Overview

Introduction

After I strip away all of my flowery language, philosophy and symbolism, the very core of SOMDEland is pretty straightforward and simple.  SOMDEland is just a collection of my ideas on how I digest, process, interpret and interact with myself and the world.  

Another important aspect of SOMDEland, and also my larger website, is that I absolutely love growing them.  Because of this, SOMDEland has become a way for my conscious mind to communicate with my subconscious mind, and therefore, it has become a way for me to motivate myself.  It, in some ways, has become like a direct channel into my reward system (here is a video that explain some of the process of how I changed my reward system).   Because of this, I can often take a negative experience and transform it into something positive simply by using SOMDEland.  That is, I can give a negative experience meaning and purpose by making it into something (e.g. artwork, ceremonies) that grows SOMDEland and my website.  

Examples

Perhaps the best way to understand SOMDEland is through examples.  Below are the two best examples that provide a look into the larger architecture of SOMDEland.  However, you can find pieces of SOMDEland in majority of the creativity on my website. 

Justice vs Vengeance Event

 In my Justice vs Vengeance Event I explored how I should respond to aggressive and unfair actions that my father took.  My Mother and I came to the conclusion that true 'justice' could not be acheived because many of my father's sins were in the past and there was no way to undo them.  However, I also concluded that I could take these negative experiences and feelings and turn them into artwork.  In this way, my suffering in the past has meaning and purpose in my present and future.    The figure below, which I present in this video, provides an overview of how negative experiences can be processed, digested and transformed through SOMDEland which consists of my artwork, and community based ceremonies and events.  

The Subconscious Event

In the Subconscious Event I explored how to create a bridge between my subconscious and conscious selves.  In my follow-up presentation I explored how I was able to take unattainable dreams from my past and transform it into a realizable dream by using SOMDEland.  This was done by taking my unattainable dreams and using it as fodder to create something new and fascinating that intruiged and excited me.  

Other Examples

There are several other examples, which I have to document better, underneath the tab for SOMDEland.

• I turned negative experiences into a series of fascinating drawings about how I process them. 

• I turned the negative stigma against Herpes Simplex Virus 1 into the fun of the Herpes Queendom

• I turned my initial inability to realize my dreams into the nastypose to help me focus on my dreams. 

• I turned many concepts that frustrated me into epic community based events. 

The Origin of the Name

• In high school I created the name SOMDE which stands for State/System Of Mind Detached Existence. It was a philosophy that I used to detach myself from the cycles of depression that were often caused by my inability to control the world and its affects around me.  Around this time my positive internal dialog (Zzymbrr) became a very negative internal dialog. 

• In college my internal dialog became even more negative and I felt unloved from the outside world too.  During this time, I decided to incubate within myself and create a place of creative beauty starting within and then emanating outward.

• When I became a high school teacher, I created 'SOMDEland'.  SOMDEland was my classroom...but it was something very different and special. It became an expression of my method of teaching which focused on devotional care for all students.  The process of creating 'SOMDEland' healed me and changed my negative internal dialog into a positive one.  This is because before I could provide devotional care to others I had to first develop acceptance and love for myself.   

• My teaching style merged together everything (my past, my artwork, my creativity, my science, my devotional care for others), and so, it really represented SOMDEland. 

• Note: DaveMa (and Joel Christensen, a professor of classics) challenged my original description of SOMDEland as being a mythological universe.  Discussions with DaveMa helped me clarify that I am not creating a fictitious universe nor a collection of myths.