Read the serial comic adventures of Mark and Lark - two internet marketing noobs with no products for sale and no customer lists...yet!

This is a free downloadable comic strip series which tells the story of two new business owners just starting out... trying to make their first $1M online.

Will they succeed? Against some pretty strong odds?

Maybe they will - maybe they won't! Maybe...just maybe...they have an arsenal of secret weapons you may want to know about! ~lol~

Mark is a wannabe graphics artist; and Lark is a wannabe book author. We hate sales, and, in fact, we really don't like business, either!

We're never gonna be your coach, your mentor, your teacher or your savior. And we ain't know-it-alls - or experts about nuthin'!

Instead, we might become valuable allies for you - as you may well be for us.

Like you, maybe, we just wanna work from home, escape the traffic jams in the big city, and earn a great living online - without compromising one damn thing!

And we don't ever want to do anything we view as shady, sleazy, or even downright uncomfortable!

"What's that, you say?"

"You hate sales...and you hate business too!"

"How're you guys ever gonna make any money?"

Okay...we hear ya...loud and clear!

But there's a method to our madness...you won't wanna miss.

To find out what we're up to...just stay tuned. Enter your email address in the Feedblitz box to your right...comment as often as you wish to our blog posts...and we'll see to it you find out - as it happens in real-time! :)

How easy is it to download (y)our first comic episode - with the source code - to freely place on your own website? It's as easy as clicking on this link...at Mark and Lark.com!

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Think Two Products Ahead, by Ben Mack, besides being a great new book you really need to read, is a state-of-the-art book marketing campaign worth watching too! And today is launch day - with participation by many of the internet's top-drawer online marketers - so get ready to learn!

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Today is the coming out party for our brand doctor friend, Ben Mack!

Last October, in Atlanta, Mark and I attended his Think Two Sales Ahead workshop to initiate ourselves into the nebulous world of branding and brand development.

And, yes, we were one of those who spent $197 for his eBook before that.

The 3-day workshop cost over $4000, including travel and lodging...which we gladly paid...even after having paid the price for the high-dollar eBook!

Why, might you ask, will we each buy a copy of his just-released new book on Amazon - Think Two Products Ahead - too?

It's pretty simple really - the reason why, I mean. To develop a brand today in a very competitive marketplace - especially when you're dealing in the marketplace of ideas - requires an honest review of the niches you want to trade in and a well-developed understanding of the subject of branding...

...and the new hardback book may reveal a new twist or take the editors over at Wylie could've helped Ben unveil!

The little guy can compete with the big guys, my friend...and Ben, believe you me, is the one who can actually make it happen for you!

Having personally met and come to know the guy in such an intimate setting - in a small conference room with some 40 pretty cool people - was the best introduction to the world of branding, publishing and internet marketing we could ever have hoped for...much less experienced.

In the short life of our new company we didn't feel then, nor do we feel now, that we could compete - much less survive - in this brave new world without it!

To this day Ben's emails are the most interesting - as compared to over 200 different marketers' email messages we receive - and most educational of these we religiously still read...

We're gonna succeed in this business against some pretty strong odds, mark my words.

And so will you!

Mark and I will give you a ringside seat as we develop a relationship with our new colleagues and customers.

We're brand new in this business - absolute neophytes - but we can help make something happen for all of us!

After you buy Ben's book - at under $16...one helluva bargain - why not check out our own Legend Platform...we learned to put together by studying Ben's teachings. Read all you can - and know you're gettin' some incredible insights from a master brand strategist - that'll prove to be of exponential value to you, I promise!

As a token of our appreciation for you - the little guy - we invite you to share in our misadventures...lament - or laugh - at our trials and tribulations...at all the mayhem we'll certainly create for ourselves...just starting out.

Mark and Lark are internet marketing greenhorns - real live noobs - with no products for sale and no customer list yet...and we live as suburbanites wanting a way out of the same mess we've all gotten ourselves into...

...so why not follow along with us as we begin this journey together?

To date we've gotten a little traction with this web log and we've spent considerable time and money just getting our feet wet.

With much to learn still!

But you can subscribe to the Mainspring Mindshares blog free of charge and we can get to know one another - even have a bit of fun...

...at our expense! You can even copy-and-paste - anytime you want - the content of this site. Hell, change a few words around - scramble 'em up - and combine 'em with your own words!

We're always gonna say, "Hey, have at it! It's within the public domain, if we say it is, right?"

And, as they're put together, we also want you to download our free comic strips, which will carry a Creative Commons license (no restrictions, with attribution), but are yours to freely pass around - any way you see fit!

Soon we will have a lot of stuff going on...as will you, no doubt...but we wanna definitely keep in touch...so scroll down, check out the site, and...above all else, learn all you can to Think Two Products Ahead from a remarkable fellow indeed...our friend and yours - Ben Mack!


Put this strip on your site! Just click here to get the code...

Tags: Ben Mack Brand Development Tellman Think Two Products Ahead Mark and Lark comic strip internet marketing brand strategies

What is reason?

Tat for tit
Tit for tat
What is this?
What is that?
What is rhyme?
What is reason?
Would you say
It's time
For Love to have its day...
Or am I just a-teasin'?

Many of us confuse this word reason with other words, like logic, cognizance, mind, sense, consciousness, truth, rationality or cause - as in cause and effect - because it is by applying concepts of language (words, symbols, feelings, and/or perceptions by which we have learned to communicate), consciousness (mindful self-awareness of one's own thoughts, identity, and environment), and logic (that part of reasoning which forms the basis for inquiry into questions of cause and effect) that we have come to understand human reasoning and its effects on our actions within the realms of knowledge, free will, and moral and ethical responsibility.

Knowledge can generally be described as being rational, a priori, independent of our experience, or, empirical, a posteriori, dependent on our experience - central core meanings within epistemology, the study of knowledge.

Free will, on the one hand, is a laughable social and political oxymoron; while, on the other, it is an individual human conundrum debated ad infinitum since before the time of Socrates. Whether we are dispossessed of this causality agent by virtue of having given in to societal dictates, even before our birth - or not - is a question often left unanswered by most of us...given that most of us assume we are naturally possessed with this ability to freely choose our actions...bound within the laws of nature...if often quite apart from our cultural inheritance.

Of this debate, the crux of the dilemma, nevertheless, calls upon rational human societies and individuals to resolve age-old conflict in new ways consistent with Man's natural bent toward survival and environmental sustainability. If free will be but illusory - even transcendental - does not escape the argument of whether or not it is of the determinist or compatibilist school of philosophy, for instance.

Our power to reason is often cited as the difference between us and the lower animals. It is what causes us to act upon our free will by logically processing derivative answers to questions...or stated premises to conclusions...by subtracting - or deducting - seemingly illogical abstractions - in order to bring about inferences, answers, or conclusions...by way of stimulation, influence or persuasion. The commonly-held belief here is that Man is somehow superior in Nature, and hence, must assume stewardship - or dominion - over much of Creation.

And it is through our supposed ability to reason we consciously form our motives... which inspire or call us to action.

Thus it is the force of our arguments by which we are often falsely led down the primrose path leading to nowhere in particular...

Do you think this is often so?

Could it be we are but fallible beings who easily and often are misled by our own false assumptions?

Are our arguments and conclusions - our less than completely logical or honest answers to life's many riddles - leading us away from our most-honorable purposes more often than not?

Reason does not rule out unconscious influence on our thoughts and behavioral activities; nor does it explain away very well all lingering questions about...

Intention and Desire
Observation and Experience
Evaluation and Discussion
Self-Imposed Limitations
Denial of Facts
Lies and Distortions
Myth and Reality

...and the like.

Instead, it reinforces my belief that our thoughts and actions are ultimately rooted...and persist...not so much in reason, but in our built-in biological propensities toward a primordial game of survival - seeking pleasure at every turn.

Therefore, if this be true - on its surface, at least - then reason itself becomes suspect as nothing more than manufactured thought borne from an illusory premise; and our reliance upon evolutionary trends in communication to see us through our days only exposes us for the _[fill in the blank]_ we have become - our own worst enemies!

We know this from history and we know this from our own experience - if we but simply examine the evidence.

If we are to evolve as a species we must challenge our assumptions and beliefs about a lot of things. If we are to hold on to our perception of ourselves as even rational reasoning creatures, that is.

In suspending our hard-held beliefs...those voices of obvious or apparent reason...by constantly challenging their underlying assumptions; by trusting in our own physiologically-rooted emotional interactions...both inside and outside our spheres of influence...we will be less-guided by words and imagery...which tend only to lead us away from our better, more-highly-evolved instincts.

Instead, we will merely allow our natural instincts for survival and our natural seeking of pleasure to inform and supersede all other honest appraisals of this question.

All rational discourse must naturally devolve from these elemental understandings innate to our individual and collective concepts of being - well before silly words obfuscate the picture - lest we delude ourselves again with still more of the same... less-than-honest, illogical questions and answers using them.

Seeing the world in this way is not to discount reason; it is simply a means to an end - a way to use reason to serve us in the more beneficent manner we deserve.

I dare say, without real emotional love - of ourselves and all life (though reasonable persons may agree to disagree) - and without conclusive proof of love's existence in objective reality, then does subjective reason even really matter?

Can we deny the existence of our emotions - even of love?

Furthermore, is reason alone a sound enough basis for coordinating our myriad thought communiques or for organizing our intentional actions in this world?

I think not.

Only the truth of this...will finally set us free...toward the path of our own salvation...and the lessening of our suffering, don't ya think?

So what...do you think...is reason?

Would you trust in the truth of your answer?

Let us know if you care so much about these words, huh?

For me, my own words read here are meant to inspire playfulness and joyfulness - hardly amounting much to anything else at all!

Tags: Mindshare Truth Reality Motivation Force Reason

What does freedom mean to me?

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Following up on the What is freedom? question I put forth the other day...

I said I would let you in on what freedom means to me - in other words, how is it that I define the word freedom itself, first...then, how is that I will answer the question, second, for myself.

But before I do, here's the dictionary definition of freedom...

free dom - the state of being free

Okay, so now we logically have to check out the definition of free first...

free - without obligation; unobstructed; unconstrained; obtainable without payment; without limitation; being absent; unbound; without blockage; unattached; unencumbered; to be released; not imprisoned

Wow...this is getting a little overwhelming, isn't it? You would think a simple question requires a simple answer, wouldn't you?

But it gets even more complicated as we dig deeper...

Remember, a dictionary, and maybe an encyclopedia, are only the first references we can consult. After all, these traditional sources are but compedia (abstract summaries) - or compilations - of the English-speaking world's collective overview of these words' most-commonly-understood meanings. But then, I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I?

Now that we have just some dictionary definitions of free let's get back to the other words used to define freedom - the state of being - before we begin to check out the encyclopedias for more, shall we?

After all, if a suitable definition has been found already - by others who've come before us...or who might be more learned than us - then I'm all over what's easiest!

Aren't you?

And I just want to provide myself the simple answer to a simple question - without just guessing, or worse - getting the answer all wrong...

...because I really don't have a desire to be that smart; nor do I necessarily believe I can be forthcoming with a definitive personal answer - despite sounding so positive in my earlier pronouncement!

Notwithstanding the fact that an acceptable definition of the single word freedom may not be sufficient to succinctly answer the original question...

...we'll keep digging...and continue with the definitions of state and being next.

[By the way, do you think you have the perfect answer already? Without all this gobbledy-gook?]

state - a condition...of being, of being in a stage, as of structure, growth, or development, of depression or agitation; of a physical system, of excitement or distress; a social position or rank; a supreme public power within a sovereign political entity; within the purview of a supreme civil power within a given polity; a body politic, especially one constituting a nation; the territory occupied by one of the constituent administrative districts of a nation; the organization or group of people comprising that which is the government; the group owned or operated by a state (adjective); declare, or set forth in words (verb); ceremony or pomp; the politically organized body of people under a single government; the way it is relative to its principal attributes; the federal government; as of matter, like of a solid, liquid or gas; to express in words (verb); put before (verb); denote; refer; vote, or express a choice; a mental or emotional condition

Whew! Hang in here with me now...'cause it only gets better! To define being, first we need to define the word be...

be - an action word (or verb form) of the words is, am, are, was, were; the root word of being (present participle) or been (past perfect tense); used with the present participle of a verb to express a continuing action; used with the infinitive of a verb to express intention,obligation, or future action; used with the past participle of certain intransitive verbs of motion to form the perfect tense; used to identify the predicate of a sentence with the subject, or as a verb serving as a link between the subject and the predicate of a proposition; to exist in actuality, or to have life or reality; to symbolize or signify; to equal in meaning; to go (past perfect tense); to have or exhibit a quality or characteristic; have the quality of being; have an existence; happen, occur or take place; identical or equivalent to; form or compose; spend or use time; represent; have life; remain uninterrupted, unmolested or undisturbed; priced at; occupy a certain position or area; belong to or befall (archaic) <Where be my poor thinking right about now?>

And to soldier onward...

be ing - derived from the word be; quality of having existence; an object, idea, or symbol that exists; basic or essential nature; in philosophy - that which can be conceived as existing, or absolute existence in its perfect or unqualified condition, or the essence of existence; a person; a living thing which has the propensity, or already possesses, an ability to function or act independently; existing; existence

...let's not neglect the words the and of...'cause we might just miss somethin'...so here goes...

the - pronounced thuh before a consonant; and thee before a vowel; a definite article or an adverb; an article or absolute adjective used before a noun or nouns in a sentence, clause or phrase; used before an adjective extending it to signify a class and giving it the function of a noun; used before a present participle; used before a noun with the force of per; used before a singular noun indicating the noun is generic; used before a noun specifying a particular human endeavor; used before the plural form of a numeral denoting a specific decade or period in one's life; used before a present participle, signifying the action in the abstract; used before a proper name, as of a monument or ship; used before nouns that designate natural phenomena or points of a compass; used before a noun, and generally stressed, emphasizing one of a group or type as the most outstanding or prominent; used before a title, a rank or office designating its holder; beyond any other; to that extent:by that much; and finally, from the Old English and the Middle English periods, an alteration of the word se, a masculine nominative singular demonstrative adjective

...some more of our comprehensive understanding of these damn words...with the definition of...(you guessed it!)

of - derived or coming from; caused by; at a distance from; from the total or group comprising; so as to be separated or relieved from; from the total or group comprising; composed or made from; associated with or adhering to; belonging or connected to; possessing:having; on the part of; containing or carrying; centering on:directed toward; specified as; produced by:issuing from; characterized or identified by; with reference to:about; in respect to; before:until; during or on a specified time; by; used to indicate an appositive <that idiot of a wordsmith>; on (archaic) <A plague of all cowards, I say> - Shakespeare

Now, you just might be fed up reading this balderdash by now, huh? Well, I've got some good news for you...

I'm fed up assembling all these tedious words!

So, do I have an answer for you...for what freedom means to me?

You're damn right I do!

Freedom is unthinkingness and unknowingness - not wanting for nuthin'...including the stupid words to define it!

And you can forget about going into the encyclopedia definitions too...because...

Freedom is whatever the hell I want it to mean! You got that?

Tags: Freedom, Free, How to get Free, Unthinkingness, Unknowingness, Words on free thought

Wes Unruh (see his Online Prosperity Education link to your right on this page) is truly a gifted communicator who sees his role similarly to how Mark and I see our own roles in the media.

The following comment was in recent response to Wes' post regarding guerrilla tactics shown, by example, to counterbalance what employees see as their employers' unethical practices in the workplace.

Mark and I have been employees and employers; we've been contractors and we've been consultants - so we see the issues clearly from both sides of the bargaining table.

As real people engaged in commerce - or employed by a commercial interest - understand all-too-well, communication must be a two-way street if our time spent together in a useful exchange is to bear the most fruit...on a basis of fair play
...over time.

Fair play is that part of the social contract which underlies our assumptions about how and why our collaborations are to be defined, explicitly or implicitly understood, and acted upon accordingly.

Without effective communication we assume the risk that fair play will not sustain itself because misunderstanding and conflict naturally arises...in any event or circumstance.

Notwithstanding all other evidence to the contrary...factors, quotients and variables do exist...in any relationship where cognitive dissonance is, many times, at play...and buyer's remorse remains a possibility.

So, whether it be in our business or our personal relationships, this truism holds because it always exists.

It is up to each one of us to know this potential for tension and dispute is a naturally-occurring phenomenon found universally in Nature; and thus, it is within our human natures too...to become empowered by this knowledge...and successfully adapt to it or change directions.

As Dad always said, "Life gives us lemons - so we make lemonade. It's up to you what you do with it."

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Wu,

You never cease to impress me with your thoughts, my friend!

Authoritarian constructs are often innocently or enthusiastically created when two or more parties wish to begin an exchange - for whatever reason or purpose.

Thus, your example perfectly illustrates what often goes awry in just such an authoritarian construct which assumes an equitable exchange of time and effort for money and stock options - the mediums of the exchange, in this case.

Here we have an often-used, real-life example of a classic employer-employee construct, coupled with a carrot-and-stick performance/results clause, commonly employed in many industries - not just the gaming industry.

This example is widely-used because skilled workers want a piece of the action in exchange for their creative efforts; and their employers want motivated efforts from them.

And it is from here that all-too-human machinations begin to unravel both parties' assumptions - leading to the grass roots campaign begun by our "significant other" protagonist, and its eventual outcome, as evidenced in your case study.

Utilizing leverage this way comprises a finely-tuned balancing act which both sides actively engaged in the aforementioned construct must stay attuned to perfecting as performance and results are actualized - lest we lose our way...or our health.

Without respectful communication we cannot expect good outcomes or positive results. So if an authoritarian construct - of any kind - is entered into, it is useful to remind ourselves that the devil is in the details very often, and a social or business contract must equally benefit both parties if this entanglement is to bear fruit for us over time.

Successful collaborations within an authoritarian construct begin and end when all parties engaged therein realize the truth as it stares them in the face. And honest assumptions require a compact of structured arbitration be built in the contract for harmonious results to be expected.

Alas...simply an employer-employee relationship in a capitalist construct - heavily weighted from its patriarchal underpinnings - often doesn't call for this understanding to be put in place at all...as the authoritarian master-slave, parent-child, and/or even the outmoded man-woman construct is entered into, unthinkingly...like bees to honey...to the full flower of its poisonous bloom; in other words, with no recourse but to churn-and-burn its participants in a never-ending cycle of wanton abuse.

I think, therefore I am but a product of my own imagination. So if I imagine I must consider participating in any authoritarian construct, I can imagine this entanglement for what its logical experience and outcome might mean for me - from its beginning to its end - so I can leverage this experience to satisfy my own design.

Hence, all less-than-equal social or business constructs can be intelligently and compassionately seen in the light in which they are originally engaged, allowing us to see our way clear as to how best it can suit our highest, most-noble purposes.

Seen from this vantage point, knowing few things in life are co-equal, or even fair, we carry on...

Fair play is best understood when the parties so enjoined realize how successful collaborations are made harmonious within our natures as human beings.

When less-than-fair-play is tolerated...tension - or stress - can be expected to be the result.

And change - whether for good or ill - will be the only outcome of such a shared experience.

After all, a house of cards will most certainly fall, right?

In observations such as yours, a playing field can be leveled - with a little initiative and a bold approach - utilizing the power of leverage.

Bravissimo, wu!

Show us the way to the revolution!

Laurence

Mainspring Mindshares

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Go see Wes' original post in MySpace by...

Clicking Here...then heading over to his blog post which is entitled "Target Inc Overworking Diabetics, Refusing Breaks" to view more.

What is freedom?

You know how it is with simple questions like this, everyone has a different take on it's definition. Therefore, there can be as many answers as questions, if you get my drift.

If freedom is something you might find desirous it helps to understand what it means first.

So for fun...here's some definitions supplied by some other folks.

But remember...only your definition of freedom will ring true for you. If you can't put it to memory - as a constant reminder - you might as well be sabotaging your freedom.

If this be unimportant...maybe you're into doggie submission...or second-class subservience...to someone else's definition of freedom...ya think?

More on this topic later...if not sooner. I'll let you in on what freedom REALLY means - albeit, only to me!

In the meantime, why not let us in on your thoughts?

At the end of the day...what could possibly be more important?

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"I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom." - Albert Einstein

"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose. Nothin', don't mean nothin' honey if it ain't free." - Janis Joplin

"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes." - Mahatma Ghandi

"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be." - Voltaire

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." - Albert Camus

"We are driven by five genetic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun." - William Glasser

"While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions." - Stephen R. Covey

"Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires." - Bertrand Russell

"There are only two kinds of freedom in the world; the freedom of the rich and powerful, and the freedom of the artist and the monk who renounces possessions." - Anais Nin

"Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be." - Ayn Rand

"Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." - Benjamin Franklin

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Freedom lies in being bold." - Robert Frost

"No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky." - Bob Dylan

"Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell

"I want to have fun. I want to shine like the sun. I want to be the one that you want to see. I want to knit you a sweater. I want to write you a love letter. I want to make you feel better. I want to make you feel free." - Joni Mitchell

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." - Soren Kierkegaard

"The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission." - John F. Kennedy

"Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire." - Epictetus

"You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once." - Robert A. Heinlein

More freedom quotes here

Lark - "Okay...oh yea, did you see that video I told you to check out? The night fishermen?"

Mark - "You mean the one with all the fish hittin' the Mexican guys in the face?"

Lark - "Tell ya what's so cool about it, Mark. It beats the hell out of kanoodlin' - even shootin' fish in a barrel. Wanna know why?"

Mark - "You mean noodlin'? Like Okies catchin' Cats by hand?"

Lark - "Yea, yea, you're from Oklahoma. Never went noodlin', Mark?"

Mark - "No...and I never shot fish in a barrel, either. So what?"

Lark - "Sheeeiish, man...this damn video explains all we need to know about internet marketing!"

Mark - "Don't go weird on me dude! Go ahead. Tell me somethin' I need to hear, alright?"

Lark - "We just need to shorten the learning curve, Mark! Why don't we see if we can throw down with somebody already doin' this crap?

Mark - "Yea, right! Like I need to become a wage slave again, huh? What about you? You think you can handle being a suck-up again, Lark?"

Lark - "Mark, I ain't interested in no fussin' and fightin' now, no strugglin' neither! We just need to seriously think about makin' some deals..."

Mark - "Heh, heh! Gimme a break! Noone wants to deal with noobs - with no products and no list! We're nobodies, Lark!"

Lark - "Would you trade a dollar to make two, Mark?"

Mark - "Hell yea, any day of the week! You can pull a deal like THAT off? Sign me up...I'm game!"

Fishing without bait at night. Amazing!!!

Mark - "I thought YOU had the plan..."

Lark - "Yea, and I thought YOU did!"

Mark - "Remember you said," 'We just need mass eyeballs to the sales page', so you could then put the hoodoo on 'em, right?"

Lark - "Alright, Mark, let's lay out the step-by-step - one more time, okay?

Mark - "Whatever! Give me somethin' to sell and I'll slap it up!"

Lark - "You know, Mark, this is the simple part. The whole world's pitchin' and catchin' and we're just the ones providing the message board - get it?"

Mark - "Of course, dude, you mean like at the Rangers game, right?"

Lark - "That'll work! We just need to sign up the players and put some asses in seats."



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Tags: Mark and Lark, First Adventures in Internet Marketing, Internet Marketing, Step By Step, Plan

Reflections on everything old becomes new again - things between and beyond...

This past week Mark and I worked together - according to our pre-arranged schedule - on the creation of our first real information product.

Though we followed a rather circuitous route to begin its implementation the project at least has the look and feel of something which adheres to our brand essence...as evidenced in our Legend Platform.

And as it was fun, it remains so - a worthwhile thing - a proverbial work-in-progress!

This Saturday morning it's threatening to sleet outside and I'm happily allowing myself the latitude to have the feeling of no direction - destination unknown take me over whilst the words and the melody of an 80s tune with similar lyrics...
rhapsodizes...rhythmically in my head.

So it's a lovely beginning to a well-deserved lazy day which guides my destiny...and I have no regrets...

...for such days always fuel my energies and inform my passions.

As I meander about my way - like you, sometimes, might expect - I often learn more as an accidental tourist than if I had followed along the beaten path of the tour guide within me.

I read some emails, reread others, listened to a few audio and video tutorials, and generally selfishly pleasured myself...as only me, myself, and I knows how to do best. (Don't sink to the level of the guttersnipe now...:)

Just consider me the penultimate expert about some things, okay?

Anyway, I glanced through Kevin Hogan's Covert Persuasion a little again, ignored a couple of bill collector calls, reminded Laura - and myself - about the Top Ten important people in our lives, then stopped...

...myself...to consider just how insular our lives had become...of our separateness from human events - unimportant...out of sight...out of mind - not of our own creation or directly related to our present circumstance.

It's not a happy state of affairs, is it?

Upstairs, I went to check on Laura giving Rocky (our little Pom-Bomber) his weekly (bi-weekly?) bath, and in a box in an anteroom I discovered one of my late Mom's books, Orgone, Reich & Eros: Wilhelm Reich's Theory of Life Energy, by W. Edward Mann.

Now since I had only a few days ago been reading about radionics, ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scores and orgone therapy it's only natural I'd be drawn to this book, don't ya think?

Hell, while routinely throwing out direct mail pieces from A.A.R.P. - presumably since some bot discovered I was now past 50 - I was delighted to discover the social networking site, cRANKy; but upon learning "sex" is the #1 search term for my fellow boomers today, and "Eons" has an "Obits" section, I wasn't so delighted after all!

So, perusing the innards I come upon the first page of the first chapter, and lo and behold, highlighted in yellow (energy) is "...his death in prison in 1957...", no doubt, manually applied by my dear Mom's own hand...sometime about 1973, the time of its first printing.

This made me think of one of Mom's constant admonitions to me as I was growing up..."Be careful what you say, Larry. They'll put you in prison."

To which I usually scoffed or laughed - one or the other - because I didn't want to believe that the thought police would ever come knocking at MY door; nor did I accept the possibility that such an occurrence ever would exist, though it may have existed as a reality for some...back in the dark ages...before MY time.

But there it was - a concrete reinforcement that this kind of stuff "has happened" in my lifetime - here in the good ole USA! And Mom knew something about it...

Wilhelm Reich was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and his crazy ideas were experiencing a revival, of sorts, about the time I was in junior college - a time of intense introspection and revelation in my life, so I was not wholly unfamiliar with his theses.

What has captured my fascination this morning is the fact that this particular book jumped out at me at all...just when it did.

It catalyzes some of the causality notions I've held for some time, in that random chance is simply not an acceptable reality if we but choose to open our energy pathways and allow ourselves to just be like the open-ended conduits of energy we really are.

Assumptions of what is real and what is not are at the heart of self-imposed limitations we too-often place on our existence, preventing us from living the life of fulfillment we deserve.

Like Royal Rife, of Rife Frequency Generator fame, Reich too was hounded by the FDA for his "claims that orgone energy therapy might one day become a demonstrated treatment to assist in the cure of cancer." After being considered one of Freud's most promising new contemporaries - in the relatively new field of psychoanalysis - over time he had difficulty keeping friends and winning converts and money to his "overwrought and complicated" causes, which were just too far out for their time. In fact, many, including his peers, and, of course, the federales thought of him as schizophrenic - a dangerous, must-be-subverted quack.

So Freud, and Albert Einstein, eventually shunned him, and Reich died in prison. The same kind of travesty which befell Galileo before him.

[Which only goes to show you: Use your insight to support the powers-that-be, or risk being ostracized. Prepare for the worst in advance - or just shut the ***k up!]

As Professor Mann so correctly states in his introduction, Reich's ideas about energy, social behavior, politics, even the human libido and its relationship to the cosmos itself, have consistently curried new favor and won over new fans for his theories to this present day.
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It's up to us to carry the torch...

And I couldn't help but note my interest, too, in Reikian therapy, or, as some would have it called - even derisively - the laying of healing hands on the human body, because the Japanese word reiki reminds me of the German word reich, or empire.
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Creation of Order = Initiation of Chaos

You might enjoy Armed Madhouse, by Greg Palast, for a contemporary read on the current situation in Washington, that'll make you bust a gut laughing (to keep from cryin'?). Then read Reich's books like Character Analysis (about how our entire personalities are self-serving, self-defeating - pure fakery with little connection to reality), Cosmic Superimposition: Man's Orgonotic Roots in Nature (and its relation to elan vital), Mass Psychology of Fascism (discover the parallels between the Nazi regime of the Third Reich and present-day America's mass psychosis, exploitation of the many by the few, self-delusion and betrayal of our own self-interests), The Sexual Revolution (no wonder we got wound up in the 60s, and freaked out, turned on or turned out by the 80s), and especially, Listen, Little Man (a chilling expose of a people, a society, gone blind, and the impetus for going after him in the first place), and you tell me this man's prescience doesn't deserve his rising star, after all.

Robert Anton Wilson (just passed away) once wrote a play, Wilhelm Reich in Hell, based on his life; and William Steig, Norman Mailer, William S. Burroughs, and Orson Bean had all undergone Reich's orgone therapy before.

More at Wikipedia.org

Beyond the grave, he remains in good company, my friends. But on terra firma we must know that our ability to live as free men is always under assault...by those same few who would have us under the yoke...pulling their plows - these same sadists who tyrannized our forebears. They're like unfeeling, unthinking "do-gooders" - insisting on their worldview as superior to yours. Did you make all these rules which constrain you, or do you just want to go along with the program laid out for you, without a plan to escape?

Do you still have free will?

Which reminds me, I have to finish reading this book in a hurry so I can revisit Viktor Schauberger's writings on water-based power generation (via vortex action in a closed cycle) - concepts not too far apart from Reich's concepts of perpetual motion, force multiplier FX (my words), and orgasms. :)

Pseudo-sciences, from pseudo-intellectuals all, we're told still to this day!

Is this why the U.S. Government had his writings burned while they had him safely behind bars?

But, by "cracky", I'll be danged and determined, even if I can't find the tie-in, and crack the proverbial code myself one day, I will!

(How's that, for cranky, huh?)

Are we so empty-headed and self-centered that we deny ourselves the freedom to passionately and excitedly just be truly alive?

Who is it that told you that your life is not your own? To be lived on YOUR terms and yours alone?

How much insanity have you bought into - without ever realizing it?

When we definitively describe our purpose - our mission - in life, are we too-hurriedly short-changing ourselves?

I think so.

I think, therefore, I am but a product of my own imagination. Thus, can I be the victim of setting my own limitations in quick-drying cement - like you, maybe?

But more on this story later...as it's still being lived...

...a work still in progress...and its telling must wait!

Oh yea, like this work-in-progress from last week...

...by a couple of suburban internet marketing noobs (neophytes) named...

"Mark and Lark"

Tags: Wilhelm Reich Sigmund Freud energy social behavior politics chaos mass psychosis internet marketing Mark and Lark

It's no secret I appreciate readers and writers , psych-docs and story-tellers, truth-seekers and myth busters - especially...

artists and composers or organizers.

Which is not to say I don't also appreciate those wishing to eliminate malicious intent from their lives or those only wishing to make me laugh or smile...

like clowns and rabble-rousers or town criers.

And there's only so much artifice I can stomach from anyone - including myself!

My heros are those who lack obvious self-consciousness or those who, like me, are all-too-human...

Like these guys...


The Dullards

A dullard sat atop a flagpole
Wondering
Whether or not
The weather might change.
And would it not be too strange
For a flop to flip
Or his friend to sit
Waiting
While both start
Rearranging
Their brains?

Or this guy...


Why? It Matters How To(o)!

No matter the problem

No matter the solution

No matter the question

No matter the answer

For everything

And everyone

That matters

For

Whatever

Whomever

Whenever

Always ask, “Why?”

A big enough reason

Makes the how to(o)

Simple

So the secret's out - you're just my kind - a healer, a help-mate and a time-traveler too.

And now left I'm wondering...

From where it is YOU sit, just exactly where DO you fit?

Do it on a lark...

We have 52 purchased domain names; and hosting of a few of them has been set up. Mark has established and/or perfected our accounts in Clickbank, PayPal, eBay, Amazon, Google...MSN and Yahoo are next.

Has anything been left out - or forgotten? No doubt...

...but at least we're moving forward together with the new business.

Advancing previous discussions, we took digital photos of each other so we can introduce ourselves more properly to the online community.

Mark edited the images in PhotoShop and we discussed framing issues related to our marketing strategies.

Monday through Friday - from 9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. - we will meet at my home office to bring Mainspring Mindshares to life. This week, we didn't get started until Wednesday, but we'll stay on this schedule beginning Monday.

What had been a storage area - the adjacent sunroom between the office and a small rose garden outside - has slowly begun to take shape as a separate office for Mark, and now we can work from our own computers at our own desks, while still being able to have normal conversations.

We feel that there are just too many words and too much media in most of our lives today.

And chewing up life in our little corners of suburbia is an all-consuming experience.

We talked about persuasion - and crowded marketplaces. Competition from worthy competitors. I alluded to what I now famously refer to as that real estate between our ears which is so relentlessly assaulted because we allow it.

Mark still objects to my use of big words...especially if I am to keep him engaged. He reminds me of another Mark I once knew in high school, who, upon interrupting my blather with someone else - after not seeing each other for a week or so - was startled to hear me say pardon me to him, as if I had assumed some alien nicety or affectation unbecoming of a "regular dude" we might deem worthy of his association!

In both instances both Marks just kinda chuckled...since proper dudes just don't use such words from outside their own circles, do they?

Which also reminds me of another friend of mine, Dan, from Marquette, Michigan, I also knew in high school earlier in Bossier City, Louisiana, who commented one day about some asinine blowhard pulling off a typical high school prank by saying, "Such a crude individual...", while the rest of us laughed and laughed at his uncommon choice of words...whereas, in this vulgar scene, most high school dudes (esteemed by the appellation) usually might just say, "Cool!"

All in all...it's been a healthy start. Communication happens best when our time can be spent being playful and joyful...and laughter works too...

...since LIFE is what we live on our way to bigger and better things.