Publically Flogged

I feel like a geriatric. I have a new computer program that is absolutely wonderful...if I were to know where to find the things that I was used to utilizing in the old program. I don't really consider myself to be set in my ways. Nor do I need to have someone tell me which finger to use to work the mouse pad on the laptop. I am not quite there yet...but close. It took me till today (three full days after the install of said computer program) to find where my emails were being forwarded to and how to access them on my screen. It is a good thing I am bald because I sure feel like there are a lot of grey hairs having their way with me!

Sheldon, on The Big Bang Theory, said it best when he said, "It's not that I think that every elderly person who struggles with technology should be publicly flogged, but if we were to do that to just one or two of them it may give the rest incentive to try harder."

I think that I may be one of the first ones out there on the whipping block!

I will try harder, Sheldon! I will! I promise I will! Ahhhhh! Stop hitting me!!!!

Blessed Be
Trent
http://www.youtube.com/trentdeerhorn
http://www.deerhornshamanic.com/

Magic and Technology

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C. Clarke.

As a friend of mine once said, "Science is the magic that we do understand and magic is the science that we don't yet understand." I find it amazing how people get so hung up on "technology" and "science" when what they are actually looking for is what is familiar. If something is in their comfort zone, then it is completely okay for anyone to use it or do it. Imagine what people would have thought in the 1940's if they saw folks crossing the street and talking to themselves as they chatted on their cell phones, or driving down the street talking to themselves on their bluetooths. Oh, and try even just warming something up in the microwave. What about what people would have thought of even the care instruction labels on the inside of clothing back in the dark ages! Those would have been sufficient evidence for someone to be burned as a witch!

Technology is there to help create convenience in our society. It is also beginning to finally be used to create healing. Yet the fact that it is "commonplace" does not negate the miracle that it is, for example, to someone from a third world country. We think that we have it made because of all the technological conveniences that we have. But what if, for example, there was a global disaster and suddenly all electricity was wiped out? Where would we be without lights and heat? We would also be without water because the water doesn't just come out of a tap when we turn it on, it also has to be processed through the water treatment plant which....wait for it.....here it comes.....is RUN WITH ELECTRICITY! Well, that would be okay because we could light candles. My question is, with what do we light them? Most people utilize butane lighters instead of wooden matches. Are your lighters full and stocked up? Are your wooden matches? Where do you think you would get them if they weren't and there was no electricity? The corner store? Nope. In a jungle in a third world country they would not even notice that the electricity is gone. It is not a part of the daily magic. They are much more self-sufficient than we are.

So technology can been seen as magic. But what about when magic can be seen as technology? I grow some herbs in my garden. These herbs can be used to heal. How I use them and what I use them for could be considered "folk remedies" or "magic". Some would "poo hoo" all of that, but it is this technology upon which the synthetic drugs that are promoted in commercials are based. What about when dream walking is used by someone to help someone else to heal? This would be definitely considered magical, yet it is some of this technology that is the basis of covert military operations. How better to control your political enemies than to mess with their minds?

I prefer to keep all the magic on a positive note and utilize it for the highest good of all, and according to the free will of all. That way no harm is done and healing can happen. There are some who make up all sorts of reasons and excuses as to why they can bend the rules this one time. I think that before one acts one needs to definitely contemplate all the ramifications and find the action that will match with the positive outcome, not just match one's personal desires.

So I guess that my invitation to all who practice magic in the traditional sense or in the technological sense is this...think long and hard before you act. And always remember the fact that the world is filled with insta-karma!

Blessed Be
Trent
http://www.youtube.com/trentdeerhorn
www.deerhornshamanic.com

The Rock Star!

It has been a while since my last blog entry. I have been busy incorporating a very large learning curve! My friend interviewed me on her Youtube channel and before I knew it, I had one of my own! So now I am finding a new medium with which to reach out to the world. If you are interested in seeing my videos, just log onto youtube.com/trentdeerhorn and you will find my videos on there, as well as some really funky ones that I have favourited from other video channels.

The learning curve has to do with first off the adjustment of using video as opposed to literature to reach out and communicate. I am still not sure that I even like how I look in the videos, or even how I sound. But the information content is what I wanted to get out there, so I will put up with those things. Secondly, the learning curve has to do with just utilizing technology to take the video from my recording and post it into my youtube channel. I think I might have it down now. However, my dear friend, Beata, who interviewed me, has coached me now three times in how to do it and I am hoping that I don't need to call on her again for the next one. In one of the videos I do some drumming and chanting, and that is where the "Rock Star" title comes from for this post.

Sometimes I feel like my talent outweighs my skills when it comes to technology. I have been in bands and such before, and each time I have found that it works best if I just leave the tech stuff to the techs and get up to the microphone and do what I do. Over the years it has become quite easy to rely on others to do the things that thread it all together into a nice presentation. Now I'm on my own with the tech stuff and sometimes feel overwhelmed. I consider myself to be technologically challenged. Perhaps I now need to start considering myself to be technologically skilled so that all this stuff will come easier. I remember how challenged I felt when it came to blogging, and then when it came to using my merchant machine to process credit/debit cards for sessions. Now here I am in the youtube dimension and thinking to myself, "How the heck did I get here so fast?" I remember having a dream only a few months ago about making this blog entry and seeing in the back of my mind my youtube channel as I typed the entry into the blog. Now, so quickly, here it is. All I can say is.....WOW!

Blessed Be
Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Instructions Please!

Technology. You gotta love it. It tends to make our lives easier as we go, right? Actually, right now I feel like an 18th century shaman in the 21st century. I just got my Visa/MasterCard/Debit machine for my workplace. I have discovered that there is a lot more to being the "merchant" than there ever was to just operating it at someone else's work place. I feel a wee bit overwhelmed. The legal agreement is mind-boggling and the instruction manual, well, let's just say that I am more of a "hands on" learner than I am an understander of technical terms in an instruction manual. I have put a call in to a dear friend who has utilized these things in order to see if she can help me tomorrow to figure this all out.

I thought that I was doing well with just being able to blog! Sheesh! A horse! A horse! My kindgom for a horse! (Shakespeare: Richard III). I do feel a little bit like I should be driving a horse and buggy instead of a car. Oh well.

By the way, does anyone out there know how to contact Google and let them know that the bold and italics on your blog site don't work? I log on to the help site and get replies that don't make sense at all. So for you computer wizzards out there, one wizzard to another, if you can help me figure this out, please do!

Oh, wait a minute....what is that? I hear a ringing sound....oh, just my phone. I do at least know how to answer that.

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Technology is Grand!

I just got my new laptop computer. This is going to make my work day so much more efficient! It does take some getting used to, but for the most part I am looking forward to developing a working relationship with this handy dandy little device of unlimited connections and consciousness!

So now I must find a name for my little critter. There are a lot of possibilities that go through my mind as I think about it, but for the most part I am going to have to see what sort of energy it holds and how best to respond to that with a label that we all know of as a "name".

It is important to name technology. A car runs better and communicates better when it has a name, as does a computer, a stereo, a tv or anything else that we use on a daily basis. I used to enjoy when people in Star Trek: The Next Generation would give a command to the computer and they would say things like, "Computer, dim the lights please." Such wonderful manners and always addressing the computer so that she (it had a female voice) knew that they were addressing her! That is the sort of relationship that I want to have with my laptop.

Blessed Be

Trent

www.deerhornshamanic.com

Technology Can Be Useful

Now, one must remember that in reading this, you are reading something that is written by someone who is technically "archaic" and has a pretty primitive computer system. However, I do know how to use a calculator and I will if I am pushed to do so. So here is the thing. It would seem that my partner has been holding out on me a wee bit. I mentioned to her that I should look into getting an iPod for use as I walk to work. A walk is so much better when we have peppy tunes. She informs me that she has an iPod! She even knows what part of which drawer it is in! The woman is brilliant! She just waits till I mention a need or a desire and poof! it is fulfilled! She is an absolute Goddess!

So then the next thing is charging it up and downloading iTunes. I think the iTunes are downloaded, but the charge thing is taking what seems like forever. We will see how this goes and hopefully I will have tunes to walk with tomorrow morning. I know this might sound a bit superficial, but I also find that this sort of technology is quite enjoyable. Now, when I am out in the bush somewhere in the middle of nowhere, I don't expect to have an iPod stuck in my ears. But for walking to work...I am so looking forward to this. I also know that technology can save lives and that is why the MRI was invented and that this does not hold a candle to that sort of thing. But I like it anyway. I figure if it can make my life easier, then bring it on! And anyone who disagrees, well, all I can say is....go for a week without your dishwasher, moron!

Blessed Be

Trent

www.deerhornshamanic.com