My past week has been both interesting and super-productive. 

## The Best Article I’ve Read This Week ##
<center> ![](https://i.imgur.com/09bE3vT.jpg) </center>

*“We won’t experience one hundred years of technological advance in the twenty-first century; we will witness on the order of twenty thousand years of progress (again, when measured by today’s rate of progress), or about one thousand times greater than what was achieved in the twentieth century.” - Ray Kurzweil*

Needless to say, [this article](https://medium.com/accelerated-intelligence/google-director-of-engineering-this-is-how-fast-the-world-will-change-in-ten-years-6f1e653b5374) written by Michael Simmons has my mind working overtime.  

Can you imagine twenty thousand years of progress in this century? 

What do you think the twenty-second century will look like? 

## Ephemera - A Call For Beta Readers ##
The new poetry manuscript, *Ephemera* is completely drafted, front matter and all. There are close to a hundred poems in total and most of them have been written during my Steemit/Hive blogging days. Ophelia is hard at work on the cover image and the collection is ready for beta-readers. 

**Specifics**
*If you think you have the time to read a hundred poems by May 23rd, point out any errors you find, and provide general feedback please email me at: ericvancewalton@gmail.com with subject heading "Beta Reader for Ephemera".*

I’ll be choosing five people from Hive, please only volunteer if you think you'll have time to dedicate to it and thanks in advance for volunteering!  Beta-readers are such a valuable piece to the self-publishing formula. Each will who are chosen will receive a paperback copy of the book. 

As I’ve been putting this book together and extracting poems from past blog posts I am absolutely blown away by all of the support I’ve received over the years.  Sometimes it still feels like a dream. 

## Memories ##
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Facebook is good for at least one thing, reminding older people of stuff. March 31, 2011 was the very first time I taught a meditation class. Talk about diving in with both feet, it happened to be a room of ninety people at the company I used to work for, Securian. I remembered how utterly terrified I was going into it but the euphoria after it was all over was well worth the worry. 

## Proof Of Spring ## 
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There aren’t leaves on the trees yet in Minnesota but these blue flowers are always the very first thing to bloom in the spring. What a welcomed sight. 

## VanMoof ## 
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I’ve put almost two hundred miles on this beast in the last few weeks and it can only be described in one word, amazing. VanMoof really hit a homerun with these machines. They are so much more advanced than 98% of other ebikes out there. 

I was making dinner tonight and the idea for the following poem hit me. I had to type it out on my phone in the midst of chopping vegetables before it drifted out my mind. Incase you're wondering, they allow you to name your bike in their app and SmoothMoof is what I named mine. 


**<center> SmoothMoof </center>**



<center> Slipping through 
the city 
on my S3. </center>



<center> The bike 
and my body, 
create an 
organic 
symbiosis, </center>



<center> As the line 
between 
them starts 
to blur,
it’s clear 
that the whole 
is, indeed, 
greater than 
the sum 
of its parts. </center>



<center> Pure joy is all 
I feel and 
the thrill of
a bionic rebirth...
if ever so briefly, 
undeniably closer 
to perfection. </center>



<center> ~EVW~ </center>

## Must Streams of 2021 ##

We found one more excellent series I’d like to share. [The Irregulars](https://www.netflix.com/title/80241581) on Netflix. 

https://youtu.be/lTE5MAGpflw

It’s set in Victorian London but has a very “Harry Potter-esque” vibe to it. It’s safe to say if you were into J.K. Rowling’s work and Sherlock Holmes' mysteries you’ll really be into this. 

All for now. 

 
 
 
 
 
With Gratitude,
 
Eric Vance Walton
 
(Gif sourced from Giphy.com) 
 
 


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<center> [![alt text](https://i.imgur.com/b5U8dqm.jpg?1)](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08PJPWK2W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) </center>

Most of us have experienced a moment of perfect peace at least once in our lives. In these moments we lose ourselves and feel connected to everything. I call these mindful moments. Words can’t describe how complete they make us feel. 

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# <center> Let’s Keep In Touch </center> #

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<center> [www.ericvancewalton.net](http://www.ericvancewalton.net) </center>
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