Along the Way…

TESTIMONY

On June 26th, Amanda Smith found out that she had a malignant tumor in her brain that was roughly the size of a pea.

The mass was located in the 3rd ventricle of the brain which, to give you a better idea of its location, is toward the back of the head and is directly beneath the fornix and corpus callosum, between the brain’s two hemispheres.

The main concern in Amanda’s case was the intracranial pressure created by the tumor that was also causing irregular hormone distribution from the hypothalamus gland to the pineal gland, from serotonin and dopamine to vasopressin and melatonin.

She was very moody, fatigued, and urinated frequently. The doctors told her that they would perform surgery on August 24th.

Amanda was prescribed ONLY Topamax before the surgery, because of migraines that were caused by the aforementioned intracranial pressure. She did not take it, however, because she claimed that it made her more fatigued and drowsy than she already was.

She started taking Manitoba Harvest Hemp oil on June 29th, taking just two capsules every day.

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What’s next?

That’s the question many people have been asking themselves and others lately, both in general conversation and in the media.

We have the Internet. It’s almost literally everywhere.

You can access it on a tiny screen that acts as a music player, video game, flashlight, day planner, and status symbol all at the same time.

The Internet is becoming less of a novelty and more of a “ho-hum” reality.

Let’s stop to think about that for a second.

The Internet is a worldwide, instantaneous avenue of information transfer, and a mere 16 years after it was commercialized and released for public use, it’s become a new type of pastime.

But with the attention span of most individuals in the developed Western world, there is, and likely will be for some time, a pressing need for newer, bigger and better means of traversing the Internet, and using it to benefit its users.

So what does this say about the Internet, and how we perceive it?

According to Tim O’Reilly, who coined the term “Web 2.0,” the term “Web 3.0” that’s also being attributed to him sums it up nicely.

“If Web 2.0 was the moment when the collaborative promise of the Internet seemed finally to be realized,” says The Guardian writer Oliver Burkeman, pointing to users’ ability to create instead of just consume via the Internet, “Web 3.0 is the moment they forget they’re doing it.”

So how can the Internet be used to do more than just create content for public consumption?

That’s a question that has rarely been asked of a communication tool.

Newspapers, radios and televisions can be used to relay All Points Bulletins to help search for criminals and keep the peace. But none of them have the capability to transmit information from a doctor in Singapore to a robotic arm in America that can be directed to perform open heart surgery on a patient.

Newspaper writers and radio announcers haven’t ever been used to map the structure of an enzyme that could be used to help fight HIV and AIDS.

So what’s next?

Humanity finds itself in a position to fix itself using a technology that it created and has become bored with, but still has only limited knowledge of its full potential.

If the history of printed news has taught us anything, it’s that there is much room for development.

So where does the Internet go from here?

“It is not the critic who counts,

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

who strives valiantly;

Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat?”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Walking,

I see nothing on the horizon but the sunset.

It’s beautiful enough to keep me following it.

I’ll find the rest along the way.

———————————————————

It’s like standing on a hill,

overlooking a limitless number of paths spread out before you,

reaching the horizon.

You take a long look and a deep breath,

put on a blindfold,

and start walking down the hill…

I can see the sunlight behind my eyelids.

When my eyes are closed and the room is dark;

in the dead of night I see the sun.

Behind my eyelids…

————————————

When we can see in four dimensions, with time being the fourth, time travel will be as easy as closing your eyes. You’ll be able to travel to whatever point in your life you wish to experience.

Once people are capable of this, it will give them a greater appreciation for “The Now,” and the people and events occupying it with them.

“I am here” will be a commonly-used phrase to express gratitude for the presence of anyone who hears you say it.

I am present in this moment, chosen from a wealth of other moments, for the sole purpose of experiencing it with you…

2005: I was living in Harrisonburg, and working at a small local radio station that ran talk programming all day and night. I was there to monitor the boards during the day and answer the phones, with various other duties included every so often.

Everyday, at 3pm, The Don and Mike Show would come across the airwaves, with some cool interviews, and a high level of afternoon-drive hilarity generated by a group of close friends getting paid to shoot the shit in a radio studio just outside of D.C. every day.

One afternoon they had Mark Cuban call in for an interview and some radio pub for his recently-acquired television network, HDNet. He sounded like a decent guy, and he kept the guys in a solid bantering mood for a decent-length interview.

At the end of the interview, for reasons I can’t remember, but most likely hoping to generate and gauge the interest in the network, he gave out his email address for anyone who wanted to get in contact with him.

So I wrote him an email.

I had just moved to Harrisonburg, and completely changed my life in every way (new school, legitimately out on my own for the first time). So the email had a “what should I do?” quality about it.

I sent off the email without much hope for a response, but what the hell right?

But here’s the kicker… I got a response.

Within an HOUR.

He wrote back with the one-line response:

find something you love to do and be the best at it.

m

And there it was. The billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks read my email and offered up some advice.

He’s a man of the people.

That’s why I love Mark Cuban. And that’s why I listen to the things he has to say.

I read his blog every now and again (blogmaverick.com) and, while some of the things he writes about are over my head, I’m a sucker for a convincing argument. If you can sell me, hook line and sinker, I’ll believe you until someone else can change my mind with an equally passionate and seemingly informed argument.

And he’s constantly selling me.

I wrote him one more time with a business question, this time at his official Dallas Mavericks email (which is listed on the Dallas Mavericks website, right out in the open), and again I got a response within an hour.

The guy is a decent, solid and smart human being.

So why not ask him to run for President? You think he’d be up for it?

Not saying he should join a particular party or even actively campaign. All he has to do is give the word and, through the genius of social media, we can do the work for him.

What the hell, right? Look at all the interest and support Ron Paul gained just by saying what he felt was right, trumpeting his consistent track record, and miraculously inspiring a seemingly-gigantic, technically inclined type of new demographic. The rEVOLution began.

The problem with The Good Doctor is that he’s not, sorry to say, that fit for live television, which is where most of the world is consuming the bulk of its information, and will for the foreseeable future.

Mark Cuban is.

He’s young enough, rich enough, photogenic enough, and adventurous enough to give it a go.

So why the hell not?

Let’s give it a go, Mark.