Stephen Embleton

 I was invited by the organisers of the 2013 Wild Talk Africa Film Festival to present on the topic of "Making Content for the Internet" in Durban on 25 July 2013. Stephen presenting at Wild Talk Africa on 25 July 2013 Stephen will be probing the audience to find out why they would embark on online video in the first place – the good and bad reasons. Then covering viral vs. value: differentiating between viral content and valuable content – the pros and cons of both. The importance of titles and thumbnails at grabbing attention of viewers. Choosing the right platform for an online presence and how You Tube and Vimeo differ in audiences. The value of listening to your audience feedback and drawing the line at internet trolls – damage control. Cultural and Geographic context – who your audience is, their culture, and where they are (access to internet) all affect consumption. Spendthrifts and Tightwads – just because it's online doesn't mean it has to look cheap or have...

Nelson Mandela, our father, delivered us into a free and democratic world. He held our hand as we learned to walk, stumbling in a land of rainbows and possibilities. He nurtured us and showed us our true potential. He taught us about morals and how to live up to our potential. He laid down the foundation that would be our guide as we grew toward adulthood: how to be a good, loving and just country; what it means to be kind to our fellow man. All the things that a parent gives a child to keep and protect them.

This adventurer had embarked on this mountain expedition, in one of the eastern countries, and he had noticed one of the older sherpas was looking very troubled. So when they had set up camp, on the fourth night, he finally got a chance to approach the man and ask him what was bothering him. The man came straight out with a question. A question which he had obviously had on his mind for some time. He asked, “Why are you going to the trouble of all this? Risking your life and others, and the expense of all this equipment? The adventurer was taken by this direct question, but nevertheless answered, “To climb one of the tallest mountains in the world.” At this the old sherpa looked away, puzzled. Thinking. Then he asked, “And what are you going to do when you get to the top of the mountain?”

Time is on my side. Time is a man-made concept. Time is simply the measure of change. Something was like this; then it changed/evolved/grew into this; and it took x amount of time to get there. Time is also measured in cycles. Ie. The length it takes for the Earth to turn around once. The length it takes for the Earth to complete a revolution around the sun. The seasons. Birth to death etc. Now, imagine a world without these visible cycles. Take the most important ones away – day to night to day. Pretend that you live in the North Pole, but instead of six months of daylight or six months of darkness, picture constant day. Forget about the environmental issues of having permanent daylight. All of a sudden there is no reference point to count seconds, hours, weeks, months or years. If you leave your cave and walk one thousand miles, you’ve walked one thousand miles. It didn’t take Time. It didn’t take a month or a year. All that happened was that you moved from point A to point B. This i...

The Power of prayer Prayer can mean different things to different people. Let’s break it down to its basic principles. If you are praying then you are usually asking for assistance (help me) or guidance (show me) with something. This is when you feel that you either don’t have the means or capability to help yourself or see the forest for the trees. This also means that you are asking someone outside of yourself, whether it is God or angels or ancestors. Prayer doesn’t normally mean that you’re talking to a close friend (or parent) in another part of the world. That’s what phones are for. Begging and pleading to a parent isn’t considered prayer anyway. But if we’ve eliminated God or any higher power in this section of our story, we have to then assume that you’re not praying to anyone. Nevertheless, pray we do. If you don’t then what do you do when you’re hanging from a cliff by the last thread on your rope, watching it steadily fray?  And as covered earlier, our main instinct i...

The natural world is filled with thousands and thousands of species of animals and creatures that do not care about what their purpose on our planet is. The simplest and most basic concept that every life-form IS concerned with is…   1. SURVIVAL That is all that any living being, sentient or stupid, is driven by. Life as we know it – animal or human – revolves around that simple Neanderthal principle. Add any meaning to that existence and you’re thinking like a human. If you are a living organism then your natural instinct, rational mind, or reflexes tell you to eat, breathe, defend, eat, breathe, defend. This is why suicide is so foreign to animals, but to us as human beings who get to think about it and justify it, it is an option. If we have been given life, it is our universal right and obligation to protect that like a well-guarded treasure.   2. PROCREATE Pro – in latin means ‘for’ or ‘in agreement with’. Being someone/something who is for creation. After we’ve (the an...

Now that we have proven that we are real, physical, and in a physical environment, let’s look at what is not physical. No, not what isn’t real. The Facts – Non-physical: You make something “good/bad” by giving your opinion about it. Yes, you really are thinking that this is crap. I think, therefore I am. We would like to think that that phrase in some weird way sums it up. OK. How about … what you think, is real to you. But, what others think, is merely opinion. Therefore it is assumed, and not fact. I had a dream that I was flying. Prove that I didn’t have that dream. Emotions are real. Tell a child that their hamster died.   And as I pointed out earlier, we are only interested in what we can reference as fact. What we think and feel can not be entered as something that is real. But on the other hand, what we express and how we express it is real. Therefore, emotions (although felt mentally) are expressed physically. Emotions are things that make people act or react in their own u...

“ Beliefs ” definition (Oxford): 1. the feeling that something is real and true, trust, confidence. 2. something accepted as true, what one believes. 3. religion, something taught as part of this, Christian beliefs. Now look at definition 1. I want a big red marker underlining and circling and starring the word “feeling”. Adding to the world’s conflicts: If we could ask you to think of a religious (not spiritual) belief that has not caused conflict at some stage in history…insert blank here. A true spiritual belief doesn’t feel the need to justify or get angry, doesn’t get your back up when argued against, and respects other’s individual beliefs. Now read definition 1 again. Isn’t that how it feels (or should feel) if you trust your beliefs? The definition doesn’t say something that you fight for. It doesn’t say something you judge others by. Religious dogma hinders spiritual progress. You cannot penetrate through the dogma or imposed belief systems to get to Spirit. Process: Let us st...