Golden Age of Leather (A recent parkour video)

Some Poems

Recently, I sent off a manuscript of some poems and prose that I wrote a few years ago.  I’m hoping that the publishers will be interested enough in my concept to turn my manuscript into a short book.  Following is a half dozen or so of the poems that I wrote.  I’m actually a little embarrassed by some of these because they are a bit too self indulgent and (in my opinion) immature.  In the interest of baring the human soul, and showing that one can move on from a low state, I’m opening myself up to share my weakness.  Enjoy!

Pondering Beauty
How can beauty captivate?
What makes me want to possess beauty?
Make it mine
Be proud of it
Hold it
Protect it
Cry because of it
Write poems about it
Change myself to be like it

Thinking is Good
Tepid bitterness
On my lips
My coffee has cooled
While I thought

Contemplating life
Contemplating beauty
Contemplating things
That I've sought

As I think about stuff
Time passes me by
The world moves with a blur
and is gone in a blink

A moment to ponder
Have I wasted my hours?
No! I decide
It is not wrong to think

I look at the world
I look at myself
I seek patterns
In the shapes that I see

What becomes clear
As the days pass by
I am trying to learn
About me

Untitled One
O great sorrow
Heavy upon my heart
Where can I get a love?
Where can I get peace?

How can I be freed?
From this frustration
Unto love
Unto purpose

I seek purpose
I cannot see
I want to see
Show me affection!

Untitled Two
Can I help you?
Is there a problem with me?
I want to develop myself
Learn from my mistakes
I can't see what I've done
Have I done something?
Have I not done something?
Ease my burning
Tell me
Speak to me
Quench this fire
Still my troublesome matters
Please

Untitled Three
Hand in hand
But so much deeper than that
We walk together
Yet more together than any eye can see

My love begins to flow
I can feel my heart rising
Take care of me
I am fragile beyond belief

See me
Know my heart
Take my hand
And walk with me

Look into my eyes
Then will you know my heart
Please, accept my yearning hand
And walk a distance with me

Untitled Four
I'm sitting in my head
Running possible conversations we might have

What a laugh

I try to plan a response
To everything you might say

How about a poem?
The beginning in another time
Another place and thought
Some special eyes to catch the light
And catch also my thought

Careful Words
I carefully construct my loving words
So that I don't offend you
So that you know what I mean
So that I can hide what I'm really trying to say

Shadows
Something in the shadows
I start
Nothing in the shadows
I sigh
I thought it might be you in the shadows
Waiting for me

A Dedication
Always and forever
My love
Holding your hand
May we enter into glory together

Absolutely, Radically, Incredible, Life Changing Links (so says Sam)!

During the course of my Internet, life I have come across a number of websites that have made a huge difference to my life and my thinking.  I thought that I would be nice enough to share these with the world.  Following is a brief description and a link to the websites that have made a radical difference in my life.  If I’ve forgotten any, I will likely update this post to keep them all in the one place.

Creativity and Self Improvement Links (Including productivity resources)
http://www.ted.com/ Fantastic videos on all manner of creativity and innovation, often with a technology focus.  Check our Sir Ken Robinson’s talk on how schools can kill creativity.

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/ The blog of Tim Ferriss.  Here you will find all manner of interesting ideas to improve (hack) your life.  Tim has spent most of his adult life experimenting with ways to improve efficiency in life in order to maximise personal gain from minimal input of effort.  Some topics include: weight-loss, muscle gain, learning languages in mere hours, and much more

http://www.wikipedia.org/ Source of much useful and interesting information

http://www.google.co.nz/ Self explanatory.  The entire suite of google software is incredibly useful and integrates nicely with other google components.  Productivity and efficiency is easily found via google “stuff”.  Fantastic google “stuff” includes:  Google Translate, Google Mail (gmail), Google Docs, Google Maps, YouTube, and more lately I’ve been using Google Reader to make one super blog.  Also, Blogger, of course (this site) for making my various blogs.

http://www.facebook.com/ Social networking in a very powerful and integrated way.  Also fantastic for building communities of people for marketing or just to share interests.

Physical Development and Health Links (Including parkour and martial arts)
http://stadion.com/ Stadion publishers.  Here’s their blurb: No-Nonsense Authority on Stretching and Flexibility, Mental Toughness, Strength, Speed, Power, Jumping Ability, Endurance, Coordination, Agility, and Technique for All Sports and Martial Arts, Sports Injuries, and Sports Nutrition

http://www.nzparkour.co.nz/ New Zealand’s online parkour community that I’ve been heavily involved in for the last four years.  

Christian Links
http://www.str.org/site/PageServer Stand to Reason, Equipping Christian Ambassadors with Knowledge, Wisdom, and Character.

http://carm.org/ Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry.  Matt Slick started up this website, full of answers for Christians who encounter challenges to the Christian faith.  Rational and reasonable answers to non-christian cult groups, atheists, and more.  This was particularly useful to me in my early walk.  

http://www.desiringgod.org/ The ministry of John Piper.  Many, many online resources and links to other reliable Christian sites.
http://www.e-sword.net/ Free bible study software. Fantastic and very powerful. This, or something like it, should be in every Christian's arsenal of bible study tools.

And...
Some sites that I’m experimenting with and can see the potential of:  Stumbleupon, Delicious.

I’m reconsidering using Twitter again as a bit of an experiment also.  I’m quite interested in developing myself as a writer.  The biggest obstacle in doing this is developing an audience in a moral way (non-spamming and non-annoying: subscribe, rate, embed!!!).  The best way to do this is to give something of value to that audience while in return getting their support and readership.  It can’t be done without building a positive community that passes around the “good stuff” by word of mouth (or the electronic equivalents, e.g. stumbleupon).  That is what has prompted the use of many of these websites, i.e. a way of getting the word out to people who might have an interest in what I have to offer.  Like-minded people who enjoy my take on life.

This will be an evolving page, so check back from time to time, recommend it to others who might find this useful, and please suggest any web sites or web tools that you think I might like to check out and/or add.

Thank you, and have a great week!

Sam