Where Have You Been?

I haven't updated my blog in a while. And now I am back again. So, where have you been, Peter-o?

For the past few years, I was a busy, busy boy working full-time, followed by a somewhat lazy-boy.

From 2008-2011, I worked as a tutor and then a teacher's assistant at John Muir Charter School, on the site of San Jose Job Corps Center (SJJC). It was a great job! I worked mostly teaching Algebra I, and preparing the students to pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). I also worked with the staff of the Nevada County Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) to ensure that the necessary subset of our students had their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) or Section 504 plans up-to-date and reviewed, ensuring they qualified for the new exemption to the CAHSEE under California law. It was the kind of work that made a profound difference in the lives of many at-risk young men and women.
 
However, in June 2011, I was let go due to a decision made by Muir to ensure all their teachers at the site had K-12 Single Subject Secondary Education credentials. Since my credential is in Adult Education (not K-12), it meant the end of the line for me. Now, almost a year later, I look back at it as a wonderful experience that I dearly miss. I hope that everyone at the Muir site, indeed, the whole the Job Corps Center are doing great this year! I miss all the teachers and students there.

Since then, I have been doing personal tutoring. I had a wonderful opportunity over the summer to act as a docent and English tutor for a visiting foreign exchange student from France. More recently, I have been doing tutoring in AP US History, English, and Geometry for Los Gatos high school students through TeamUp! Tutors. And I've also snuck in some private consulting for a creative principal in the movie/animation industry.

For those familiar with my work and efforts of recent years, most of those initiatives are on hold: Flowers in the Cracks, the Global Understanding Institute, and many other wonderful ideas just tailed away into silence, or were shelved due to circumstances. I reserve the right to revive them at any time, but for now, they are sleeping dreams. There are other ideas I have percolating, but it is not yet time to mention them.

But one thing I can talk about is my new web site: petercorless.com. I've just begun to flesh it out. With the recent changes in policy now allowing Californians to again be part of the program, I've rejoined as an Amazon.com affiliate. So I started putting links back to the old Green Knight Publishing products. Expect that to flesh out over time. And also expect to see more links from me under an Arthuriana topic, and eventually a section for history, etc.

I Must Learn to Walk Again

Upon the climbing switchback path
Rising to the apt-named Goat Rock Trail
Listening to my heart's rhythmic math
Repetitiously inferring that life is frail

Yet resolved enough to keep its rapid beating
Over dirt and stone and gnarled grey root
Catching sight through trees of sunlight fleeting
I soldier upwards with plodding boot

Shedding barefoot I carefully climb to stand upon the boulder
Looking down from lofty bluff to somewhat face my fears
Yet soon enough we slide away and again my pack I shoulder
Gazing at this setting of the orange sun I feel in full my years

As I followed down into the placid dusk a thought came to me then:
If I do seek to truly love, I must learn to walk again

Armistice Day, Veteran's Day

This was posted by me as a comment to another journal on OKCupid. The writer wrote about Veteran's Day, and made what I considered a few minor, yet specific errors in her otherwise well-written essay.

First error: "The holiday was established as Armistice Day in 1918 to honor soldiers who have served this country in the Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy."

Second error: "It’s not a day of remembrance, but of recognition."

I thought I'd put my comment here in my journal as well. First, to give paragraph breaks. ;) Secondly, so others who read my own journal may see where I stand on the issue.

~~~

Just a point of historical correction. The first Armistice Day was declared in 1919 by Woodrow Wilson to commemorate the end of the war. As the years went on, Congress decided to formalize the purpose of the Holiday, and passed an Act of Congress. As Wikipedia puts it: An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday; "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."

It was only after World War II and Korea that Armistice Day changed in meaning, from the dedication to world peace, to the commemoration of Veteran's service. In a way, I believe that this disenfranchised many people, such as the civilian contributors to wartime efforts, and those that strive for peaceful outcomes -- to ameliorate present conflicts and prevent future ones. If we returned to the original intent, then the vast majority of the world, civilians and soldiers alike, can feel invested in the cause of the day.

Lastly, I must correct this point of yours. For it is a day of remembrance. Indeed, around the nations of the British Commonwealth, it is still called "Remembrance Day," in commemoration of the Armistice and those that fought and died to achieve the peace that follows war. To remember, they wear the red poppy, symbolizing the fallen soldiers, strewn like flowers on the field.

Call me a traditionalist, but I believe that we should all remember that 20 million died in the First World War. 72 million in the Second World War. And, especially in the latter conflict, and to the present day, it is the civilians who suffer the vast majority of casualties. A mother huddled in a house, sheltering her children from the onslaught around her, knows the same -- if not greater -- threats and fears of battle as any soldier. All-too-often she and her children suffer the same fate the soldiers do. Armistice Day is now called Veteran's Day. Yet truly recall and reflect this year on the origins of the holiday, thank you.

~~~

This is not to disrespect the contributions and sacrifices of anyone in uniform. Indeed, anyone who knows my past will know the work I have done in analysis and commemoration of military history. Yet so long as we segregate the holiday to honor only those who wore a uniform (about 10% of the U.S. population), it bifurcates our populace, with the majority of the civilian population seeming only to mark the day as one of increased shopping discounts. How do we ensure that all people would reflect on the dangers of our world, and those who strove, and still work to keep us safe from them?

Ninety one years ago on this 11th of November was the original Armistice of the Great War. There was not a Second World War yet. Indeed, they had hoped that it would be the "war to end all wars." Sadly, there would be no "peace for our time." And through this very day, chaotic, violent wars are still being fought in dozens of conflict zones spanning both hemispheres. What can we do between now and the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice, the 11th of November 2018?

For me, and for some certain friends of mine, we are returning to an original intent. We are personally referring henceforth to the day as Armistice Day. Not out of spite to any veteran, but to remind all -- civilian and military -- that the origin of the national, indeed, global holiday was to ensure that we never again commit our nations to the horrific destructive methods and ends we, and our forefathers, sought in the past. That we seek a world where the amelioration and end to such horrors is a goal and an ethical standard we all must commit ourselves to.

So how about you? Would you support returning to the original intent of the holiday, and to call it Armistice Day? Should we specifically commemorate the uniformed veterans only, or should we consider the entirety of those involved -- civil government as well as military, those who serve in NGOs, the war correspondents, the peacemakers and the peacekeepers, the civilians and refugees. Can we use this day, once per year, to honor all those who suffer from war, and those who contribute to the cessation of hostilities. Can we commit ourselves, united again to the cause of world peace?

Wasteland Wandering

I walked under sun from El Alamein to Benghazi
Upon paper-dry chips and hard cubic faces
Caught in the barrens no man survives
But camels and bedouins and novelists

November is come past these sixty seven years
Of long-forgotten ribcages and burnt up boots
Failed crumbling attacks and Devil's gardens
All I could think of were the trees of Palermo

Yes, you left me to die without letter or love
What less should I expect from Fata Morgana?
Qattara swallowed me up then spat me out whole
That salty leviathan of vast dessication

As I sat and thought of your just-past birthday
Wondering if you would forgive all my bloodshed
The stars rose and the world turned frigid
With a shift in the phases came the British offensive

Right before me a shell took off his leg below the knee
Yet behold, unscathed I have no such crippling excuse
Why I never returned was due less to Allied assault
More instead to the cowardice bred from absolute failure

Ten years later in a sunset darkened cafe in Messina
I saw you beside that American from the broad boulevard
Who had deftly avoided Kesselring and captured your heart
Orders were clear to make a new retreat back to Cyrenaica

For all the twenty five pounders that thumped the horizon
Enduring crushing commands I strove so hard to trump
The inexorable advance of time in its long, drawn-out turns
I never truly suffered more or wished to die

Until the moment I watched you kiss him

About this poem

This poem was inspired by recently watching the movie El Alamein and by the West End Games boardgame I worked on decades ago, Desert Steel. It is informed through the knowledge gained by research on the North African and Mediterranean campaigns via innumerable books, magazines, movies and simulation games. A tip of the cap and bow is also due to T.S. Eliot and the Arthurian authors of the Grail legends. And, of course and ultimately, it was inspired by the historical deeds of hundreds of thousands of individuals who suffered through the Second World War conflicts in North Africa and Sicily.

Oh Good Heavens!

I just looked at the calendar, and realized how many months it has been since I've posted anything to my blogs. I've been busy over the summer, and am now employed full-time as a CAHSEE Specialist at a charter school in San Jose. It's good work!

Aside from that, I've shelved and delayed a lot of my plans for the Global Understanding Institute and Flowers in the Cracks. Partially due to some organizational disappointments. Also due to exhaustion in getting the new job!

Even so, I have plans to eventually get them going. So no worries with that. Life is nearing a new equilibrium, so I feel more comfortable coming up for air here.

I've been more active in Facebook than here recently. I believe I'll spend a bit of time going back over my Facebook posts and links and see what I can bring over here.

Where I Have Lived: 107 West Tremont Avenue

View Larger Map

I've lived here, from c. 1965-1970.

Before that I lived for a brief time on Shakespeare Avenue, though I am not sure of the address there. We always just called the house "107." If you ask people in my family, that's still what we call it. "Remember 107?" Yeah.

We loved that house!

Fire by BART Tracks Suspicious

The San Jose Mercury News reports that the two-alarm grass fire by the BART tracks was deemed suspicious by assistant fire chief Andy Smith.

The two photographs I took of the fire were uploaded to the Your Views section of the San Jose Mercury News:


Union City Fire 2 - 17 May 09


Union City Fire - 17May09

Please rate them!

-Peter.

Union City Fire Near BART Tracks - 17 May 2009

Smoke pouring over the barrier wall lining the BART tracks near 11th and D Streets in Union City, California, 6:00 pm, 17 May 2009.

UNION CITY, CA (17 May 2009) - Peter Corless - Just before 6:00 pm, a tall plume of dark smoke could be seen rising over Union City in the East Bay between Decoto and Whipple Roads. The source of the flames was a stand of trees lining the BART tracks near 13th and F Streets.

Flames cresting over the heights of the neighborhood houses consumed the eucalyptus and cypress trees lining the west side of the tracks. The barrier wall near the tracks served as a firebreak, but there were gaps in the wall where chain link fences exposed brush that could serve to spread the fire.

Homeowners on the east sides of the tracks near the intersection of 11th and D Streets doused the bushes near the barrier wall with buckets of water and garden hoses, in attempts to keep the fire from jumping over to threaten their clustered housing units. Crowds gathered on all the lawns to see if the fire would be contained or further endanger their neighborhood.

Within minutes, police and fire units were on the scene. The fire had burned down a long row of trees and advanced north and south through the trees along the tracks. However, the center of the fire had already shown signs of burning through its fuel, leaving charred trunks of blackened trees smouldering.

Flames rising over the barrier wall lining the BART tracks near 11th and D Streets in Union City, California, as seen from near Railroad Avenue, 6:02 pm, 17 May 2009.

So Predictable!

In the news: Mathematical model to forecast divorce

A British mathematician, James D. Murray, observing couples for but 15 minutes together, has created a sort of "Voight-Kampff" test to determine whether a relationship is humanly natural and likely to live on for a long while, or, like artificial replicants, are doomed to suffer a shortened life.



How can he tell? How people deal with each other in casual conversation. Humor is part of it. Conflict management and resolution styles are also part of it. Our different relationship styles, when compared with our partner's, will determine whether we are good long-term matches for each other. You can read Dr. Murray's presentation to the University of Minnesota in November 2004 online.

Fascinating work. Something we might wish to reflect upon as we flirt, posit and compare notes on romance!

Enjoy!

-Pete.

Spring Approaches

The darkening dusk of evening
So peaceful on a President's day
The light in the window leavening
Letting winter chill fall away

Spring approaches yet not quite
Water freezes after darkening dusk
Or in the shadows of low-canted light
Flowers wilted within wet withered husk

Yet spring approaches once again
That is the promise of the year
Triumphant blossoms remember when
It is proper for their ilk to reappear

Blossom in your heart as lilies do
Like lilacs and cherry and the rose most fair
Yet abide until the winter's through
Until the chill has left the air

Sit with me in the wan sunlight
Endure the coldness of the season
Ponder the flowers in struggling plight
How most fragile life shows nature's reason

Logic implicit in the strength of flowers gentle
Shows how we may thrive remaining most elemental

Valentine's Salvation

Cover my cuts in balm of love
Wounded and embarrassed by failure
Burned and charred by ashen end
Buffeted by rebuffed attention

Valentine then looses the dove
And through miracle most peculiar
Puts a heart to gentle mend
Though the softest-worded mention

"You are loved," and "I love you."
Recognition of each other's worth
Eases pains and ends the grief
That impales the strongest on ire's spike

So hearts may freely beat anew
We seek across this networked Earth
To crown counterparts with floral wreath
And share our souls with those alike

Be my fond darling, and I'll truly be yours
I love you my brothers, my sisters, even more than myself
Dearest mother, or father, or fair sweetest child
Valentine's salvation thus sacredly heals

Though generous love we manifest cures
The best elixir found on any alchemist's shelf
Whether passionate, silly, or modest and mild
This balm is best applied as each party so feels

Thus may you find a good doctor on this day's anniversary
And may Valentine himself tend your heart's garden nursery

2nd Iranian Literary Arts Festival, SF, 5-6 February 2009

Poetry about heart's love, healing life, and a homeland

30 years ago, the United States and Iran had the nationstate equivalent of a lover's quarrel. The divorce was terrible. As in such things, it was the children of Iran who suffered, and many were forced to leave home. Yet slowly, over time, the diaspora of Iranians around the world have used their beautiful language to help heal many of the old wounds and make sense of the world.

Belonging, the collection of Iranian poetry from around the world produced by Niloufar Talebi and her colleagues at the Translation Project, is an exquisite bi-lingual collection of such expressions. With English and Farsi on facing pages, the book is a visual depiction of the mirrored, reflective mind maintained the international Iranian community. Thinking of their new homes, and remembering their homeland.

The title is an imperative towards harboring a heart of bittersweetness: Be Longing. And a recognition of that conditional feeling of inclusiveness: Belonging.

The collected poetry comprises a sensuous world remembered and imagined, filled with lemons and oranges, romantic flowers, dull drab days, novelties of life in the Western world, old fondnesses of Iran, matter-of-fact realities, scathing ironies, and infinite personality quirks.

The free festival event this week, in partnership with the San Francisco Public Library, promises to bring the black-and-white words on a page to full color and lively bloom. Hope to see you there!

-Pete.

25 Things About Me

This is cross-posted from Facebook.

Rules:
Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to "notes" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people [in the right hand corner of the app] then click publish.)

1. I keep a toy hobby horse in my car, named Bucephalas, named after the horse of Alexander the Great. It was awarded to me for playing the role of Gareth Beaumains, a character based off Arthurian myths in an online roleplaying game.

2. My name is mentioned as an inventor on six U.S. patent awards. #6,721,793 (2004), #6,728,773 (2004), #6,885,999 (2005), #6,959,289 (2005), #7,031,943 (2006), #7,426,495 (2008). However, after filing these patents, I transferred positions within Cisco and then was laid off in 2001 before they could be further developed or turned into industry standards.

3. During my undergraduate stint at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, an article featuring me appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. It was about the growing ubiquity of computers on college campuses. My mother was quoted as saying, "Kids today take to computers like ducks to water!"

4. I just bought energy saver light bulbs for my apartment.

5. The hat I often wear, with the Eye of Horus embroidered on it, was gotten in 2006 at the public performance in San Francisco for the Martin Luther King, Jr. day festivities, following the Freedom Train ride up from Palo Alto.

6. Kathy is the most common name of women I have been romantically involved with. There have been five so far.

7. There are seven completely full bookshelves in my living room, two more in my room and the hall, and two new ones that I got last year that I need to shuffle books into.

8. I privately commemorate, when I am mindful, 11:11 am to recall Armistice Day of 1918, and 11:11 pm to pray for peace in our future.

9. My favorite constellation is Orion.

10. I own a kalimba. I got it at a Renaissance Faire in Califormia one summer along with an audio tape of African music. The best I can play on it is the theme of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, 4th Movement.

11. Beside my softball glove on the shelf is an Incredible Patent Picker Move Maker Machine from the 1974 Parker Brothers boardgame The Inventors.

12. I own a complete modern English edition of the 1086 Domesday Survey conducted by King William. I once wished to use it as the basis of an Arthurian roleplaying game.

13. When I dropped out of my Aikido and Kendo dojo, I left all my bokken there as a gift for others to enjoy. My teacher, a sufi, warned us all, years before 9/11, that there were terrorist training camps across the world which would one day attack the U.S. He said his training was preparing us for that day.

14. Other than a bent and bruised pinky or toe as a kid, which I never had x-rayed to be sure, I have never broken a bone in my body.

15. My favorite bakery in the world is Lord's Bakery on Nostrand Avenue at the diagonal junction with Flatbush Avenue, in Brooklyn. I always try to get a chocolate chip cookie there when I go back to New York City. The service is often brusque, but the buttery taste of a good fresh cookie is worth it! Even though it is on Nostrand, I call the place "Lord's of Flatbush."

16. My first job in California was at ComputerWare, doing technical support on the Macintosh. The year was 1989. It was my first taste of Silicon Valley California culture. Odwalla juices and warm hugs replaced Manhattan's caffeine and suits-and-ties. I really liked the difference.

17. I write poetry for women I have never met, often inspired just by seeing their profiles on online dating sites or interacting with them via Internet roleplaying games.

18. I own a pair of Roman caligae (sandals). The longest I ever walked in them was a weeklong hike along Hadrian's Wall from Newcastle to Carlisle in England, in 2006. My feet were blistered for a month.

19. I keep a jar of the fortunes I get from fortune cookies on my shelf.

20. While I have been a millionaire in the past, since I lost my fortune I feel like I am a nicer guy. I was a bad stress case. I dropped 50 lbs too. Had I continued on living the way I had before the NASDAQ downturn, I could have been dead of a heart attack by now. So in a way, I believe losing all the money helped save my life and returned me to being more "myself" again. If I ever get that sort of riches again in my life, I'll keep it all in perspective.

21. I often keep a passport-sized copy of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution in my back pocket. I also keep a copy of a world atlas in my laptop bag.

22. Years ago I came to realize my mind spawns more creative, humanitarian and technical projects I would like to accomplish in my life than I will ever get done at the present rate. Even so, I've founded a few companies, worked with some nascent non-profits, and still gamely want to do more if given half a chance.

23. We kept a parakeet (actually a budgie) when I was growing up, named Petey. I always treated "Petey" as the budgie's name, whereas mine was "Pete" or "Peter." Even now when people call me "Petey," I want to reply with a chirp and squawk.

24. I loved the first, original three Star Wars movies. I cannot stand the recent ones.

25. Oregano is my favorite spice to add to food. I especially like it on tortellini.

What Do I Look Like?

I was asked by a person in the Philippines what I looked like presently. Here’s a photo that Franklin took of me last year during the 2008 Campus MovieFest.

Since then, my beard grew out even more. It needs a good trim!

Happy Birthday Jackson

Hey, Jackson Pollock.
Why did you break the rules
Making painters’ tarpaulins
The ideal of modern fine art?

Now it was impossible
To draw a good foot
For Mrs. Darvin
And be taken seriously.

Ah well, thanks too, you know.
For showing that the raw energy
Of creative expression
Is what people value most.

Like atomic explosions
Genetic recombination of photons
Even before Watson & Crick
Spoke the laws of biochemistry.

Somewhere in the recesses
Of my Colliers apartment
Is my own Art Students League medal
As meaningful to me as the Nobel prize.

During Odysseus’ voyage, the WPA
Gave you each day your daily bread
While each night you drank it away
Into the oblivion of Depression

Rising up on the engines of Jung
Borne aloft by an angel camouflaged
With nose art of mad dribbling paint
Guernica cried out, and then the world

That was when you threw book at the floor
“God damn it, that guy missed nothing!”
Yet life was not escaping you either
Except through methyl and methylene fumes

Probably sufficient to make first dance forgettable
But a knock on the door
Re-introduced you to romance of the sort
That only from death do-you-finally-part

Blitzkriegs shattered Europe and Asia
Yet all the while you two remained a neutral power
Until the fateful explosion of Oppenheimer
Ended the war, even on Long Island.

There in October, the Bessarabian and you
Began a resistance and revolution of your own
Three years after the wartime exhibit
Had made you and Lee Bohemian comrades-in-arts

Get rid of the labels
Get rid of the titles
Get rid of the intentions
Just look and let the image emerge

Get rid of the demons
Get rid of the bottles
Get rid of the cigarettes
That’s where we aesthetically diverge

Hey, Jackson Pollack
You had it all before you
At the age of forty-four
When you got into the Olds

Ruth’s Zowie and Metzger
Didn’t know what hit them
Neither did you
When your own painting stopped

Spattering yourself on time’s tragic canvas
Discovering incidental causality of a tree by the road
Departed at forty four by eight-eleven fifty six
Leaving shocked Lee in the proverbial lurch

Now I’m forty four and reflecting on you
Raising an ice tea in a toast of your life
Hoping there’s peace in the place where you’ve gone
Pondering abstractions of form on this Earth.

The light is remarkable outside the clear glass
Sitting amongst beauty and café conversation
A tree black and brown in the corner of view
Reminds me of organic chaos with a pattern implicit.

Horus’ eye gazes blinding eternal
From the hat off my head on my bag on the table
You broke the priest’s hieroglyphs
And paid the price of heresy.

Hey, Jackson Pollock
Thanks for the alchemical madness
That shattered expectations
And made people finally think

For themselves.

Vanity!

I decided last year to get an IMDB.com profile.

Earlier this month I wrote in eulogy for Patrick McGoohan. Though I am a free man, I am also a number. Many numbers, actually.

Henceforth, I, Peter Corless, am also to be known as http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3177242/.

I appeared in two short videos last year: Franklin Pham’s The Rehearsal (Canaan Project/Positive+Funk), and Three Cups of Tea for Global Understanding (Global Understanding Institute).

The former was awarded as a finalist from San Jose State University’s Campus MovieFest 2008. The latter won second place in the 2008 Mountain View Reads contest. This year, we have more plans for more films. Documentaries. Analysis. News. Opinions. Fantasies. Fictions.

Is this shameless self-promotion? Yes. Though in a way, it is actually quite humbling. Because the IMDB resumes are not really the same things as a regular celebrity profile. I had to pay to put it up there. I had to “prime the pump” of celebrity. I also registered in IMDBpro.com to put the information on these films into IMDB.com. However, though The Reheasal was shown in a few venues (SJSU, San Francisco Sundance Kibuki Theatre), and Three Cups of Tea for Global Understanding made it to community television (KMVT15 in Mountain View), neither title has made it into IMDB.com yet. Maybe one day!

It is my own way to help move forward the issues addressed in these films. If I need to put my face forward as a speaker for these movements, by process of marketing I need to become a celebrity. A spokesperson. An actor, with a cause.

Hopefully before too long, my STARmeter will rise. People may pay attention to my work, my causes, more than me. I might attract fans. Hey, I might even get paid! Yet moreso, the ideas I espouse might cause social changes in the world, producing results I would be pleased to look back upon some day in the future.

For now, my hope is to simply generate interest. To “market” the idea of Global Understanding, Positive+Funk, and the Canaan Project. And more ideas, like Flowers in the Cracks too! To put myself forward as a creative principle, and to hopefully get people to react to the “buzz” our community is beginning to create.

Vanity. Is it vain to strive towards these ideals? Franklin’s desire for social justice, peace, and sober acceptance of truth. Carlos’ desire for distributive justice and democracy. Harshi’s desire for us to get beyond sectarian hate so that love can bloom. Theresa’s desire for simple acceptance, health and happiness for us all. Michael’s desire for a sustainable economy and ecological life, even as our economy crashes down around our heads. Photographers capturing the light before it fades. Musicians and poets raising their voices even after the sun goes down. Scientists and writers, who are quite sure it is not just all in their heads.

I am awash in a sea of friends, each of whom has trials and tribulations, their triumphs and joys. People all over the world, each with their own story. Yet so many of us facing the same common crises and conflicts.

Vanity? Our struggles are not in vain. Even if no one understands what drives us — not even ourselves at times — we struggle for reasons. Purposes. There are implicit goals and desires for us. Outcomes waiting our efforts to manifest.

It would be vain to think I did not have an effect on the world. A false self-denial that should not be confused with humility. That would be a vain shattering of the mirror. Throwing a brick at it so I don’t need to look at myself. It would not change the fact that others can see me for who I am. And they are asking me to step up to the microphone of the stage of life right now. They want me to speak. They want to hear what I have to say.

Conversely, it would be vain to overstate my significance to the world. For I am only one voice of 6.7 billion in the world at this present point in history. If I raise my voice, it is only in reflection of the tremendous tapestry of events that has led us to this point in time, and which I see occurring in the world around me, leading towards our future.

Last year, with the founding of the Global Understanding Institute, and with the making of these modest movies with Franklin and others, I committed to put forth myself as an advocate. To lead. To be of service. To be a friend. As a protagonist in a screenplay of life.

All the world’s a stage and I am a player upon it. The curtain is of destiny is drawn for us all.

So, to everyone out there who feels that same impending sense of epic drama in the world, let’s learn our lines, and head onstage. It’s time. Let’s break a leg!

At this time... At this moment...

moar funny pictures

The Inauguration Speech

Here is a document to be reflected upon.

“With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come.”

— Barack H. Obama, 44th President of the United States

Inauguration of Barack Obama

I have been watching the following people flow into the stands over CNN.com:

• Al & Tipper Gore
• George Herbert Walker & Barbara Bush
• Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter
  
• Hillary Rodham & William Jefferson Clinton
  

They just panned back to show the huge crowd. It is amazing. They estimate it at around 2 million people.

• The Bush daughters?
• The Obama daughters Malia and Sasha... to a huge round of applause.
  
• Laura Bush & Lynne Cheney

As I am watching the events, I saw someone take a photo of the Obama girls as they walked down the hallway. In return, Malia Obama pulled out a camera to take her own picture of the events.

• Michelle Obama
• George W. Bush & Dick Cheney in a wheelchair.
• Joe R. Biden, Jr.
  

And now, Barack Obama is approaching down the hall, with Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein in front of him.

A friend of mine on Facebook wrote that he “thinks Dick Cheney looks like Dr Evil in his wheel chair.” To which I replied:

Definitely James Bondian. He needs a white Persian cat on his lap. "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die...!”

Here he comes:

• Barack H. Obama

I am listening to NPR while CNN shows the video. They noted John Lewis is standing in the crowd. 400,000 people came by subway alone.

Online, CNN is being utterly silent. No voice over. No comment. Those of us on Facebook are keeping the narrative.

Dianne Feinstein (D-California) is introducing the event. She is speaking about this is the product of non-violent democratic processes. How this is the turning point of change.

Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church now steps forward. Controversially chosen, He begins with “Everything we see, and everything we can’t see…” and credits it all to God. He, like Dianne Feinstein emphasises the “peaceful transition of power.”

Aretha Franklin is coming forward to sing “My Country Tis of Thee.” That’s when I couldn’t keep the tears of joy back any further. After she finished, the bells rang out.

Senator Robert Bennett then stepped forward to explain the giving of the Oath of Office to the Vice-President Elect. The Justice came forward. Joe Biden stepped forward. Joe Biden knew his lines. He had practiced this beforehand, and was eager to speak the words. He finished with an easy smile and a handshake, “Thank you, Mr. Justice.”

Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Anthony McGill, and Gabriella Montero play now for the assembled crowd. John Williams arranged the piece. It was based on the old Shaker dance song “Simple Gifts.”

Barack Hussein Obama came forward and, with all the eyes of the world on him, flubbed his lines. He had to have a section repeated to him. But in due time he got it all straightened out.

The 21-gun salute began then. And the crowd went wild. I gave a virtual Facebook hug to my sister-in-law.

Barack Obama came forward and began to speak. “On this day...”

Tuskegee Airmen were in the crowd. The camera returns to the new President. Barack’s words were tough and progressive. During her father’s speech, Malia snuck in a few more people. To the leaders of foreign nations, he says, “Your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you can destroy.”

“What is required now is a new era of responsibility…”

After the crowd cheered, Elizabeth Alexander, a poetess, came forward to recite, “Praise Song for the Day.”

Of all the words to arrest me, were these, “Repairing things in need of repair.”

Joseph E. Lowery then delivers the Benediction. The elder gentleman speaks airily and raspily. Yet his tone speaks of a life-long orator. “...and none shall be afraid.” He finishes with a rousing, "Say ‘Amen!’” The crowd obliges with laughter.

I sing along with the Star Spangled Banner. “…and the home of the brave!” With that, the game begins! The Presidential party begins to stream out of the stands. Kids dance arm-in-arm. People cheer for the cameras. By 9:43 AM Pacific time, the cameras of CNN finally cut to a commercial.

Free at Last!

moar funny pictures

What a Week! Martin Luther King, Jr. Day + Barack Obama Inauguration

I thought I'd have some fun with the idea of the advance of civilization. It is amazing how far our social progress has advanced, and how far our English skills have slipped.

Please forgive my momentary bit of humor.

I can barely contain my joy at the prospect of the first black U.S. President. It is an event centuries in the making. Millions have marched, suffered, and died so that we might see this day come to pass.

• 233 years since July 4, 1776, when Thomas Jefferson asserted “all men are created equal.” Indeed, the more full quote is, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
  
  
• 145 years since September 22, 1863, the day President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which stated, “all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”
  
  
• 143 years since the December 6, 1865 adoption of the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which upheld Lincoln’s executive order via legislation which formally abolished slavery in the nation, stating, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
  
  
  
• 140 years since the July 9, 1868 ratification of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, granting citizenship to all persons born within the United States (regardless of race), “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
  
  
• 138 years since the ratification of the 15th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution on February 3, 1870, which granted Congress the right to uphold the voting rights of all citizens declaring “the rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
  
  
  
• 128 years since the March 1, 1880 decision of Strauder v. West Virginia, in which the U.S. Supreme Court, by a vote of 7-to-2, determined that state laws excluding black persons from juries solely on the basis of their color was unconstitutional, violating the 14th Amendment, desiring “to assure to the colored race the enjoyment of all the civil rights that under the law are enjoyed by white persons, and to give to that race the protection of the general government, in that enjoyment, whenever it should be denied by the States.”
  
  
• 99 years since the February 12, 1909 formation of the Niagara Movement, which led to the 1911 foundation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), whose purpose is to “Ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.”
  
  
• 54 years since the May 17, 1954 issuance of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the landmark ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court which declared the de jure segregation of schools based on color unconstitutional.
  
  
• 45 years since the August 28, 1963 speech of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. before the Lincoln Memorial, in which he declared, “I Have a Dream!”

There have been far too many events which have led to this present moment than one can account. Treat the above as indicative of the scope of the history involving the march towards racial equality, and not its depth. Likewise, do not confuse the progress we have made as the final triumph in the march to judge persons based on the content of their character, and not on the color of their skin.

Even as we prepare to inaugurate Barack H. Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America, there are millions of persons around the nation beholden to racial hatred and xenophobia. A curious article and survey conducted by CNN in December 2006 highlights the problem: we may have turned a blind eye to bias in ourselves. Up to 80 of Americans may harbor racist tendencies that even they would not recognize in themselves, as per a study from the University of Connecticut, while only about 12-13% of Americans personally admitted they had racial biases.

Yet we also have no dearth of quite unapologetic, overt racism either. The Southern Poverty Law Center counts 888 active racial hate groups across the United States. In “liberal” California alone, there are no less than 80 such groups.

If you are interested in taking action, go to the Southern Poverty Law Center, and join your voice to their pluralist, tolerance-engendering countermovement, Stand Strong.

It’s now Inauguration Day on the east coast. Sleep well, Mr. Obama. The hardest work of your political career starts tomorrow!

”I am a free man!”

(CBS/AP) Patrick McGoohan, an actor who created and starred in the cult classic TV show "The Prisoner," died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a short illness. He was 80.

“I am a free man!”

This was the inimical quote of the character referred to as “Number 6.” No more fitting epitaph applies to Patrick McGoohan.



At a time when the Cold War was far less egalitarian, far less romantic, and far more notorious than anything depicted in a James Bond movie, The Prisoner was a spy series based out of the imagination of McGoohan and his colleague, George Markstein. The 1967 surrealistic mystery series was far closer to the social commentary and satire of George Orwell’s Ninteen Eighty-Four than it was to the glamorous James Bond of Ian Fleming.

In fact, McGoohan had already set a very different tone in his earlier series, Danger Man, which was known in the United States as Secret Agent Man. That 1964-1967 series kept itself “professional.” A lot less killing, and far fewer sexual escapades for visceral thrills and titilation, than the Ian Fleming series. Through trained in boxing, McGoohan had no personal penchant for depictions of violence.

Wikipedia notes, “McGoohan insisted on several conditions before agreeing to do the show Danger Man: all the fistfights should be different, the character would always use his brain before using a gun, and, much to the horror of the executives, no kissing. They hired him anyway.” The Trivia section on the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) notes, “Patrick McGoohan was adamant that Drake live up to a higher moral standard than the likes of James Bond. As a result, the character rarely becomes involved with women (beyond mission requirements), and rarely kills anyone - in fact he almost never carries a gun.”

McGoohan had in fact turned down the roles of both James Bond, and Simon Templar of The Saint. He wanted to pursue something of his own imagining. Thus the story of the resignation of “Number 6” from his life of covert operations was an analogy of McGoohan’s resignation from the omnipresent and controlling European production company, the Rank Organisation.

The concept of burying covert operations and operatives was alluded to in the opening segments of the U.S. series of 1966, Mission: Impossible, “As always, should you or any of your IM force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.”

Our “free, democratic” governments were in reality doing things that would utterly shock or outrage the public and world. This was quite well-known. We were admitting by this dramatic conceit our leaders would lie to us to keep us safe from the truths they created. They’d carefully hide the evidence and dissemble the facts.

Patrick McGoohan decided to make his next television show about one such covert operative, who needed to be disavowed. Hushed up. Put out to pasture. Watched. How do you hide what you’ve done? How do you retire a man who knows too much? Unlike the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock thriller with James Stewart, The Man Who Knew Too Much, about an accidental encounter with the world of covert assassination, the protagonist of The Prisoner does not stumble into his knowledge. It had been his profession.

McGoohan’s charcacter is a secret operative who quits his day job. He wants to get out of the business for unstated reasons, though it is obvious he is not happy with his work any more. Angry in fact. He is not allowed the possibility of a regular retirement, and thus the character is transported to the Village where he can be safely watched and monitored.

The Prisoner was filled with surrealistic elements. From the large-wheeled bicycles and eerie landscapes of the Salvador Dali-like credits, to Rover, the large ballon that retrieves wayward runaways, to the edgily-discomforting smiles, fashions, furnishings, and other oddities of the Village. It was a rebellious series, set in the real world, yet apart from it. A metaphor appropriate for many people who, at the time, felt trapped by the heavy-hand of intrusive governments bent on imposing social order by violence and deprivation of liberties and lives if need be.

Watching it as a child on television in re-runs, I was struck by many foundational elements of the show. Ethics, hypocrisy, wit, color, psychology, freedom, anger, calmness. Science fiction. A fiction about unpleasant truths. It was a heroic yet everyman struggle against oppression. The spy-versus-spy craftiness of those who sought to set, or burst through, the boundaries of freedom.



One could see the false polite smile of the triumphantly powerful. In return, the silent yet unmistakeably defiant slap in the face of the powers-that-be. It was over-the-top, and clearly hyperbole—a warning of how the world might turn if we let it become so. The shape of things to come.



McGoohan went on after The Prisoner to do other work, yet that series became the pinnacle of his career. I was very pleased to see him in Braveheart, where he played King Edward Longshanks to steely-eyed dramatic perfection, though much of the movie was dross and historically inaccurate.

Throughout his career, he projected a gravitas to his person, yet limned with a gentlemanly wit and charm. He had a boldness and presence which was not just limited to the roles he played on screen. Long after his passing, he will remain one of the world’s unforgettable presences.

Mr. McGoohan, if you are reading over my shoulder, I have but one thing to say to you today:

“Be seeing you!”

Get Well, Steve Jobs. R.I.P. Ricardo Montalban

It has been a while since I have written anything on my own personal blog. And this is a sort of odd reason to post a new entry.

While I generally do not comment about specific business leaders or celebrities, there are two people who I wanted to make note of today.

Steve Jobs, recovering from pancreatic cancer, has taken a leave of absence from Apple for medical reasons until June. Steve, I wish you the best for a recovery, and my best wishes for your family this year. After your “April Fool’s Day” revolution, begun in 1976, and your championing the invention of the Macintosh, which was released twenty five years ago, you deserve a nice break from all the hullabaloo of Silicon Valley. You know, I fondly recall making some nice artwork which showed up well on the Lisa, and banged out my first manuscripts on an Apple IIe and an Applie IIc. My personal career in the arts, in gaming, in publishing, business, and my adventures in life would not be possible without the innovation you and your cohorts helped birth into the world.

Ricardo Montalban, the ever-optimistic-about-love Mr. Roarke of ABC’s 1970s television series Fantasy Island, and the “superior being” Khan of Star Trek, and the nemesis of James T. Kirk in the movie The Wrath of Khan, has died at the age of 88. A true romantic, he died a year after his wife of 63 years Georgiana Young. They married in 1944, at the height of the Second World War. IMDB.com has a fitting review of his storied career. One bit of trivia: his first film was the 1942 war picture Five Were Chosen, with Victor Kilian and Howard De Silva. Rest in peace.

Santa's Little Helper

I am a happy and proud uncle today.

The Once and Future Green Knight

I am working today to get GreenKnight.com back up and running. I still have the domain name registered to me until 2010, but the old site is gone.

Part of my goal is to rebrand Green Knight. Rather than just be “Green Knight Publishing,” I am going to change it to Green Knight Enterprises. I even got a new bank account change to reflect that, and plan to go through with a new Fictitious Business Name filing for a Sole Proprietorship in 2009.

Green Knight Publishing was a great idea, but the reality of the marketplace hammered me. I cried quite a bit when it all fell apart. Tears of loss, yet also happy tears. I had done something I had always wanted to do. Even if it failed.

Since the market meltdown of 2001, when I departed from Cisco Systems, lost a fortune as the stock price tumbled, and then saw the 9/11 attacks, I have mourned the world that could-have-been. In another, better, kinder world, Green Knight Publishing went on to win awards, publishing games about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. We would have, by now, a staff of dozens of people, and would be involved in books, games, software, educational products, television shows and movies.

In another kinder, gentler world, I would have gotten married by now to a wonderful wife and had some kids.

Yet the past decade has been far crueller and less forgiving than I would have hoped. Some measures of success eluded me, and to be honest, I collapsed into the overpowering depression that followed the financial, professional, and personal shocks of 2001.

Each year since then has been part of a road to recovery. Today, the stone being laid upon a stone is the recuperation of GreenKnight.com. In 2009, this domain will be put forth once more, with a rededicated mission for Arthurian entertainments, and engendering an evergreen sense of chivalry in the modern world.

My best season’s greetings to everyone!

-Peter Corless.
petercorless@mac.com
650-906-3134 (mobile)

Mumbai Attacks & Wikipedia

I have been extremely committed to documenting this specific global event on Wikipedia. The information is coming forth day-by-day, and all of it has great implications for world peace.

Beyond what I have been able to document on Wikipedia, because of its rules about Neutral Point of View (NPOV), and other firm and fair guidelines, I have been writing more editorial and personal observation on the Global Understanding Institute’s blog.

• False Flag Claims for Responsibility for the Mumbai Attack - the concern I had here mostly was the lack of tolerance of the mention of the false flag allegations against the Israeli Mossad. It was expunged repeatedly and swiftly in the name of preserving the world from misinformation, as per WP:FRINGE. Yet such kneejerk removals, I felt, were ignoring the fact that there were and are false flag assertions circulating about Israel. We can pretend they do not exist, but that does not mean that others are not disseminating such information. Nor does it mean that conspiracy theorists would not buy into such thoughts. In fact, speedy deletion only raises the spectre of “proof” of conspiracy via censorship. In any regard, the caveat I wrote was itself censored, citing ugliness.
  
  
• Responsibility for the November 2008 Mumbai attack - This article has gone through a few renamings. Originally it was called "Deccan Mujahideen," as per the name given to the alleged organization that claimed responsibility for the attacks. Then it was changed to “Responsibility for the November 2008 Mumbai attack.” Now, it was renamed “Attribution of...” rather than apparently assign responsibility. Which is fair enough. Yet what is interesting is how others have maintained how any group named “Deccan Mujahideen” cannot exist. At all! It seems reasonable to me: a splinter cell of LeT, trained specially for this attack, and not wanting to be connected to LeT, ISI, or Al Qaeda, would select a separate name to specifically disassociate themselves from their well-known associates. Perhaps this rogue group had a particular goal in mind, and came up with this name as a “working title” for their project? Does it mean they do not have historical ties to other organizations? Absolutely not. We all come from somewhere. But what really sticks in my mind is the virulent denials and adamant demands. “It cannot be!” “It must be!” The certainty of various “experts” and pundits based on prior experience, partial knowledge, schematically-rigid psychological paradigms, not to mention their apparent and implicit desires and, of course, a good dash of hidden agendas. Even I myself have certain resistances to some considerations, and all-too-willingnesses to buy other lines of reasoning. Yet I do try to double- and triple-check my sources and keep an open mind. As far as I am concerned, though there are a lot of leads pointing in certain directions, the case is still open.
  
  
• The Mumbai Attacks - This was the first article I wrote as soon as I got done with my Thanksgiving celebrations. I felt that I was on to something vital when I wrote about comparative means to achieve social justice — contrasting the (mostly) peaceful protests in Thailand, which toppled a government, to the deeds of a few violent non-state actors in Mumbai. I also felt it was vital to talk about the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, and its principles of Understanding, Wisdom and Knowledge. I felt it was vital, in response to the definitely inflammatory and terrorist activities, to call for sober reflection, and to seek a deeper sense of justice than what immediate demands for vengeance might wreak.

Last night, Harshi and I strategized about a possible person-on-the-street interview/poll project. He is planning to go back to Mumbai and his hometown of Nagpur, Maharashtra, in central India.

I wish I could say I understand precisely why I am so engaged in this particular terrorist activity. For me, it is even more compelling to deal with than 9/11. Perhaps in a way, 9/11 was too close to my heart. As a native New Yorker, it was too painful for me to consider. There was too much grief, and too many voices pouring in on the topic. People on the ground had a better grasp of the situation.

Yet I feel the opposite for this event. Perhaps there is something in emotional distance—the ability to not take the attacks too directly to heart—that is spurring me. It is an event I can intellectually analyze without bursting out in pain and tears.

During Thanksgiving, I must admit I argued with a close friend over the impact of global events. It caused a terrible rift in my personal relationship. Yes, it was utterly ironic for me, trying to found an organization to deal with conflicts and crisis management, to get into a personal crisis and interpersonal conflict.

Even before this incident, I have had a deep conviction events around the world have and still could truly devastate what is going on here at home in the United States. The argument I had centered around this: my friend didn’t want to hear about it. Any of this. I felt my friend was trying to be too sheltered. Insular. Ignorant of the world.

I will agree with her insofar as we should all be responsible for what is here right in our own lives. Yet I also feel as if sometimes events of far greater import than our own parochial visions must take precedence and demand attention. Sometimes we are not even aware of how close a “distant” crisis is to us, unless we raise the matter to our attention for consideration.

Do I get preachy? Lecturing? Pedantic? Yep. I do. Not always. Usually, the more resistent a person is being, ingnorant and unconsidering the wider world, and the more important I consider that person’s opinion, the more I may press. Quite ungraceful of me. A bad habit. Yes, I’be been warned and chided about it plenty. Yet, I keep feeling there’s a reason I need to speak about such seemingly remote crises. Somewhat how Fiver in Watership Down needed to tell the other rabbits about dangers he foresaw, or sensed.

I am just three degrees of separation away from the event, via Harshi. As soon as he told me about it, I knew that things were going to be bad. Very bad. In Harshi’s own circle of friends, he knows two people who lost someone in the Mumbai attacks: one who lost a relative and another a former roommate.

The ties between India, Mumbai in specific, Pakistan, and Silicon Valley are very deep. The present situation here reminds me of the New York immigrant communities and their still-vital ties to Ireland, Italy, China, Greece or Russia.

I am not sure exactly where this personal quest and investigation is leading yet. In a way, I feel my hand is on the rudder of human events. My personal contribution to Wikipedia regarding the attribution of the 2008 Mumbai attacks may not be the same as a lead story in Time Magazine or front page of the Wall Street Journal, but it feels electrically powerful. What I have written helps shapes global understanding of the event. At times, I almost panic at the prospect. At other times, I am humbled or proud or simply staggered.

Aside my own personal role, my hope is that the truth comes out, and that the situation is dealt with efficiently and calmly by all properly-authorized parties. Whoever was responsible should face the rule of law. And a long-needed, frank, open, therapeutic discussion between India and Pakistan needs to begin at last. Both nations must also be able to look internally to their own failures and faults. Extreme nationalistic Saffronization in India. Extreme Islamic militancy in Pakistan. Corruption in both nations.

I’ve been concerned ever since the Kargil War that these two neighbors might get pushed by their own zealots and internal factions, egged on by external powers, into confrontation. A conflict between them could, theoretically, lead to nuclear exchange if everything went horribly. My inner voice speaks to me to document this event so any actors who were responsible are logically identified and exposed, so that the world can back down from the larger-scale worse outcomes, and begin to forge a vision for a better and more secure south Asia.

This is an event that can potentially shape a great deal of world history for the 21st Century. It is not going to be “over” any time soon. Matters are just now beginning to be discussed and investigated which took years or decades prior to the present crisis to evolve, and which will continue to evolve and have impacts on global politics and economics for years and decades to come.

Because of my recent opining, I was accused of having a “grandiose” sense of myself or of life in general. I will admit to a penchant for the forms and impact of epic poetry and drama. Yet I am merely an observer and documenter of events. And these are vital times to pay heed to, to document, and to speak out about. It is my assertion it is vital for each of us to consider and reify our own roles in unfolding global political and social situations. Am I right? Am I wrong? In a way, the decision is out of my hands. What I do feel surity about is this:

I intrinsically, instinctually feel compelled to be involved, concerned, and active in the world. Right now.

What are your thoughts?

-Pete.

Films of Note for 2008 - With Corless Content!

For this holiday season, check out these two movies that feature yours truly:

• Three Cups of Tea for Global Understanding won 2nd place in the Mountain View Reads contest. This 10 minute film explains how the Global Understanding Institute was a directly causal result of reading Three Cups of Tea, the New York Times bestseller by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. My thanks for all our viewers and supporters! This film will be shown on Mountain View Cable (KMVT15).
  


• The Rehearsal, was a finalist for the Campus MovieFest (CMF) Western Regional Finals, under the category for the Elfenworks Social Justice award. We attended the screening at the Sundance Kibuki and the Grand Finale this past Sunday, and were able to speak for a few minutes about how and why we made the film, and what will come next. Congratulations and thank you to Franklin Pham, Harshi Lanjewar, Zaur Hasanov, all the narrators, artists of sound and visual images, and to everyone who, in five minutes, made the impossible possible!

While neither picture won top prize in its category, both were well-received and made it part-way up the hill of public recognition. These were the first formal films for both of us. While I had made a student video back in Beach Channel High School, shot a short movie at Carnegie Mellon as an undergrad, and did a podcast before for the Global Understanding Institute, this was the first time we had both entered a film contest for the public consideration of our work as an inspiration to social movement.

Both Franklin and I are now strategizing about the next films to lens and prizes to shoot for. How many frames per how many minutes and seconds, targeting our messages and our memes, our scripts and our themes.

Franklin is still working on a longer 20-30 minute interview-style movie, The American Dream. I am cooking up plans to do some documentary-style works on Armistice Day and the backgrounder video for the Global Understanding Movement and the Global Understanding Institute. There's also some video I'd like to do for 10 December 2008, the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).


Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

60th Anniversary Celebration - 10 December 2008 (United Nations)

For now, to get involved with celebrating the 60th Anniversary UDHR, see the United Nations’ own site for the event, join the Every Human Has Rights campaign and check out the Small Places Tour for Amnesty International.

So Much Life!

Folks,

For all those whom I have offered myself, committed to, and been helping, my life is getting suddenly more full than even three people might be able to handle. Because of that, I am sure some of you are going to slip off the plate. If that is the case, and if you want me to be there at a special time for a special event, please just call me!

Tonight alone, I have way too many things to get done in the span of an evening. I still have pressing matters from the entire past month on my plate.

“Prioritize! Make your life simpler! Be efficient!” I can hear the 7 Habits People who keep tidy neat desks and lives chiding me. Given what is occurring in the world, and given what I am looking to accomplish privately and professionally, it is far easier to just chuck things out of your mind than it is to physically or logistically chuck them out of your apartment, car, or schedule.

So, again, please forgive me my lapses and longer-than-expected deadlines. Again, if you need me, just call.

The good news is that many things are in play in my life, which for too long had remained stagnant or fallow. For many years, life was “famine,” now it is “feast.”

-Peter Corless.
petercorless@mac.com
650-906-3134 (mobile)

$100 for Wikimedia

Yay! Sue wrote to me! I had hoped she was going to. She’s the awesome new director of Wikimedia, the people who bring you Wikipedia.

From an objective view, I had to send her $100 for her time and attention span, which consisted of, basically, a form letter. If this was a romance, it would be like having to buy a date, or having to really wine-and-dine someone just for them to like you, I guess. Then again, she doesn’t know me from Adam. Not really. (C’est l’amour!)

Yet all of this is a very odd way of viewing the world. Are non-profits truly in it for the money? Well, they do have to “earn their daily bread” like the rest of it. And for many of them during this terrible time of economic crisis, they have to truly work and work hard for people’s support.

That was why I donated to Wikimedia. Because they do the good work. I hadn’t donated with the expectation of a letter from Sue, or that she’d really have any time for me at all. She’s working on a shoestring budget trying to hold Wikimedia together during a hard financial downturn worldwide.

I donated out of the goodness of my heart and out of my commitment for Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects to deliver critical communal knowledge and information to the world. If you want your own “letter from Sue,” donate to Wikimedia too!

Hopefully in the future, I’ll get to actually talk to Sue. I actually did have that as a plan. I would actually like to tie the work of the Global Understanding movement towards the free, public information sources of Wikimedia. Maybe even get something back from the Wikimedia organization. A join venture. An incubator project. A new vision for the world.

Perhaps the next time we speak, it will not be a purely economic exchange based on shared mutual principles. More ideological. Business in the broader sense. Public benefits. Goals and visions.

For now, though, I, the Green Knight, am relishing the first letter I got from Sue Gardner. It was a very nice letter! Here it is:

From: donate@wikimedia.org
Subject: Thank you from the Wikimedia Foundation
Date: November 12, 2008 6:30:32 AM PST
To: petercorless@mac.com
Reply-To: donate@wikimedia.org

Dear Peter,

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, I wish to acknowledge and thank you for your gift of USD 100.00 to the Wikimedia Foundation, received on November 6, 2008. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Your generosity helps ensure that the Wikimedia Foundation continues to make human knowledge free and accessible to the world. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest and most popular collaboratively edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, one of the world's top ten most popular websites. Our work is important: we are grateful you have joined with us to help make it happen.

Sincerely Yours,

Sue Gardner
Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit charitable corporation with 501(c)(3) tax exempt status in the United States. No goods or services were provided, in whole or in part, for this contribution. Tax-exempt number: 20-0049703

Onwards to adventure!

-Peter Corless.
petercorless@mac.com
650-906-3134 (mobile)

11/11 Armistice Day @ Global Understanding

This day we are commemorating the 90th Anniversary of World War I. Please join us!

Either post below, or call me to participate.

-Peter Corless.
petercorless@mac.com
650-906-3134 (mobile)

From Facebook:

[A friend] wonders how many centuries it will be before there's a female US president, and feels sure the rest of the world will not meet that with such approval. 3:20pm

Peter Corless at 3:29pm November 8

It will happen within the 21st Century. Remember the emancipation of slaves proceeded the suffragettes by some decades. But both worked hand-in-hand to get women the vote thereafter.

• 3 February 1870 - Black vote, 15th Amendment, barring racial discrimination

• 26 August 1920 - Women's vote; 19th Amendment, barring gender discrimination

Hence, about 50 years between the historical amendments to freedom. Thus look for the c. 2056 election cycle, if not well before. You could see it by 2012 or 2016.

Obama vs. McCain in Web 2.0 Social Networking

I found this from Roz Savage's blog. A very cool little article.

-Pete.

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Sober Reflection on the Election of Barack Obama

What are the chances that Barack Obama will be assassinated? Today I spent some time researching the good, the bad, and the ugly truths on the topic of Presidential assassination, and specifically looking at the threats posed to President-Elect Obama.

The American Dream: MLK, Jr., Barack Obama, Abiola. They all have a dream. Do you?

Over at The American Dream Movie, please take time to review the speeches of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and President-Elect Barack Obama. Then consider the emotional reaction of Abiola. She asks us to share our own dreams with her. What are yours?

This is Hilarious!

Meri shared this with me on Facebook. I thought you might like it too.

Flowers for Barack

Congratulations to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and all those who participated in this incredible election process. I wrote you a poem. Enjoy!

Three Cups of Tea for Global Understanding

Please go to YouTube to watch and rate this video, so that I have a chance to win the Mountain View Reads contest for Three Cups of Tea!

If we succeed in making this the prize winner for 2008, I will take the $500 prize money and donate it to the foundation for the Global Understanding Institute.

Thank you so much for your support!

-Pete.

Corporate Bulemia

The following was posted on the LinkedIn Cisco group. Yet it may just as readily apply for any company around the world. Those that grow unsustainably and then rapidly collapse, readily purging employees to survive. Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Me and 10,000 of my closest friends were "given the package" in 2001. Then the entire world economy was shocked by the 9/11 disasters. Since then, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the loss of control of the economy have made sure that the stock prices of 2000 have never returned to Cisco.

Yet even before all those crises, Cisco had the layoff.

Cisco is not alone. Corporation after corporation grows beyond its bounds and lays off 10%, like Yahoo last week, or sheds 50% or more of their employees. Or implodes entirely and goes belly-up. Enron anyone?

What causes corporate bulemia? The gorging of 1,000 employees in a merger, only to vomit out 800 of them as needless "overhead." The binge/purge cycle of employees as "food" or "fuel" of companies.

Leviathan swallows all, like Jonah and the Whale. Are the lucky ones those who stay swallowed, remaining inside the corporation after such traumatic layoffs, stressed out to try to make up for the empty chairs and cubicles of entire teams no-longer extant, or those who are vomited forth, left bereft and shipwrecked on the shores of unemployment? "Should I stay or should I go now?" asked the Clash. Thus I ask you as well.

What causes corporate bulemia in the first place? What exacerbates it? Specifically focus on Cisco as a case study, or compare it to other employment experiences you have had. What can be done to make corporate growth and long-term employment more stable and wholesome?

HR theories, business school pablum, clever cybernetic diagrams, and ideal states may be readily tossed out the window. What really works? What is sane and rational. Really.

I'd be interested in your replies. If you would prefer to reply privately, my contact information is below.

-Peter Corless.
petercorless@mac.com
650-906-3134 (mobile)

Uncertainty of the Ocean

Roz "You cannot NOT know it once you know it" (Quote re ocean wisdom from rower Mick Bird, after several glasses of wine on Friday night). via Twitter - 3 Comments 11:49am — Roz’s Twitter, spotted from Facebook

This is a moment of singularity. "Eureka!" "Wow!" "Woah, dude!"

Once we know any thing, it alters and changes, as do all things. As does our memories and knowledge over time. Divide by Delta-t for change over time, factor in Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. We may claim to know things, past, present, or predicate future. Yet mystery remains.

Also we are mere humans. We forget. So very easily at times. Many people learn truths and then go back to bed. Only those who are 100% robotic will remember everything perfectly. Others will drift back to the dreaming. For them it never was, or never really mattered.

That is why the ocean always surprises. It is as it has been for billions of years. Yet it is never the same.

As Clio knows, history is a magical, miraculous thing. We may have a great knowledge of the present and the past. Yet certain events may come along to alter facts or profundity of the past. Perhaps that's the value of the "cannot NOT know it." Realizations. New data. Mm!