My parents came to visit a few days ago… they’re here for almost a 2-week stay, and they’re planning to see as much of the area as they can during that time.

They’ve never been to Oregon, but it’s strangely reminiscent of Ontario in a lot of ways (besides both starting with an “O”)… for instance, both have beautiful rivers and tree-filled scenery, and both have Shakespearean festivals that are among the top in the world.

So Barry and I thought they’d enjoy going to a play here at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland… and I decided on A Comedy of Errors, which was presented as a Western musical.

Yes, Shakespeare, Western twangs, and song-and-dance — all in the same play.

This picture of us is one Barry took a few hours before the show, walking around the quaint historic downtown Ashland. And since my Dad is a retired history professor, we knew he’d like the old-time aspects of the town, and also the local school — so we took him to explore the campus of Southern Oregon University.

It’s interesting how things happen in patterns in life… and no matter where we go, we find things that remind us of home.

It reminds me of the saying, “Wherever you go, there you are.”

I moved 3,000 miles across the continent, and to a different country, almost a year ago… to follow my heart.

And here I am.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

May 15 is Bloggers Unite for Human Rights day… where the call is out for bloggers to “use their space to make the world a better place”.

There are many human rights issues that deserve to be talked about. My personal issue though, is with the way journalists have often been treated, and now — through expansion — censorship of the internet.

Barry made a great post on his blog about Net Neutrality that is a good place to start on that topic. If you publish OR consume content on the internet; if you like to be able to go to whatever sites you want, regardless of what ISP you choose; if you actually want to receive emails that you subscribe to; then you need to care about Net Neutrality.

And of course, this is just an extension of the censorship that has been going on in mainstream media for years. The internet is the media of the people — anybody can create a video, audio, article, e-book, or nearly any kind of content and distribute it online, including very professional “radio” and “TV” shows that are webcast or podcast rather than broadcast… and is in essence “the medium of all media” in the way that you can mimic any other form of media online (be it print, TV, radio, or anything else).

The true “journalist” — even in mainstream media — really believes that they are working for the people, and publishing our “right to know” for the good of all. But true journalism doesn’t really exist in mainstream media, try as hard as the reporters might.

Yes, journalists around the world are being wrongfully jailed, tortured, and even killed for publishing (or attempting to publish) stories that certain countries want to censor and keep under wraps. Those governments don’t believe that people have the “right to know”…

Click HERE To Continue > > >

Barry and I recently discovered a really cool online course about how to utilize and optimize Camtasia (or other screen-capture programs) to create impressive videos to establish a modern online presence, drive traffic to your site, build a list, create products, make money, and more.

Of course, the lessons are Camtasia tutorials — appropriately enough — and laid out in a logical and self-explanatory way. Because of this, you can find exactly what you want to learn, and target your viewing to that specific video, so you don’t waste hours searching through unrelated content for those advanced techniques you’re dying to try (as soon as you can figure out how to do them… which now you can!)

Up until now, I’ve mostly used Camtasia for tutorials of website tactics, and for recording and editing webinars. But I’m realizing more and more that it’s a feature-packed tool I can be doing a lot more with.

Here’s a video I created using one of the techniques outlined in the bonus section of this course:

Yup… that’s a caricature of me, and you can easily do the exact same thing. The possibilities with just this one little gem are nearly endless — no need to worry about a bad hair day or not knowing what to say on camera, because the cartoon you (or another random cartoon character if you prefer) just performs flawlessly, right on cue.

I’ve only really begun to dive into everything that’s offered in this course… but the techniques I’ve discovered already have been worth the price of admission.

You obviously know how important it is to use video these days for search engine placement, traffic from various sources, buzzworthiness, and appeal to the internet generation.

This Camtasia course will show you that the options for creating those videos are a lot more varied than you might have thought.

Keep Unwrapping your Success!

For months now, I’ve been laughing at Taco Bell’s “Cheesy Beefy Melt” commercials.

You know, the ones that are set to Modern English’s 80s hit, Melt With You (one of my favorite songs from my youth, by the way):

“Get seasoned beef and melty… melty… and even more glorious melty cheese…”

Okay, I still like the song, and I loooove cheese, but come on! How silly can you get? What kind of marketing genius thought “Cheesy Beefy Melt” was an intelligent product name, and that goofy commercials of people with cheese hanging out of their mouths would make people want to buy these melts?

Well, apparently rival McDonald’s thought it was a GREAT idea, because I just saw a commercial for their new “Beefy Cheesy Double Cheeseburger” (like a double cheeseburger shouldn’t be beefy and cheesy without having to call it that!).

And as they say, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery… right?

Uhhh… yeah!

At least these commercials make me laugh every time I see them. I just can’t get over how silly it is to call a product “Cheesy Beefy” or “Beefy Cheesy” or refer to the quality of being “melty”.

But what I really wonder is, is this an innocent silliness? Or is there a sexual overtone?

Click HERE To Continue > > >

Last night the Oscars were on… formally called The Academy Awards, but colloquially called the Oscars (because technically, the Emmy Awards are also Academy Awards, as are Canadian awards like the Geminis and the Genies… they’re all awarded by “The Academy”).

And besides, who wouldn’t want to honor the little gold man named Oscar?

While watching the presentations — and the many flashbacks, since it was the 80th annual show — one thing caught my attention time and time again.

People were talking about all the times they had “pictured” (visualized) that moment onstage… and how they had followed their dreams against all odds.

What does it take to make a dream come true?

• Vision?
• Conviction?
• Ambition?
• Action?

Or maybe all of the above “ion”s?

Hindsight is 20/20, and looking back on what people have achieved, it’s tempting to say, “Well, it was easy for them… they have (talent, looks, money, fame, whatever, blah-blah-blah)…”

But was it easy for them?

Maybe, because they loved every minute of the journey.

Could it be “easy” for you too?

Why not?

Go for the big reward… and maybe that involves an award, or maybe just the achievement is enough.

But dare to dream… and dream big.

Because if you shoot for the stars, you may hit the moon.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

I just posted an article on the LWLWorldwide blog about Hollywood relationships, and what they mean (or don’t mean) to you…

And it also includes a video from me, and another chance to attend a free tele-call on relationship magic with me and relationship expert Zen DeBrucke this week.

Read, watch, discover, and laugh (or cringe) here.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

You see people walking picket lines, protesting this and that, marching for world peace… and they’re making a difference for the planet, right?

They’re spiritually enlightened, with their hearts in the right places, and they care more about humanity than prosperity.

People like Mother Teresa, Gandhi, and the average Buddhist monk on the hill — people who believe it’s better to give than receive — they’re the ones who will save us from doom and gloom… aren’t they?

And while the activists are saving the world, the starving artists are making it more beautiful.

Anyone who makes a living from their art is just a “sell-out”, whether it’s a musician making money off a TV commercial, or a painter who sells their masterpieces to decorate big corporate head offices.

Right… ???

Umm… hmmm.

What would you say if I told you that was a complete and total “bass-ackwards” (as Barry likes to say) way of thinking?…

Click HERE To Continue > > >

Last night I was making carrot juice, and I poured some of the pulp down the sink, into the built-in garbage disposal. It seemed to work fine, but then I looked in the sink to see a mess of spewed carrot bits and egg shells, smelling pretty raunchy. It made me think immediately that the sink was sick, and I tried to remedy the situation, but the mess kept coming back up into the second sink… then back to the first one.

I asked Barry to help me out, and he was able to stop the suction effect by removing some pots from the second sink. The way they had been covering the hole, they kept the suction going and wouldn’t let the mess go down the drain.

“It’s okay,” he joked. “The sickness is gone.”

Now that the thoughts of doing irreparable damage to our sink and having to call plumbers had vanished, I was immediately swept with emotions, and said, “I’m sorry for making the sink puke. I didn’t mean to hurt it!”

Then I laughed at how I had personified the sink, and it suddenly reminded me of an old commercial I used to see on TV a lot. I told Barry about the Ikea commercial, which was apparently created by Spike Jonze, and how it used to effect me emotionally:

But it wasn’t just me. All the girls I knew felt sorry for this little lamp when watching the commercial…. then we’d laugh when the host said, “that’s because you’re crazy!”

But deep down we knew we weren’t crazy. We had been affected by the same tools movie makers use when hooking you into a story: the music, the pacing, the positioning of the “victim”, and the back-and-forth points of view.

Click HERE To Continue > > >

Charles Trippy is a YouTube celebrity… He has his own channel there, and is actually a paid employee of sorts for YouTube.

That’s right, he’s a 23-year-old student… and he works for YouTube making videos. Pretty cool lifestyle if you can make it work — and Charles can.

His YouTube video channel has over 33,000 subscribers, and his videos have been viewed over 6,000,000 times across the internet.

Yeah… that’s six MILLION!

I got to know him on the set of The Next Internet Millionaire which I co-hosted with Joel Comm. Charles was one of the contestants, and a lot of the others had him pegged as their toughest competition right from the start.

At first I thought he was a nice kid, but too set in his ways and too argumentative, because every time he received constructive criticism he had something to say to counter it.

But by the end of the competition I really had new respect for him. He has a good heart, and his stubbornness actually comes from an admirable desire to succeed, share ideas, and make his mark on the world.

Not only that, but he knows what he’s doing. This is a guy that’s going places… and he reminded me of one of my favorite lessons of all time, one that I constantly preach but that sometimes I forget to practice (just like we all do):

You can’t judge a book by its cover.
You can’t judge a person by their appearance.
What you see is usually NOT what you get.

(Yes, it all ties in to metaphysics… your roots create your fruits, or your inner reality creates your outer reality — not vice versa).

Here’s Charles’s finalist video for The Next Internet Millionaire, which is the first glimpse I ever got of him. If you don’t know Charles, it comes across a bit goofy… but once you realize this is his style, and the viral effect his videos have, you can just enjoy them for what they are and the power they have:

So… what does this have to do with you?

Click HERE To Continue > > >

Barry and I were watching Kid Nation tonight — the reality show where kids up to 15 years old are working together to build an old-time town called Bonanza City, but also competing in teams. There’s no elimination on this one though… in fact, they’re all encouraged to stay till the end, but some can’t take the heat and leave (usually because they miss their families).

Here’s a party scene montage from another episode:

The over-riding topic of tonight’s show seemed to be religion — and the kids were encouraged to hold some kind of religious service, with the big decision being whether to have a cross-denomination gathering or split everyone up into groups based on their beliefs.

Interestingly, many of the youngsters quoted facts about how religion is the root cause of many wars; for a moment they seemed rather clever and well-educated.

Then they started using that as an excuse as to why they should NOT mix based on religion. One girl said, “how can you expect people with different beliefs to be in the same room together?”

Umm… hello, are we not in rooms with people of different beliefs all the time? You probably work and/or live and/or play with people who have not only different religious beliefs, but different moral beliefs, different beliefs about sex and relationships, different beliefs on what’s fun, different beliefs on what success is, different beliefs on the most important things in life… different beliefs on EVERYTHING!

Should we all segregate ourselves then, in case we inadvertently start wars based on our beliefs?

Click HERE To Continue > > >