possible futures

One of my favourite thing about following bloggers is when they pass along one of their own learning moments and share a new concept with us.

Reading Patrick Rhone's web site The Random Post I discovered another Gem that he found.

He point's us to Derek Sivers' concept of "possible futures" where you create a space where you allow yourself permission to brain dump your ideas of a possible timeline for your idea/project/life. I love the idea of giving yourself that safe space to let it out on its own stream of thought not interfering with other things you have on the go.

Maybe you make something of it, maybe you don't, but you don't lose your ideas for future reference.

Got in a street fight - Film Short Concept

Scene captured in a news report detailing all of the steps including screen shots of stories, interviews with people on the street, interviews with experts on anonymity.

an anonymous author begins to publish short stories

these stories expose the problematic underpinnings of society including which companies, people and systems are at the heart of the problems

the stories begin to go viral

the stories begin to pin-point solutions such that the common man can take action, and they do.

the public is posting videos showing how they tested the ideas in the stories and proved it true

the author calls for the common people who do not want to take action to instead hold boycotts

Scene captured in boardroom with executives sitting around angrily discussing the impact and then they call someone on the speakerphone.

when the boycotts start to be super successful the elite are not amused and ask their friends in government to expose and shut down this trouble maker

Scene captured in an office at a law enforcement agency where the a manager hangs up the phone and has a conversation with someone about the case.

they cannot find the author due to the software being used. so they go to the web sites that host the stories and host, after host is requested to shutdown their site but they continue to pop up in new places until they finally get hosted by non compliant host and don’t get taken down.

the authorities decide to create a fake author to rise and take claim for the stories, hoping to draw the original author out.  They realize that they cannot use an actor as he may be recognized but instead they use an agent who they can put a disguise on.

Scene captured at a public building. We see plain clothed officers going in. We see the hacker seeing them going in and snapping a picture. We see the makup and disguise being applied. We see the hacker making the connection and flashing back to his incident to snap out of it and send a message to this friends. We switch to scenes of young men searching up information on the agent. frantically copying it and posting to paste bin as well as notifying the media who start to get it on their smart phones while they are at the press conference and actually ask him about it during their question period.

a federal agent is disguised and brought out as the author and begins to apologize for causing unrest and for “making up” the information and that it is not true.

but a hacker recognizes the agent in moments before appearing to speaking entering a building without a disguise.  it is an agent that once busted him as a teen for finding a sloppy atm setup.

the hacker then spreads the word with his hacker network and they coordinate one big release of the information revealing the fake within hours of the new conference where he brought out.

Scene at a family dinner table about the anonymous author and the amazing posts. Dad makes statement about how this guy is a real leader for the country. Daughter takes exception to her Dad thinking its a guy.

throughout the story we have been following a family talking about the author’s posts at their dinner table and with their friends and the story seems to be implying that the husband is the one posting the information.

Scene takes place in agent’s office. Use whiteboard to visualize the data storage.

time between the posts starts to increase but the amount of information increases too as does the methods to take action.

the depth of the articles research catchs the attention of one computer scientist on the agents team.

then, the government decides that they need to increase the spying on regular citizens by scanning for keywords, blobs of encrypted data and building a massive data store that might find the research being done prior to the posting.

Scene takes place in a car en route to the suspects home and then at the door. Agents enter the home and they confirm its cooicdence.

first a false alarm to someone who coincidentally was writing a paper for school on the same issue.

Agent office.

and then it works, they are able to track an IP of someone who researched information on both the stories. they are 2 hours away from their location and decide not to involve local law enforcement other than at the scene.

but the computer science guy is asked to scan a document with comments that explains the elite plans to crush her in public as a fraud without ever showing her side of the story to squash the public ramblins when he knows she has been uncovering the truth. He hims and haws but in the end he decides that the public needs to know who she is and so he calls a friend who shares it with hackers, the media and social interest groups and they rally at a simple bungalow.

Author’s home outside

people start to arrive but stay back thinking that they have been duped until moments later the police and agents arrive.

Agent’s Office

He decides that she deserves a second chance and so he gets a message by calling his friend again to her to say that agents are coming and she needs to erase all her research and evidence that links her to the posts.

Author’s home inside

and she does, including the stories she is working on which copies to a USB stick and drops down a heat vent moments before the police break in and she is hauled away.

Author’s home outside

the police haul her out in cuffs and they pause outside the door when they encounter the mass of people and media.  She is caught for a moment in awe. The people around her are just regular people.   She shouts out ”I am nobody special, just a partner to my husband, a mom to my children and someone who gives a damn about how the world should work!”  she is lead away to a waiting unmarked agent car and you can see offices removing her computer equipment.

TV News item follow

In the weeks that followed the government was able to prove no charges against Christine, she was just an average person involved in her community and they could prove no intent of any kind other than to share ideas.

Christine was encouraged  to lay low and so her posts haven’t been back on the internet, but many other average every day people are sharing information and taking action and maybe things can change for the little guy.

Quote before credits:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead

6 years

Six years is not a sacrifice when the end goal of the project is something great. Is it?

When an investment of time into someone produces an end result that lasts a life time, how much time do you choose to invest?

the man with the chicken tattoo

I woke up on a barge loaded with sheep being dragged across some short

stretch of water by a boat being driven by a man whom I could not see

in the early morning light before sunrise. I don't remember how I

ended up there and the polite farmer who gave me a ride back to

mainland didn't know either. On the boat ride back he explained how he

has loaded his sheep onto the barge in the darkness many a time before

and never has he had a man turn up. I had to laugh at how casually he

spoke of the situation. I, on the other hand, was panicking inside as

I was quickly realizing that the surroundings were anything but

familiar to me and when my question on location finally came up, panic

turned to complete terror.

"so where are we" I asked?

"well this here is Little Village Lake, and that island is known as

Baker's Island. Although I don't think it's an official name, just on

account ah John Baker Senior, who died long before I came to this

earth, cuz he was doing some kinda illegal activities there. but we

are heading back to Parker's landing, which is named after my family

on account ah we owns all the land around that spot." He rattled off

the short description in such a way that I actually found myself

enjoying his style of story long enough that I, for just a moment,

forgot I had no clue where this was.

"what is the closest city or town?" I tried to say matter of factly.

"well Woodruff is not far, maybe 40 minutes" he replied.

"Woodruff?" I had no clue where Woodruff was.

“Yeah, Woodruff, do you not know where you are? “ He laughed “First I find a guy sleeping on my barge with a tattoo of a Chicken on his arm and now he has no clue where he is!”

“Chicken on his arm?” he mumbles as he looks to his arm to see a fresh tattoo of a chicken on his arm with a scroll in its mouth. 

To be continued...... 

blog like no one is reading

I write here to share ideas that come up from time to time.

Writing them out helps me to process them. Editing my words, over and over (sometimes not enough)  helps me to further work through the idea and the issues.

I publish it publicly because it is important to leave a legacy of our ideas, even if they are incomplete. That is the true gift of the Internet to this age, the opportunity to share unpolished ideas.

"Should I share my writing, fiction or non-fiction, as well?" You ask.

YES, absolutely, YES! Publish your thoughts, your issues, your complaints and get it out there. The ability to write out our ideas is an amazing part of being human and sharing it with others is the amazing part of being a community.

I should note, that there is one time when I say NO, you should not publish what you write. That one occasion is when you write hate or untruth. Hate is wrong, no matter where or when you are from hate has no place in the world. Writing about or encouraging hate can bring no good.  Untruth also similarly brings wrong to those vulnerable to believing you. Far too much profit is made from people speaking of untruths for personal gain to those vulnerable to believing those ideas.

The future will be a more prosperous place (in the true sense, not the financial) if we all take the time to share ideas. Never stop, never relent, share your ideas.

Visits at the end

I am a big believer in honoring people for who they are and what they have accomplished, no matter how small. I am not sentimental and I do not linger in relationships out of obligation or hopes of some magical result. The concept of karma, cause and effect, is not lost on me but I think we as a species worry too much about the quantity of acceptance of others and not enough about the quality.

My perspective does get me into awkward moments where I spend limited time nurturing family relationships that are not normally part of my life. I understand that for many they believe that it is "right" to visit with the aging and not leave them alone as their friends and family die.

I really struggle with the idea of visiting old people at the end of their lives. People seem to have a variety of rationals for doing it but I personally think that when someone reaches the health milestone or age where they know that they are leaving the living that we should respect their privacy.

To each his own, but I personally hope to come to my dieing moment alone knowing that I have helped my family and community to be out living, not holding my hand. 

I want to spend my last years quieting my mind, making piece with my thoughts and listening to the universe.

Why making the world a better place needs to be the developed world's responsibility

We all deserve what Bill and Melinda have found and we need to help the world live to it's full potential.

Helping achieve global goals that lift up everyone will give us more life satisfaction

Leadership is found in many, many places where people have a plan that does not sacrifice community for personal privilege, greed and the perception of personal safety.

Several organizations have set out goals and here are global perspectives to consider.

Social Progress Index

People's Report Card: Accountability on Global Goals