5.2.4 Core Report: OP Links and Abstracts for Capstone ALC

Link to OP 1a: Life & Career Review

Summary

 Through observation and selection, I design the story of my life through the lens of a permaculture project.  This output packet represents the assessment and visioning of the story of my life seen through the lens of Mollison's and Holmgren's principles.  I incorporate the metaphor of water -- embracing easeful flow -- as my primary objective: a balanced happy life mimicking nature.     I hope to discover and reveal myself as an observant learner and reflector creatively responding to life's opportunities.   I gain insight into patterns, tools and methods embedded in my personal and cultural mythologies.

 Key Outcomes

• Conscious reflection of where I have come to in my life
• Realization that I allow life to present the opportunities and I create the stories.  I am cultivating an active interest in activating life, creating my destiny through action rather than story.  
• Recognition that I write too often in the passive voice.  
• Assembled all of the certifications, organizations, degrees, etc. .  into the best resume/portfolio I’ve had in years. 

Link to OP 1B: Learning Intentions & Pathway Designs

Summary

The Learning Intentions and Pathway Designs outlines projects and goals that I aspire toward in my lifetime -- concentrating specifically upon this next year.   It includes a description of 3 projects I am currently undertaking, the 10 output packets I intend to accomplish in my Gaia U program and lists of skills that I both currently have and/or hope to develop.   There are several timelines (one specific to Gaia U OP's, one a general timeline for the next year including work and personal and other study).  There are several mindmaps and concrete next steps to achieve some of the goals I have and skills I hope to develop.  

Key Outcomes

• Spent part of the dark season of the winter soulstice intending in what direction I wished to point my life
• Good practice in creating timelines and summaries of projects (including my life) that I wish to design. 
• Good recognition of the many skills that I have and inspiration of so much I hope to do.  

Link to OP 2: Harvesting Health & Happiness in our personal ecosystem

ABSTRACT: Health is foundational for our experience of life.  There are dozens of billion dollar industries built around our collective experience of health.  I am using this OP to scale back, question modern day approaches and present key aspects  of health from the perspective of various traditions and my personal journey.  I will present a scale of Relevance to ask ourselves which aspects of our personal journey potentially require the most attention.  I will frame this design around a permaculture awareness of Zone 0 and personal health.   
  Many clients (massage, permaculture and catering) spend time while we are together gleaning my perspectives on various health questions.  My sense is that I radiate a thoughtful perspectives on lifestyle: work, travel, diet, exercise, personal practices, self care .   I am excited to create videos, slideshows, articles, classes and a website showcasing my unique perspective on health:  yoga, gardening, massage therapy, breathing, meditation, exercise, nutrition, massage, touch, herbalism,  nutrition, stress management, exercise, and herbalism.



KEY OPPORTUNITY:  Through good design utilizing my vast breadth of information on personal health, I have the capacity to share through articles, videos, and website my renaissance approach to living the good life in the 21st century.



IDEAL OUTCOME: Website, articles and classes prepared on various topics pertaining to personal health.  Personal practices developed and documented to gain more awareness toward my own personal health.   I would like to be employed as a Health/Life Coach.

Key outcomes:

• Embracing healthy cleaning supplies
• Increased awareness around my own exercise patterns including time of day and what I like to do.
• Refined stress management techniques. Incorporating social support and empowerment.
• Recognizing Patterns of Happy people -- primarily attitude and acceptance.
• Embodiment of play -- including unstructured outdoor play time.
• Greater connection on phone and digitally with friends and peers.
• Implementation of exercise, breath and meditation (the space existed and when teaching others “how to be happy” the greatest learning ended up independently recognizing “how to be happy” -  this is a corollary to what I have always said: that the greatest part of being i

Link to OP 3: Chocolate & Cordials & Curricula

Summary

ABSTRACT: This OP diverges from the previous two in focusing rather on a product rather than skills and information. I believe that people and relationship is the paramount experience of my life.  This being said, I am also interested in creating a line of products to share my knowledge and gifts beyond the scope of those I connect with personally.  As a chef and healer and a gardener, I realized that medicinal cordials and chocolates are a great place where healers intersect gourmands (especially when I grow and wildcraft the plants myself).  I am actively experimenting with herb blends in various mediums: alcohols, chocolates, fats, wines with different sweeteners and in different ratios to produce a wealth of medicinal and tasty treats. 
I was considering enrolling in a chocolatier program to enhance my culinary skills and I decided to forgo paying for more education and chose rather to enhance my design skills by designing my own curriculum based on the chocolates that I really want to explore.  In this way I am also able to play with more medicinal blends.   My hope and sense is that the art of tempering is something that one gains into their body after active experimentation and that my tuition money is better spent upon buying raw materials and making mistakes.
     I intend to design experiments to expand my awareness around chocolates and cordials.  This output will entail some readings, lots of rapid prototyping and tasting of chocolates and cordials.   Ideally good documentation follows my exploration of chocolates and cordials to begin some sense of repeatability.  In this output I have designed the opportunity to design a curriculum for myself in order to attain a skillflex/title of chocolatier that I aspire toward.  I have the opportunity for community input both in the fundamental desires and in tastings.

KEY OPPORTUNITY: Utilize my vast culinary and medicinal and gardening knowledge and passion to create products that I can share with the world and supplement my income.   Improve my ability for Rapid Prototyping and Active Experimentation as well as Design (the curriculum)

IDEAL OUTCOME: I hope to develop recipes and processes for 7-12 different cordials and chocolate treats.   I will then create a product line that I can begin to market.  I hope to also have a chocolatier curriculum program to share with others who may like to attain this skill.

Key outcomes

• Curriculum for Chocolate school
• Article on Magic of Chocolate: History, Botany, Nuturition, Production
• Article on How to Temper Chocolate
• skill of tempering chocolate
• understanding the emulsion of ganache
• understanding of sugar and alcohol and colors and timing on different flavorings
• 13 wonderful flavored chocolates: chocolate covered cherries, peanut butter nib cup, white or dark covered espresso beans, gran marnier ganache and candied orange in dark or white, triple ginger tantric ganache in dark chocolate, maca tahini cups, ghee maple caramel in white chocolate, bitter caramel and salt in dark chocolate, rosemary honey pyramids, bee bread hearts.
• 8 Cordials that I am inspired to continue production: love potion, circulatory tonic, nervine, jug of punch, cacao/honey, adaptogenic whiskey, chai whiskey, royal usquebeath.

Link to OP 4 Land Stewardship

OP ABSTRACT:   Good land stewardship practices are critical to the health of our species moving into the next generation.  The two primary functions of this OP run parallel:
to showcase Liam's skills as a  permaculture designer using the 1 acre homestead in which I have spearheaded the development for the past 8 years
to design and document new projects regarding water, soil and propagation Liam can implement during the winter pf 2015-2016.
The transformation entails from 2007 to the present day in Baja, Mexico, Liam's designs and implementations have transformed a cornfield into a beautiful garden oasis.  I intend to design the next step on this property while simultaneously creating classes on ways in which I have skills in land stewardship.  In previous OP's, I  have already presented upon the 100% solar energy of our land.  Much of the documentation for this project is videos and slideshows relating to the specifics of soil, seeds and plant propagation.  I aim to use this playground to create digitally media for future classes and my website.

OP KEY OPPORTUNITY: Document the significant development I have spearheaded in Baja and have video and digitally presentable information for future classes and building my website.   

OP IDEAL OUTCOME:  2 hour presentation keynote on soils, on seeds, on herbalism and a webpage on "Liam as Permaculture Consultant" highlighting soils, seeds and plant propagation.

Key Outcomes

OP Outcomes

• Clarity that all Output Packets have at least 2 designs embedded within them: the core report and the OP itself.
• I  am a designer.
• Use concise articulate language to tell people what I am telling them. (At university as an English major, the erudite patterns of metaphor and illusion revealed the meaning only to a select few.)
• I created templates and outlines to use in future OP’s.

Core Report Outcomes

• I created templates, recipes and feedback loops to use in future catering events.  
• Recognized that templates and automation are different design strategies responding to the iterative nature of the world. 
• Design feedback loops (for self and others when managing) to implement growth from the iterative nature of the design.
• Use concise articulate language to communicate with employees.  Create clear agreements. 

ABSTRACT: I find the learning reviews of Gaia to be quite valuable.  Last year, I stacked my learning review to include creating my website.  This year, I hope to stack my learning review to include the outline to an introductory book I hope to write on permaculture.  I want to stack the functions both with the content I have learned through Gaia and the inspiration to organize and present material well.  This will function at least to serve as a wonderful 2 hour presentation that I can give on the basics of permaculture to a general audience.

KEY OPPORTUNITY: Recognize learning patterns and reflect upon my master’s thesis development with Gaia University.

IDEAL OUTCOME: A synthesis weaving the learnings from my projects for my capstone year.  Potentially pulling together the many articles and videos into another presentable output entitled Permaculture Primer.