In this first session of our new series The Evolution of Ideas, we explore and discuss the evolution of ideas in stories and storytelling through time. We talk about myths, fantasy, magical realism, science fiction, and speculative fiction.

This session was recorded on Feb 25, 2025 in 4 parts, by Bevan Bird and Dick Bird.

Mature audiences only, listener discretion is advised.

We will add more information here, with a list of the novels, stories or art we mention.

Click these links to listen to each part.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

About the speakers

Bevan Bird is a multi-disciplinary artist (creative writer, poet, visual artist) exploring the evolution of ideas in storytelling, visual art and inventions. He’s passionate about the role of imagination and invention in creating a better future for humanity. He encourages people to let their self be their self, do what comes naturally to them, and go at their own pace. He intuitively guides people to find their authentic voice as a creative artist, connect with their infinite creative nature, and get in touch with their essential self, wisdom and values so they can live a more fulfilling life. He’s worked as a surveyor, programmer, social media coach, AI artist, self-healing catalyst, teacher and crypto trader. He enjoys nature, reading, making art, surfing, trying new things, improvising, talking with smart and funny people, wintering in the tropics and above all witnessing people reclaim their power as a creative force of nature in their own life. He lives in Princeton, BC, Canada.

Dick Bird is a storyteller and writer who believes in the great importance of individual autonomy, that man is part of nature, and that hilarity is the key to reality. He is a treasure in hard times. He was a British Army sergeant, E.S.L. teacher, kayak instructor, and children’s caretaker, but he’s most well known for guiding whitewater kayaking adventure tours through Mexico and Central America. He has a B.A. in English from Simon Fraser University. Born in the UK in 1934, his father wanted him to continue the stationery business he started in London but he chose his own path: farming. After emigrating to Canada in 1955, he worked as a taxi driver and later raised his own pigs (and children) on his farm in Canada. He has read some of his poetry on the CBC, Canada’s national radio station. He wrote more than 80 short stories, 19 of which have been published in magazines. His story “Some Observations of Comparative Intelligence” won Grain Magazine’s Non-Fiction Prize in 1999. Some of his stories are based on his life and they reveal deeper meaning upon reflection. Others are based on his night dreams which he feels compelled to share. He’s also been telling his stories off the cuff (unscripted, uncensored, spontaneous, and sometimes hilarious audio recordings are available) which include The Golden Horn of Youth, Cenotes of the Yucatan Peninsula, Agua Azul, Three Narrow Escapes, Magic Mountain, A Couple of Religious Experiences, and A Click Too Late.

I taught a new class on increasing your creativity and bringing more creativity and imagination into your AI art creation. The first segment is available to everyone for free.

You can purchase the full class here.

About this class

Here’s what I love about creating AI art… it’s fun, it’s joyful, it’s a way to express my creativity which makes me feel more fulfilled, and by feeding my mind and soul with beauty I uplift myself and raise my frequency, making my whole life better!

In this class I share my joy of creating AI art with you so you can do the same with your own inspired ideas.

This class is for people who want to:

• use Midjourney to create unique and stunning creations
• unleash infinite creativity in your AI Art
• gain inspiration
• become more creative every single day
• quickly become an expert in art history
• become a prompt writing master
• have more control over the resulting images
• be one of the first to use the latest Midjourney features.

The class includes three and a half hours (210 minutes) of recorded teaching videos, and notes that include resources, lists of art styles, lists of artists, and a number of sample prompts from the class.

There are endless ways you can use what you learn in this class, for example:

You’ll have a lot of fun creating your own art.

You’ll feel so good when you give a gift of your own art to a loved one and make them feel loved and special.

The art you create can be the basis of products you can sell online over and over. Coloring books, t-shirts, poster, mugs, oracle cards, etc.

You can purchase the full class here.

Course Content

Segment 1

0:30 – A creative morphing of art
1:00 – Some more examples of creative art
1:25 – How creativity flourishes
1:40 – Inspiration, what it is, where it comes from (your infinite creative nature), some ways to open yourself up to receive more inspiration
3:55 – What I love about creating AI art and why
4:35 – Continued: Inspiration – some ways to open yourself up to receive more inspiration
5:35 – Inspiration via nature
5:45 – Inspiration via art created by others
6:25 – Inspiration via online images
6:50 – Inspiration via other artists
7:40 – Inspiration via descriptive language in literature
8:18 – The importance of feeling free to create and not judging your creations, but rather appreciating them
8:40 – Inspiration via nature – example: create a creature based on a photo of a flower
13:20 – Documentation for Midjourney, info on prompts, commands, parameters, using the tools
14:40 – Style reference (–sref) example
20:45 – Settings
21:05 – High variation mode and low variation mode
24:50 – Two image upscaling softwares
26:10 – Updates from Midjourney – latest features
31:00 – How to customize weight of reference image(s) in the prompt relative to text

Segment 2

0:20 – Two ways to change the style: style reference (–sref) and describing the style with text
1:20 – How to access all the information about an image you previously downloaded from Midjourney
2:25 – Example of describing the style with text
4:15 – Example of experimenting with different ways of describing the style you want with text and reviewing the results
8:40 – How to view your most recent creations in Midjourney
12:35 – Using the describe command to have the AI describe an image in text, describing the subject of the image and the style
24:20 – Example of changing part of an image with Vary Region

Segment 3

1:55 – Example of using the blend command to combine two or more images without needing to write any description
24:00 – Continue morphing the painting of mountains in the style of Van Gogh

Segment 4

0:00 – I show you some of my creative and imaginative art I made in the past
4:35 – A way to come up with more creative ideas for your art
5:20 – A large list of styles of art, which you can re-combine as you wish
6:40 – Another way to be creative: combine the styles of different artists
7:20 – A great resource for learning about artists and art

Segment 5

0:00 – Example of creating some new art inspired by photos of nature and an idea

You can purchase the full class here.

Using AI art or image generation, I was able to take my NFT art collections to a higher level, and create more art, at higher quality, more quickly.

In the same way as in this post, and by adding a helper Python program with a graphical user interface, I was able to efficiently extract the position, scale and rotation (transformation) parameters of how I manually custom-positioned the cartoon cheetah in Inkscape over each AI-generated background image (generated using Midjourney), and then the metadata (in this case the path to each background image and the transformation code from the SVG to position the cheetah layer) is used by the Python program that creates each SVG and calls Inkscape to convert it into a PNG file, populating a folder ready for upload to IPFS.

I created the art samples here in late 2022.

By creating different drawing elements on different layers, we (you or I) can run a Python script that separates the SVG code for that layer into a separate file, which is named based on what was drawn on that layer.

Then we can programmatically recombine different drawing elements, in the right order so that closer objects appear in front of more distant ones (by setting “height” values for each layer in general) and generate art for an entire collection of NFTs using randomness.

My Python program calls Inkscape to convert each newly-created SVG file into a PNG, populating a folder, ready for upload to IPFS.

Some example images from one project in late 2021 are below.

Deformation Monitoring Surveys are one of the types of surveys I specialized in. This is a one page procedure outline that may be helpful to surveyors performing deformation monitoring surveys with a total station, using resection and stakeout to report coordinate differences in real time in the field:

Monitoring Survey Procedure With Differences Reported in Real Time in the Field

Deformation Monitoring Surveys are one of the types of surveys I specialized in. This is the technical report I wrote in 2009 while attending the British Columbia Institute of Technology, studying Geomatics Engineering Technology, where I graduated with a Bachelors of Technology with Distinction in 2009 and was the top student in the School of Construction and the Environment, earning 13 awards or scholarships in total from 2005-2009:

Analysis of Survey Point Displacements Using Total Station Measurements

I loved this conversation!

Dan Teck encourages us to look and see the goodness in the people around us!

Who is Dan? He helps you create Your Soulful Book and co-authored Goodness Abounds and other inspirational titles.

We will find out why Dan and Jodi Chapman create soulful books, and Goodness Abounds in particular. And much more goodness!

Click here to learn more about Your Soulful Book

Click here to get the book Goodness Abounds and the bonus gifts if they are still available

This interview was recorded on Nov. 14, the day Goodness Abounds became a #1 Bestseller on Amazon!

Dan Teck is an author, coach, and Law of Attraction practitioner. He and his wife, Jodi Chapman, are the co-creators of the bestselling Soulful Journals Series and the 365 Book Series (including the most recent title in this series, Goodness Abounds), as well as  Your Soulful Book, a heart-centered writing program. Since 2005, Jodi and Dan have been living their dream of creating books, online communities, courses, and other products that inspire others to connect with their soul and live fully and passionately. Dan has a BA in Religious Studies from Vassar College and  an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. He and Jodi live on the Oregon coast, where they enjoy hanging out at the beach; spending time with their cats; and working, creating, and playing together.

The purpose of Soul 2 Soul Talks is to inspire and encourage people to live their dreams and be their true soul self. Thank you for watching

Please let us know what you think, and please share with your friends to brighten someone’s day!

Bevan

Can a subtle shift in focus really make that big of a difference in your business and in your income?

Our guest says, “Absolutely, yes!”

This interview was a lot of fun! Listen in here:

Download mp3

About today’s guest:

Bob Burg is a sought-after speaker at company leadership and sales conferences. He regularly addresses audiences ranging in size from 50 to 16,000. He has shared the platform with notables including today’s top thought leaders, broadcast personalities, Olympic athletes and political leaders including a former United States President.

He is coauthor of the international bestseller, The Go-Giver and Go-Givers Sell More and author of Endless Referrals and numerous other books (more than a million copies sold in total). The Go-Giver has been translated into 21 languages.

His newest book is Adversaries into Allies: Win People Over Without Manipulation or Coercion.

Bob is an advocate, supporter and defender of the Free Enterprise system, believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to how many people they serve. He is also an unapologetic animal fanatic, and serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors of Furry Friends Adoption & Clinic in his town of Jupiter, Florida.

You are welcome to visit Bob’s website www.Burg.com and immediately download Chapter One from his international bestseller The Go-Giver as well as Adversaries into Allies and receive lots of other value-added resources.

Last spring, in Van Dusan Gardens, here in Vancouver (Canada), I was honoured to get the opportunity to interview and film Sri Tathata (with his interpreter). He is an authentic Master or Sage of South India.

Inner Awakening! Exclusive Interview with Sri Tathata… Watch the video here:

In the video, I ask a question at 6:40. It’s so great to see them laugh!

The question that was asked before this video started was “There are a lot of inequalities in this world, [Sri Tathata] mentioned earlier that if we see suffering, we should help those in suffering. I wanted to know if taking action such as going to a protest or chanting and meditation is more effective in creating change, or should we do both?”

The answer is Inner Awakening! Have an inner awakening.

Whatever question you ask, that is the answer. To connect with others, connect with yourself. That is, your higher Self. Source.

Abide as the True Self, as Ramana Maharshi says.

I was given the opportunity to film, record and participate in this interview with an enlightened master of India, by Alice Zhou, President of Gracious Host Events. Thank you.

Alice Zhou said, “Great job capturing this, Bevan!  Thanks for your loving presence and open mind to this timeless wisdom.”

Here is a video which my friend – a very wise and successful businessman – who helped me shift my state (vibration) when I was in a low place financially and energetically in 2012 – he shared this video with me so that it would be easy to discern if a spiritual teacher was a true teacher or a fake. (This is because spiritual entrepreneurs, spiritual teachers, transformational coaching are kinds of people I connect with and collaborate with. He was looking out for my best interests. Which is what we should all do for others. Communicate with love.)

Ramana Maharshi is the guru of my friend’s guru. Enjoy.

There is a place of perfect peace within you.

That reminds me, another video which is good for returning to the “safe island of mindfulness” is this one…

I was looking at this post and wanted to extract the list to make a summary. I didn’t want all the explanation of each point, just a list of the numbered points.

I figured I would show you one way I do this with Excel. This would be more of a time-saver when you’ve got a bigger list.

I use Windows, by the way.

1. Copy the entire text of the article and paste into Notepad. Now Select-all (CTRL+A) and copy (CTRL+C). This is to get rid of formatting so we have plain text.

2. Open Excel. Paste in cell A1.

3. In Cell B1 enter: =IF(ISNUMBER(VALUE(LEFT(A1,1))),A1,””)

4. Drag the small black square in the lower right corner of that cell down to the bottom of the article, so that all the text lines in A1 will be parsed.

5. Right-click on the B column header, and click Copy.

6. Right-click on the C column header, and press V. This pastes Values only,

7. Left-click on the C column header to select the column.

8. Click Sort and Filter, Custom Sort, Continue with the current selection, Sort. Sort by: Column C, Sort on: Values, Order: A-Z

Good to go! Result:

12 Duties of a Social Media Manager
1. Implements a social media strategy
2. Manages social media sites
3. Engages in dialogue and monitors customer issues
4. Monitors trends and encourages adoption of social media tools
5. Searches for news/articles to post
6. Implements social media campaigns
7. Manages social media campaigns
8. Write blog articles
9. Uses social networking analysis tools
10. Monitors internet for brand related topics of conversation
11. Provides feedback to higher ups
12. Promotes social media within the organization