September 22, 2005

Cross-country aid

Looks like we got a little write-up about our trip to Louisiana published in the Glendale News-Press today. I thought I would pass it along in case anyone is interested. Here’s the link:

Cross-country aid – Jet Propulsion Laboratory employee does his bit to help victims of hurricane devastation.

September 9, 2005

Holy Crap, the Ipod Nano!

I won’t lie, I held out on buying an iPod cause I just couldn’t justify the expense. I wanted one, we all do: who wouldn’t want to have their whole music collection in one place? Anyway, I received one as a gift and I don’t know what I was doing without it. Its like every toy I ever had as a kid consolidated into the palm of my hand.

What am I getting at? Well, now all those toys will take up the place of a fingertip with this new iPod Nano that just came out. Look at the picture man, this thing is the width of a pencil, no joke. I don’t know how insane things will get with ipod sizes, but it’s almost becoming like this parody I saw recently. Soon the ipod flea will be real and maybe, just maybe I’ll end up with one. Apple isn’t selling iPod’s anymore, they’re selling lifestyles. When they get to a $50 price point, even my Grandma Doris will have one.

September 7, 2005

Disaster Relief PSAs

Hey all. I just wanted to let you know that we recorded a brief public service announcement tonight for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. If you have a podcast you are welcome to use this PSA. Here’s the link:

https://www.learnoutloud.com/podcasts/LOLKatrina.mp3

I’ve included the transcript for the PSA below. If you are looking for other PSAs, Podshow has assembled a collection of them. Here’s that link:

http://www.podshow.com/relief

PSA Transcript

Hey everybody. It’s Jon Bischke here from LearnOutLoud.com. If my voice sounds a bit weary it’s because I just returned from Louisiana where I spent the last few days helping out with the Red Cross. We were helping out in Lafayette where there are 40,000 evacuees currently residing. It was heartbreaking to see many of the people and realize how much they had lost and how their lives had been impacted by Katrina. At the same time, it was inspiring to see thousands of people coming to the aid of others who had been complete strangers only a few days before. So much is being done but there is so much more to be done. Please do whatever you can even if you don’t think it’ll make much of a difference. Donate to the Red Cross by going to www.redcross.org. Look for volunteer opportunities in your area on places like Craig’s List. And please keep the people of the Gulf Coast in your thoughts and prayers in the coming weeks and months.

September 6, 2005

Katrina Update (Live from Louisiana)

Hey all. I just wanted to make a quick post with a link to my account of the last few days spent in Louisiana. This is the text of an e-mail I sent out to family and friends so if some of it doesn’t make sense that’s probably why. It’s incredible what’s going on down there and I encourage everyone to help out in any way that they can…

September 1, 2005

Helping the Victims of Katrina

It’s pretty shocking to see what’s going on in New Orleans and other places in the South right now. The hurricane itself was tragic enough but now you have that compounded by looting and violence. It’s a very tough situation and we encourage everyone to do what they can to help out. We’re going to donate 5% of this month’s sales at LearnOutLoud to help the victims of the hurricane. To find out what you can do to help, please visit the following websites:

The American Red Cross
Network for Good
The Salvation Army

I received a forwarded e-mail yesterday from a person who had just landed a gig as a weather person for a station in New Orleans. He wrote:

Tonight though, please take the time to enjoy your beds. Be grateful for all you have. And most importantly make sure to tell the people who you care about most that you love them. Life is fragile and you have to hold every moment closely.

I can’t add much to that…

August 1, 2005

Focusing

Ever heard of focusing? I hadn’t either until my Uncle Paul turned me on to it a few months back. It’s form of therapy that involves going “within one’s self” to pick up on feelings that might not be readily apparent at the surface level. The Focusing Institute’s website does a much better job of explaining this than I could.

Focusing is direct access to a bodily knowing.

As in ancient times, philosophy now has a practice derived from it.

With training you can find the entry point to your embodied knowledge. After that, you can become able to stay long enough to interact with it. Then you can do many different things when you reach a profound level.

I tried a focusing session and it was pretty cool although I definitely had the feeling that you would need to do multiple sessions to derive the full benefit. Focusing is a great subject to learn about through audio and video because at it’s heart focusing is very much an auditory activity (focusing partners often conduct sessions via the telephone). Seth just put up some of Ann Cornel’s focusing titles up on our site. If you’re interested in learning more about focusing I would encourage you to check them out.

Introduction to Focusing – A great one to start with if you’re new to focusing.

Learning Focusing – A two CD set that goes a little deeper.

The Power of Listening – A videocassette that seems geared a bit more towards those conducting focusing sessions.

The Return of the Soul – Another of Ann’s videocassettes. This one looks somewhat autobiographical in nature.

If you’re interesting in finding out more about focusing, please visit the website of The Focusing Institute at http://www.focusing.org.

July 24, 2005

Anthony de Mello

I’ve been reading (yes, reading not listening…) a bit of Anthony de Mello’s “Awareness” this weekend and all I can say is “wow.” It’s one of the more remarkable books that I’ve read in a while. Here are a few passages from the portion I’ve read that stood out for me:

You never trust anyone. You only trust your judgment about that person.

Every new idea, every great idea, when it first began was in a minority of one.

Charity is really self-interest masquerading under the form of altruism.

Nobody is afraid of the unknown. What you really fear is loss of the known.

Good stuff eh?

If you’re interested in finding some audio and video de Mello titles, Seth just put up a bunch on our site. Here’s the link:

Anthony de Mello Audio and Video

In addition, Wikipedia has a brief blurb on de Mello here. And if you’re interested in reading Awareness, you pick it up here.

July 17, 2005

Tiger Woods Wins the British Open

He’s done it again. Earlier today Tiger Woods won the British Open by 5 shots (it didn’t even seem that close) and became only the second player (Jack Nicklaus was the other) to win the career Grand Slam twice. It was his 10th major championship victory and even more evidence that Tiger is world’s greatest golfer…if not the greatest golfer of all time.

We have a few Tiger-related audio and video titles up on the site that I wanted to let you know about:

Tiger: The Authorized DVD Collection – I just watched the first disc of this a couple of days ago and it’s awesome. If you’re a fan of Tiger at all you’ll love it. It’s available for purchase through Amazon or for rental through Netflix.

How I Play Golf – How I Play Golf is a great book and if the audio version is anything like it then it’s a winner. An instructional booklet is included with this title.

In Search of Tiger – This one has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while. I think it might be time to fire it up. It’s available on audio CD, cassette and mp3-CD.

With golf season in full swing (no pun intended), be sure to check out all of the golf audio and video learning products at the following URL:

https://www.learnoutloud.com/Catalog/Sports-and-Hobbies/Golf

Oh, and if you weren’t watching the Open this morning you probably missed the new Tiger Woods commercial. It’s one of the cooler things I’ve seen lately. Here’s the URL so you can check it out:

http://www.nike.com/nikegolf/flash_reg.jhtml?.htm

(Click on “Tiger Woods TV Spot” and then click on “Watch the TV Spot”.)

Cool huh?

July 13, 2005

Africa

I recently had the good fortune of being able to attend the Live 8 concert in Philadelphia. The concert was held to raise awareness about global poverty and the situation in Africa. Many of you probably watched it on television or the Internet.

I got an encouraging message in my Inbox from one.org yesterday. Here’s a bit of it:

In Scotland this past Friday, overcoming the shadow of a tragic day in London, President Bush joined G8 leaders in an unprecedented deal to cancel debts and double aid to Africa.

For African nations fighting poverty and corruption, this means a $25 billion increase in aid and wiping out 100% of their debts. With this funding, Africa can halve deaths from malaria, put millions of children into school, and 10 million people across the world will have access to lifesaving AIDS drugs. Behind each of these numbers is one person, one life that will be changed forever.

For the complete announcement, click here.

It’s an amazing and historic step and I want to applaud all of G8 leaders for taking it (especially to Tony Blair for spearheading the effort). There is a lot more to be done in Africa but the tone has been set and let’s hope that this generation can be the one to finally put an end to senseless poverty and disease.

To wrap it back to LearnOutLoud I thought I would share a few audio titles that you can listen to that will help you more fully understand a continent that most people will never visit. I’m particularly interested to listen to Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux and Love is the Driest Season by Neely Tucker. Here are some other noteworthy ones:

An Affair with Africa by Alzada Carlisle Kistner
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
A Short History of Africa by Roland Oliver
Land of a Thousand Hills by Rosamond Halsey Carr

For more information on how you can help end global poverty, please go to www.one.org.

June 25, 2005

The Blind Children’s Learning Center

I participated in a 5K walk today to raise money for the Blind Children’s Learning Center in Santa Ana, California. The BCLC helps to develop the full potential of blind and visually impaired children and youth. It was a great morning and so much fun to see both the center and the children who benefit from it. Especially touching was a set of songs performed by Cody Lee, a very talented boy who attends the center.

Our plan is to work with organizations like the Blind Children’s Learning Center to help bring audio learning programs to blind and visually impaired youth. One of the things we’re hoping to roll out soon is a program where you can donate used audiobooks and we’ll work to get them into hands of youth like the ones who attend the BCLC. Audio learning represents an awesome opportunity for these children to learn more about the world and we’re very happy to be able to support that.

For more information on the Blind Children’s Learning Center, please click here.

For more photos of today’s walk, click here and here.