if this episode will change the path of our economy, our policies, and how the rest of the world views us post OBL.  There is so much clamor for freedom in oppressed countries, particularly in the Middle East, and those humans already are expressing appreciation for the act of our bravest Navy Seals.