lxpk

I've taken a couple Java courses and coded a few applets, but I'm ready to learn AJAX and PHP.  I've been a computer geek for a decade, but I've never gotten fluent in any programming language!(!!!)

I try not to waste things. I save money by buying only that which I really need for myself and for DOSPEC testing. I've begun using reusable shopping bags as a first step towards reducing my packaging waste. 

I find myself recruiting people to all kinds of things all the time. I am passionate about a great many things, chiefly Empowerment, and it is a great pleasure to share things I love with people who I think might appreciate them too.

I am also very actively involved in recruiting team members to contribute to Empowerment. I am getting better at this all the time and as the team grows and the Missionpedia collaboration process evolves our ability to recruit great people does too.

Writing has always been a big part of who I am. A voracious reader, I wanted to tell the kinds of stories I enjoyed reading. I tried to write my first fantasy novel in fourth grade. My interest in role-playing games led me to writing my own RPG game systems. I shifted to nonfiction when I became more interested in philosophy and technology. Most of my own writing focused on exploring ways to use technology to empower people in ways that combined philosophical principles with technological solutions.

I began writing EmpowerThyself as a realistic cyberpunk role-playing game book, but I realized that if my real interest in writing an RPG was to tackle real-world issues, I would be better off developing a sort of real-life RPG manual. Empower Thyself is like a Player's Handbook for strengthening your "character" by developing your "skills" and having "adventures". The book became too large a project for me to do on my own so it transformed into the EmpowerThyself web site. I am constantly writing to develop this system.

Now I find myself working on the most challenging writing project I've ever had: The core empower thyself manifesto, an introduction to the fundamental philosophy of self-empowerment and overcoming apathy. I am gathering and synthesizing the many ideas that I have written about and discussed verbally over the years. An elegant, persuasive and inspiring explanation of empowerment is long overdue.

I recently optimized icons module to use a very fast php algorithm to display icons such that it is scalable to an infinitely large arbitrary set of possible icons without slowing down. This made empowerthyself.com much faster and eliminated the use of javascript for icons. I think this both makes the site faster and allows more icons which makes it prettier.

My top 3 skills are 1. Learning, 2. Doing and 3. Talking. Talking is the ultimate medium. What could I possibly hope to communicate through artificial media messages if I could not better articulate it in person by talking about it with people? And what could I hope to learn from other people unless I talk with them and listen empathically to gain understanding of what they have to say? I find that most of the best ideas for EmpowerThyself have arisen in conversations with people when we ask questions of each other and come up with answers out of the blue as though we already knew what they would be before we even knew what the question was.

I think anyone who wants to communicate things in the world through media should first practice talking about their ideas with as many different kinds of people as possible. This is the surest way to improve your communications and learn from responses.

I've been doing a lot of texturing for Second Life and the Empowerment SLHQ. It is primitive! The hardest part was lining up seams for pockets on the 511 pants. There has to be a better way to texture SL skins without repeatedly saving and upload previewing.

I have found myself doing mass calling of the group contact list to announce events at the SB Infoshop. It takes patience but it gets results!

Doing is the ultimate factor. Nothing can influence the outcome of that which you have already done.  This is the ultimate field of study which I find myself drawn to. All other phenomenon are mere influences.