Church of Scientology Washington, D.C. – Night Shot

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Live Performance of L. Ron Hubbard’s Science Fiction Short “Tough Old Man”

Live Performance of L. Ron Hubbard’s Science Fiction Short “Tough Old Man”, originally uploaded by tadnkat.

This weekend, my wife and I attended another excellent performance of L. Ron Hubbard‘s Stories from the Golden Age at the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, DC.

Like the earlier performances I’ve written about, including LRH’s sci-fi short “Battling Bolto”, and the quite-entertaining performance of “One Was Stubborn”, the performance was a multicast audio reading of one of Mr. Hubbard’s stories from the 1930′s golden age of pulp fiction, and was done replete with lighting and audio effects to make it a rather immersive performance.    Author Services, the literary agent for Mr. Hubbard’s works, does a tour through the area once a year, and these performances are always a treat.

I’ve been listening to more and more of these stories lately, seeing as I have to take an 8-hour each-way road trip once per month for work, and audiobooks like these make an excellent trip companion.

If you want to get hold of this story itself, it’s one of the short stories in the book When Shadows Fall which you can get here.

Nice to See it Back in Action

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The new National Affairs Office, originally uploaded by tadnkat.

I snapped this pic on my way back to the Metro today. It’s awful nice to see the Fraser Mansion back in action as the new Church of Scientology National Office. I’ve got so many fantastic memories of being on staff there – I know virtually every square inch of that building. Well, at least I used to. The renos in the building for its new purpose as a meeting ground for all of the Church’s social betterment programs has definitely changed a few of the spaces.

An Evening in the Scientology Academy

Church of Scientology of Washington D.C., Academy Signage, originally uploaded by tadnkat.

Probably one of my favorite parts about the Scientology religion is that one of the main practices of the religion itself involves one simply studying the basic texts of the religion, and working out for oneself how it applies to one’s life.

I never know what it is I’m going to get out of it when I sit down and study. Last night, it led me to this article which I posted today. Sometimes it’s something entirely unexpected that I come to have an understanding of that ‘s just been bugging me personally. But it’s always quite personal — just me and a book, or in the case today – me and a lecture by Mr. Hubbard. I’m not being told what to think or how to think, but am able to work out for myself how some very basics concepts of life fit together.

Like I said in a question & answer post I gave to a college student – one of the things I like best about being a Scientologist is that it provides a constant & steady path for enhancement – a way to be able to learn about life and turn around and apply that to the normal problems of living. I’m nowhere near perfect as a husband, a daddy, a sys admin, or as a member of my town, but little by little, I’m trying to fix the imperfections I can see I have – and that’s pretty satisfying.

Live Performance of L. Ron Hubbard’s “Battling Bolto” at the Founding Church of Scientology Washington, D.C.

L. Ron Hubbard Stories from a Golden Age Reading of “Battling Bolto”, originally uploaded by tadnkat.

My wife and I (as well as my daughter) were treated to another good time at our church this weekend – this time care of an amazingly-professional performance of the L. Ron Hubbard sci-fi short-story entitled “Battling Bolto”.

Unfortunately, unlike last year’s live perfomance, I forgot to bring my DSLR, so the only photo I could take of it was from my lowly BlackBerry Curve.   But the performance itself, held in the chapel of the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C, was just as excellent.

Author Services has been working to release the full array of  L. Ron Hubbard’s short stories – both as illustrated books, but also as high-quality audiobooks.  It’s the audiobooks that I, personally, have been most fond of – as they’re all told by  not a single voice, but by multiple actors and replete with outstanding sound effects.   Before the performance, we were treated to a demonstration of what goes into making the audiobooks – the actors, the sound effects, the attempts to find sounds that can instantly communicate what’s happening without one having any visual to go along with it except what’s in your head.

And the story itself, “Battling Bolto” is one that one can now get as part of the L. Ron Hubbard paperback entitled When Shadows Fall.   The story is about a hulking man from another world, Bolto, who is duped into being whisked away by a traveling con man who travels from planet to planet selling his wares.

I already am a subscriber to these Golden Age Stories (i.e. I get a new one monthly when they come out) but seeing the performance in person is a real treat.

Scientology Church & Activities in DC on Flickr

Scientology Church & Activities in DC, a set on Flickr.

I was actually originally just posting this to test out Flickr’s new set-sharing feature, where you can directly share a whole Flickr set on WordPress with one button-press. Quite brilliant, I think.

This is my catch-all set of various activities I’ve had in & around the Church of Scientology in Washington, DC.

Via Flickr:
Photos & Video of the new Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, DC, as well as associated activities in & around the new Church.

Why I am Proud to Support the International Association of Scientologists

“What is the IAS?”

There’s a question I get asked quite often when I’m wearing my shirts that state I’m a member of the International Association of Scientologists, one I’m bound to get asked all the more often now that my family are all Patrons of the Association.

“What’s that?”

One fellow that I did web engineering with saw me wearing a shirt with a torch on it that said, “Crusader” and said, “Crusader – I think I’ve heard of those guys.”  – thinking it was a vendor we worked with.

No, folks, I proudly sport those shirts because I’m a contributing member of the International Association of Scientologists – something I’m extremely proud of.

The IAS is the official membership organization of the Scientology religion, being made up of individual Scientologists who truly want to change conditions on this planet for the better.  The purpose of the International Association of Scientologists is:

To unite, advance, support and protect the Scientology religion and Scientologists in all parts of the world, so as to achieve the aims of Scientology as originated by L. Ron Hubbard.

Now, in practical terms, here’s what IAS members do, and what the IAS as a whole accomplishes, which I’m very much a supporter of:

The Volunteer Minister Program:

Scientology Volunteer Ministers

One program that the IAS supports that I’ve been intimately involved in is the Scientology Volunteer Minister program.  I’ve worked personally to get volunteers out to disaster sites like after the earthquakes in Haiti, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, Chinese earthquakes, Hurricane Katrina, and others.   Volunteer Ministers are known for their ability to calm down & bring order to disorderly surroundings, and to also thereby work hand in hand with disaster response forces to clean up these major disaster sites.  But also, those same principles that make Scientology Volunteer Ministers effective in major upheavals also make them effective in smaller disasters – like kids with bonked heads, parents with upsets, or children needing to study better.  It’s such an effective program that gets such excellent results, that I love supporting it.

Reflecting on Being a Scientology Church Staff Member

Taken in my office at the Founding Church of Scientology, shortly after I started on staff.

The amazing surge of life & activity in and around the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C. these days has inspired me to write a bit on my time as a Scientology staff member, one of the most amazing periods of my life which I’ll cherish forever.

In an absolutely futile attempt to encapsulate the experience in a few words, I’ll say this: My time as a Scientology staff member was easily the most fun, the most challenging, rewarding, and the most life-changing experience I’ve ever undertaken. And I say that with no qualifiers, and no exceptions.

That obviously begs the question of “why”.  That, unfortunately takes a bit longer to express, but if you’ll bear with me, I’ll attempt to articulate.

Prior to my being on staff, I had a life which (I say now in retrospective) was a bit flat and purposeless.  I had gotten a string of excellent IT jobs that made great money, and had no problem, really, acquiring any car, computer, vacation, or other worldly item I wanted.  However, my activities were unpleasantly self-oriented, and I knew that.  There’s only so much gratification one can get from helping oneself, and oneself only.

Once one has a great car, a nice house, all the computer equipment one could ask for, and a body in good health, one sort of realizes that there’s got to be a bigger game – and a cooler one too that doesn’t just involve oneself.

My then-fiancee, now wife of 11 years, at the Scientology New Year's party 2000.

I then started dating a girl (now my wife of 11 years) who was a staff member at the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, DC.  After weeks of observing her and the fun she was having as a staff member, I decided to take a break from computer networking and take up a position on staff at the Church.

I honestly had no idea the number of changes that would make in me, all of them changes for the better.

To sum up a few points:

• I was able to make a real difference in an organization providing honest, effective help to others. I couldn’t begin to count up the vast numbers of saved marriages, saved careers, happier families, smarter kids, more effective businessmen, and empowered individuals that I personally witnessed when on staff in DC.   Week in and week out, there was just person after person, helped individually with whatever it was that was most ruining their life.The work I personally did was mainly with personnel, seeing to it that there were people there to do the work, that they knew their jobs, that they were happy at it, and could be effective at it.  Made it all the more fun when areas of the organization I helped establish then went on to create products like those mentioned above.
  

  Helping out my dad, also staff at the Founding Church, grooving him in on one of his organizational duties.

• It was immensely challenging. I had done things before which I felt were challenging, but nothing compared to this.  The job I walked into required I learn how to do virtually every job in the organization, and to understand in detail how each part of the Church contributes to the whole.  As such, it wasn’t until I stepped on staff that I really started to get an idea of my own limitations and how far I could really push myself – how fast could I learn, how fast could I adapt to something new, how effective could I be, etc.I think any staff member knows exactly what I’m talking about, and anyone who hasn’t yet tried it just plain won’t know until you do.
• Oh, my good lord, is it just the most FUN group to work with. I can’t emphasize enough how much fun it is to work with a positive, energetic-beyond-comprehension, gung-ho group of folks who each of them came on board to work with the Church for the right reasons – to make the planet a better place one individual at a time.

Founding Church of Scientology Staff - Circa December 1999

It’s that last part I’m reminded of constantly now that I get to rub elbows with the Church Staff here on a regular basis.  They are the most caring, fantastic, outrageous, amazing people I’ve ever known, people that I am just utterly proud to say are my friends.

I Love My Local Church of Scientology

 

Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, DC, Embassy Building, Night, originally uploaded by tadnkat.

Any of you who are remotely close to me (or who follow my Flickr updates) know that I recently had my second child, a bubbly baby boy. And whilst the story of how he came into the world is a somewhat colorful one (one I’ll record for posterity on my Scientology Parent site), I just wanted to take a few seconds to just say how much I appreciate the support I’ve had from my friends – the staff at the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C.

It was heartwarming to have such a group of caring, spirited, and genuinely thoughtful folks there at the Church – who at every turn have been thinking with how to make this baby be as trouble-free and as comfortable as possible for my wife and I.

Starting with an incredible Scientology pregnancy assist program which relieved a LOT of stress for my wife, and proceeding through visits at home, and even a box sent to us at the hospital full of goodies for the new baby.

It was just so thoughtful and helpful all along, that it just makes me glad to be a part of the Scientology community here and have friends who actually care about us.

So, thanks again from my wife and I – I really love you guys.