You are all following me on this journey that is in its infancy and I ask that you permit me to make changes as I grow into this role to be a vessel to inspire you.  Soul Rebel 365 is constantly being tweaked as I study countries to visit, learn, and most importantly grow as an individual both spiritually and emotionally.  Having said that, these past three months have been incredibly enlightening to me in realizing God and myself.  I really don’t know how to describe it except that I wish it was a drink so I could give everyone a taste to see what I am feeling!  I am realizing that once I make myself available to be selfless then other blessings are poured onto me on a personal level. Let me say this: one’s motivation to help others should not be because we want to benefit from it, but because our eyes have been opened as we truly learn to love and reach out the best way we can.  Haiti is a perfect example of people selflessly donating and volunteering.  In such a tragedy the silver lining is the compassion of the human spirit.

Several posts ago I told you how Jordan Fuller was quickly becoming my Alberto Granado.  I have a good team of people that have been helping me plan this project but Jordan has been with me on the ground level, planning in detail and doing the Xs and Os of the trip. A funny thing happened in all of this — we fell in love.  We have history together and have known each other since 2005. She’s more detail oriented than I am and equally adventurous.  On January 24th (her birthday), I asked her to marry me and she said ‘yes’!  We are planning to get married this July.  The new plan is that she will join me on the one-year journey of Soul Rebel. Our timeline for Soul Rebel has shifted to accommodate our wedding and the taking care of some personal business. Obviously this changes my fundraising efforts and we will be looking to save and raise an additional $10,000 to facilitate our traveling.

In order for Soul Rebel to be successful, I have to be the best person that I can be and I am elated that I have someone who will be with me on this journey that pushes me to be a better person in all facets of my life. We will be spending a lot of time in seedy areas and living in poverty, so I am blessed to know that I have a partner who is willing to go these lengths with me. At the end of the day Soul Rebel is something we both care deeply about. We want to impact lives in a profound way, not just as a website or book that you stop to read occasionally. We have a long way to go as far as raising money so I implore you to please donate if you haven’t already done so.  Your investment will not be a waste. Soul Rebel 365 isn’t just a cool idea; it is a way of life.

I loaded up a 2001 Chevy Cavalier, it was my 3rd car in two weeks and at the end of the day I just wanted something simple that would make the trip and I would sell in a few months. I bought the car the day prior to heading out on my trip.

I embarked on my trip cross country in the Cavalier.  I stopped in Winslow, Arizona to buy gas at a Lucky J and picked up a hitchhiker.  Her name was Melissa, she was heading to Albuquerque, NM to meet her boyfriend who was a fire fighter.  She had her dog with her too but I can’t recall it’s name at this point, all I remember was it was quiet and very well behaved.

I loaded up her hiking backpack in my car and we headed out.  She was cool, she gave me pointers on my trip, she had done something similar but only for a month.  I dropped her off at a gas station in Albuquerque and continued on, hoping to get to Amarillo, TX where I would spend the night.

Around 2:00am about 30 miles outside Albuquerque in between two small towns Edgewood and Moriarty a Mule Deed appeared out of the dark about 3 feet in front of me.  It has huge with 6 point horns and just stared at me.  I slammed on my breaks, just hoping that miraculously I would miss the deer but no such luck, I smashed into the deer and my airbags deployed on impact.  I was fully expecting to the crushed but didn’t feeling anything yet except the car spinning around.  I came to full stop in the middle of the freeway.  Gas from the airbags filled the car choking me and I would see two large semis in the rear view mirror honking at me to get out of the way. I grabbed the gear trying to pull it to drive so I would get out of the way before I was rolled over.  I tried to shift into drive but the gear was stuck.  I tried again and started shifting with force, mumbling a prayer because I didn’t want to die in the middle of nowhere where my family wouldn’t find me.  The honking of the semis got more desperate, I knew they couldn’t stop, there wasn’t enough space for them to break without hitting me.  Just in the nick of time the gear shifted and I moved off to the side off the freeway just as the semis sped past.

I opened the door and got out of the car, choking and coughing.  I couldn’t believe what was happening and I hoped it was all the dream.  I didn’t see the Mule Deer in the pitch blackness.  I looked at the car and the front windshield shattered but didn’t cave it, the hood was scrunched up and the radiator was broken, I could tell because there was liquid all over the road. I finally gathered my thoughts and went back into the car to get my cell phone and I dialed 911.

New Mexico at night is freezing cold and the cold started getting to me.  Coming from Los Angeles, I don’t even own a heavy coat.  I was also going into shock from the crash and with the combination of the cold and the shock I started shivering.  Paramedics and a horde of police car came to the scene.  They put me in the ambulance and started conducting all kinds of test to make sure I was OK.  I had burns on my hand and face from the airbags but nothing major.  A police officer told me with the size of the deer and the way it hit the glass I would have been dead. I am amazed and humbled at God’s protection.  The paramedics wanted to take me to the hospital but I vehemently refused, I just wanted to get on with my journey. They took me to the Mule Deer which was dead on the side of the freeway.  It was huge and was the size of a horse.

My car was towed to a yard and I was taken by an officer to a hotel.  It was the first time I was excited to get into a squad car.  I got to a Comfort Inn that was right off the historic Route 66 and the attendant felt so bad for me that he gave me a 60% discount on the room.  The next morning Jordan and her mom put me in touch with a woman who lived in Albuquerque. Her name is Betsy Cherry and she was my angel for the next few days. Betsy picked me up and we went to the tow yard to get my car.  The man at the yard was eager to declare the car totaled and at the point I was just thinking about how to get out of there.  It meant I would have to get a rental and then figure out what to do with the Chevy.

Moriarty is a tiny little town that has two BBQ restaurants, McDonalds, a truck strop  a bunch of trailers and was very drab and had a feel of those abandoned little towns that you often see in Slasher Flicks.  It is a miserable town and I am pretty sure I would go crazy if I stayed there more than a few days. Betsy found a mechanic in Moriarty, a native American, Nelvin and his son, Niko, they were Dine which is a smaller tribe under Navajo.  They were very nice and said they could patch up the car for 700 dollars instead of charging me at least 2000 to get the car fully put together.  I left the car there and Betsy bought me lunch and a hotel room. I was supposed to get the car in the morning the next day but didn’t.  I ended up spending the whole day at the shop before I finally got it back at 6:30pm.  I had a beat up car that I would use to get me to my next destination.

This trip allowed me to meet people that were selfless who made sacrifices to help me.  This entire Soul Rebel Journey is about the goodness of people and I was able to witness that first hand where I least expected it, in Moriarty, NM.  This is the silver lining in our world, regardless of all the hardship we may me going through or all the evil in the world, there are people that are still motivated by love, by the goodness that God has imparted in us. I am forever grateful to the people in Moriarty that helped me in a dark hour and to my family and friends that prayed for my safety and success.  This journey is just beginning and there is more love and selflessness left to be discovered.

Peace and Love.

We can’t go around saving the world or achieving our greatest dreams and neglect those that have been there for us.  We see it all times in the news with public figures when their lives unravel before our eyes.  The empire that is being built will come crumbling down overnight because it wasn’t built with the proper building blocks.  I’ll challenge people that whoever it is in your life that you need to make peace with go and do it now.  We all have those in our lives and it’s better to clear the air now because who knows what will happen in the future.  You don’t want that guilt holding on to you for the rest of your life.  It’s not worth it. Sometimes our loved ones need us to be a pillar in their life and we have to be there for them.  No matter how inconveniencing we think it is to us or the instability we feel in our lives we can manage to be that pillar for them it is worth it.  Not that we entertain hangers on, that’s not what I am talking about, I am talking about those that we feel genuinely need our support and love.

Life is about growing and becoming a better person, we achieve this in various stages in our lives.  Just like in school, you get passing grades and move to the next class, the same too in our life. If we skip grades it is going to come back and hunt us later.  Life is an imperfect process that revolves around people.  Sometimes we are wronged by those people or they didn’t develop our relationships the way we wanted them too whether it’s their fault or not but it is never too late to start.  If the other person doesn’t respond to your efforts of reaching out then that’s OK because at least you have peace knowing that when it was up to you, you did the right thing all that’s all you can ever do it life, is to do your best.

We are flawed in our own way and it’s the love that we have that makes us cope with those flaws, it covers over those imperfections. Reach out.  Regardless of what the circumstances are at least starting a dialogue is a good place to start.  Don’t hold up your blessings in life because of unfinished business because there is a hurt in your life that you can’t overcome.  Reach out and make it good, for the betterment of yourself and for the betterment of those that you love and deeply care about.

Peace and love.

I am going to have a price of all items along with shipping information, to pay for it, just go to my donation link, donate the amount of the item along with the shipping price and I will mail it out to you as fast as possible.  If all items in a picture are sold, I will take them off the gallery.

My actual yard sale is December 13th (this coming sundayy) at 4717 Ben Ave, right in front of the building 8:00am to 3pm.  Show up and buy something. Thanks for the support! You can pay for your items here:

CLICK HERE TO PAY

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BOOKS:

Freeze Tag – Caroline Cooney

The Beach House – R.L. Stine

Spellfall – Katherine Roberts

Leaving Fishers – Margaret Peterson Haddix

The Only Alien on the Planet – Kristen D. Randle

Two-Minute Mysteries – Donald J. Sobol

Pictures of Hollis Woods (2) – Patricia Reilly Giff

Cinderellis and the Glass Hill – Gail Carson Levine

Samir and Yonatan – Daniella Carmi

From Rags to Riches – Nathan Aaseng

More Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School – Louis Sachar

Question and Form in Literature – America reads

Criminalistics and Forensic Science – Richard Saferstein

Elemtary Statistics in Social Research – Jack Levin & James Alan Fox

Debating Crime – David W. Neubauer

Talents Trading – Imo-Abasi Jacob

American Corrections – Todd R. Clear & George F. Cole

West’s Business Law – Kenneth W. Clarkson, Roger Leroy Miller

American Government – Lowi & Ginsberg

Exploring Criminology – William J. Chambliss

American Government –

Gitelson, Dudley, Dubnick

Dream Girls (screenplay) – Bill Condon

Notes on a Scandal (screenplay) – Patrick Marber

The World’s Great Classics – Madame Bovary

Unintended Consequences – John Ross

The American Legislative Process and Congress and the States – Will J. Keefe & Morris S. Ocul

Social Psychology – Elliot Aronsons, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert

The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook – Joshua Pive, David Borgenicht

Frommer’s Comprehensive Travel Guide: Los Angeles 93-94

Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life – Robert Carson, James Butcher, Susan Mineka

Psychology – Margaret Matlin

Government Under Law – Da Capo

The Heart of the Artist – Rory Noland

Complete Works of William Shakespeare – William Shakespeare

The Camel Club – David Baldacci

The pH Miracle: Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health – Robert Young, Shelley Redford Young

A Peoples History of the United Stages – Howard Zinn (prob one my of my favorite books. Howard Zinn is one of my heroes)

Evidece That Demands a Verdict – Josh McDowell

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary

The Assassin – W.E.B. Griffin

From Script to Screen – Linda Seger & Edward Jay Whetmore

Thank You For Smoking (Screenplay) – Jason Reitman

Chasing Daylight – Erwin McManus

The Last Juror – John Grisham

The Summons – John Grisham

Daniel Silva – The Messenger

Three Weeks with My Brother – Nicholas Sparks & Micah Sparks

Hear No Evil – James Grippando

A King’s Ransom – James Grippando

The American Legislative Processs – 5^th eEdition

Revolution: The Call to Holy War – Michael L. Brown

The Art of Dramatic Writing – Lajos Egri

On The Edge: The Clinton Presidency – Elizabeth Drew

The Bible

The Associate – John Grisham

Assassin – Ted Bell

A Rumor of War – Philip Caputo

Power, Politics & Crime – William J. Chambliss

Judicial Process in America – Robert A. Carp, Ronald Sidham

The Physics of Sunset – Jane Vandenburgh

Boy Clinton: Political Biography – R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

A Civil Action – Jonathan Harr

Catch Me if You Can – Frank W. Abagnale

Seven Day Speed Reading and Learning Program – Evelyn Wood

Presidential Leadership: Politics and Policy Making – George Edwards & Stephen Wayne

Youth Devotions – Josh McDowll

How to Argue and Win Every Time – Gerry Spence

You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train – Howard Zinn

Killing Time – Caleb Carr

First in His Class: Biography of Bill Clinton – David Maraniss

The Plays from the Contemporary American Theatre

Biblical Basis of Missions – Avery Willis, Jr

The Elements of Style – William Strunk and E.B. White

Mosquito – Douglas Kurtz

The Cather in the Rye – JD Salinger (original print)

Wild at Heart – John Eldredge

Three Screenplays (The Trip to Bountiful, Tender Mercies, To Kill a Mockingbird) – Horton Foote

Screenplay: The Foundations of Writing – Syd Field

Blue Like Jazz – Donald Miller – SOLD

Declarations of Independence – Howard Zinn

The Testament – John Grisham

Squandered Gifts – Kim Napier

Network – Bruce Bugbee, Don Cousins

Purpose Driven Life – Rick Warren

Experiencing God – Henry Blackaby

Enough – Juan Williams

Homicide Special – Miles Corwin

Script Supervising and Film Continuity – Pat Miller

The Innocent Man – John Grisham

Letters to a Young Lawyer – Alan Dershowitz

The Prince – Machiavelli

The Hearing – John Lescroart

The Elements of Journalism – Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel

Boxman: A Professional Thief’s Journey – William J. Chambliss

Roget’s Thesaurus

The American Heritage Dictionary

The Case for Christ – Lee Strobel

Fasut – Goethe

The Street Lawyer – John Grisham

Hodges Harbrace Handbook

All Quiet of the Western Front – Erich Maria Remarque

Night – El Wiesel – SOLD

Messengers From Tibet and other Poems – Bhikshu Sanharakshita

The Constitution of America (this one is free just pay for shipping)

VIDEO GAMES:

Sega Superstars Tennis

Grand Theft Auto – PS2

Call of Duty – PS2

Prince of Persia – PS2

007 – PS2

Street Fighter Ex3 – PS2

VHS and DVDs:

The Opposite Sex

Your Name Here

Crushed

Stepember Tapes

Cathe

Pulp Fiction

Michael Jordan: Come Fly With Me

Apocalypse Now

Hotel Rwanda

Fight Club

The Hurricane – SOLD

In America

Gladiator (with Ridley Scott’s autograph)

Lord of War

House of Sand and Fog

Crash

The Departed

Dirty Pretty Things

Dog Day Afternoon

Greatest Moments in Super Bowl History

Ladder 49 – SOLD

The Aviator

Gods and Generals

Traffic – SOLD

Boiler Room

Collateral

Bullit

Bad Company

Seinfeld Season 4

Adaptation

American History x

Ali

25^th Hour

V for Vendetta

Inside Man

Entourage Season 1

Panic Room

The Village

The Pianist

Scarface (2 Disc Anniversary special) – SOLD

Saw 3

Rocky Box set 1-5 – SOLD

Serpico

Training Day

Out of Time

Minority Report

The Matador

The Magnificent Seven

Ocean’s Twelve – SOLD

Ocean’s Eleven – SOLD

Munich

Oscar

MISCELLANEOUS:

Thomas Guide: Los Angeles 2003

Scrap Book

Two and a Half Men picture frame

Two and a Half Men card deck

African Instruments – One drum SOLD

CLOTHING SOLD

Wooly Banana Republic Jacket

Brown Gap Jacket

Human beings tend to project our experiences on each other.  Sometimes subconsciously or sometimes not but you see someone else doing something that you never had the courage to do so you try to hang your albatross on their neck.  I want to challenge people to realize that if you don’t believe in yourself then no one will do it for you.  Life is about taking risks and making steps of faith and if you don’t believe in yourself there are many people out there that will be happy to make you believe lies that you are a failure and not capable of success (and I’m not necessarily talking about monetary success).

Luke 1:37 – For with God anything is possible. I truly believe that.  It is better to try something and not succeed than to not have tried at all.  There is nothing wrong with your plans not working out they way you thought, to me that’s not failure. Failure is being convicted of something and not doing it and making excuses for yourself.  We are all out on this earth for something and I dare to say that most of us are not doing it.  Most of us have created an alternate reality for ourselves and are existing in it.  We weren’t created to exist, we were created to live.

It’s time for a new way of thinking.  Human beings have a great capacity to achieve things but we have to accept it and somehow that seems to be the hardest part.  I like the Adidas slogan ‘Impossible is Nothing.’ Once we step out of that proverbial cage of self limitations, the opportunities are boundless. We have to protect our dream because even family members and friends will snatch it, unknowingly or not, their words create doubt but you have to protect yourself. Sometimes it is constructive criticism and we should be aware of that but sometimes it’s reckless words that attempt to snuff out your pilot light, protect your light because it’s just a matter of time till it shines.

Peace and Love.

Anyway so a few people have asked me about Soul Rebel and where I got the idea and all that. Some have questioned my insanity and if I am having personal issues and others have said they are inspired. I just want to set the record straight, I’m not crazy nor am I in a bad place in my life but in fact the opposite.  I have never felt more alive before and I know that Soul Rebel 365 is something I have to do. I have had the idea to do this for about 2 years now and I was waiting for the ‘right time’ to do this and I realized that there’s no right time.  If I was waiting for everything to align it would never happen, so I had to take a step of faith.

Soul Rebel 365 is not only a name of the book and the project but when this trip is all said and done I will turn it into a non-profit that helps lower income children get books and encourage them to read.  I believe that without an education and the ability to read poverty and hardship will continue to make strong inroads in our society.  I am dyslexic and if I didn’t push myself through reading and writing then it would have been harder for me to accomplish the things that I wanted to accomplish.

Soul Rebel 365 is going to have a hard time taking off if all of you don’t get involved.  I need every single person to be involved with marketing and donating. This is more than just a project idea but I envision it to be a movement for our generation to step up and take our respective communities and our worlds fate into our hands by empowering one another and lifting each other up. People matter, we are like a chain link fence our strength is in our numbers.

So basically LINK THURSDAY is something that I will ask you to do probably once a month and I will let you know when.  I am basically asking you to post this link www.soulrebel365.com on your Facebook page, Twitter, Myspace, Linkdin, Doostang or whatever social network you belong too.  If we blast the internet people have no choice but to pay attention.  I can’t do this alone and the more people that are involved the better.  I have 714 friends and if all of them participate and their friends and so on that’s an incredible force.  So please post www.soulrebel365.com on your page, it will only take a few seconds and we can get peoples attention.  I believe that God put us here for a reason and it’s not only to inflate our bank accounts. Each of us can impact at least one person and that’s a good place to start.

So THIS THURSDAY Post www.soulrebel365.com on your page and let’s get the world’s attention!

Peace and Love.