Ocean

Boating

Fishing

Santa Catalina Island

My family has come to Catalina for vacations and outings for many years. My dad was always a scuba diver hunting for lobsters or yellowtail and white Seabass.￼￼
I recently got scuba certified and now I get to explore the underwater world. It is really quite phenomenal and words don't do it justice.￼ 
A dream of mine is to go to the Galápagos Islands and snorkel or scuba with the only ocean-going lizards, the marine iguanas.

<h1>Here we have a Mola Mola, or Ocean Sunfish.</h1>
<h2>The guy was just chilling on the surface of the ocean warming its body with the sunlight. I'm surprised that it totally didn't mind that we drove up to it. It looked so care free.</h2>

Here we have some dolphins swimming with the boat. This is actually common and something they do to play. Dolphins are really such majestic creatures. It never gets old.￼￼

Magma makes every moment matter. Create digital, mini-magazines to share your life’s greatest experiences.

Trips to Catalina Island — @undefined's mag on Magma

Agriculture

Food

Mental Health

Nature

The Learning Garden

Venice Story : The Learning Garden

<h1>About the Garden</h1>
The Learning Garden was launched in March of 2001. Since then it has quickly become one of the country’s largest and most successful school gardens.
The Learning Garden is a model example of how school gardens can transform the lives of students and teachers and the environment of their community. For several years, many groups worked with the high school horticulture program to transform the 60,000 square foot plot of land into a garden, but due to lack of stronger community support it remained mostly an eyesore filled with trash, overgrown with weeds, and a magnet for vandalism. 
Today, the agricultural plots are filled with organic food grown by the high school students. Health-related classes such as tai chi, qigong, and natural food cooking are offered on its large stone patio. The garden has a large medicinal plant section for educational purposes, a pond with a water garden and waterfall, and a California native plant and cacti garden. 
A community garden is tended by local volunteers, and numerous groups and organizations use and support the garden.

<h1>The Experience </h1>
<h2>Connecting to Nature</h2>

The Learning Garden is much more than a garden. For the students of the high school it is an opportunity to be closer to nature, a place to learn about respecting the environment and taking care of plants and animals. 
For the teachers it is a place of solace. For the community it is a place of visual beauty. For those who have dedicated thousands of hours to making the inspiration of the garden a reality, it is a joyful and fulfilling accomplishment. 
For all who come, whether to a single event or as a regular volunteer, The Learning Garden is a remarkable and unique place that touches something deep in the heart and soul.

Since the first groundbreaking ceremony, The Learning Garden has received ongoing support and assistance from many generous benefactors and hard-working volunteers. The garden was founded by Julie Mann and David Crow. 
The Garden Master is David King. The Horticulture Program at Venice High School is taught by Diane Pollock. 
Students from Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine have played a major role in the development of the Chinese medicinal herb garden, and the school holds regular classes and events at the garden. 
The Agape Spiritual Center is actively involved in regular work days and special projects at the garden. 
The UCLA Horticulture Department teaches its extension program at The Learning Garden. 
Students from Emperor’s College of Traditional Chinese Medicine contributed to the development of the herbal database.

LAUSD began constructing a new STEM building for the school, and unfortunately they required the garden space for construction vehicles and trailers. This caused the relocation of many plants and had a pretty big impact on the soil ecosystem.
After construction, the Venice Learning Garden and its volunteers were tasked with soil remediation. The soil was packed down and stagnant throughout the year plus of construction. It was finally time to regrow and revitalize the soil and bring back the beauty out of a barren field.

The progress we have made to rejuvenate the soil and bring life back to the garden has been profound and a delight to watch.
We let the wild￼ Alfalfa grow to bring nitrogen back into the soil along with many other variety of naturally growing plants.
We did not till the soil, we let the weeds and other hearty plants to naturally break up the compact soil, which allowed for aeration and microorganisms to flourish with the incoming oxygen.

Some of the plants we use to remediate the soil are sunflowers, red clover, fennel, alfalfa, and wild mallow.￼ 
Fennel brings Black Swallowtail butterflies to the garden to hatch their eggs on. The caterpillar you see above is one of their offspring that love to munch on the fennel.
It is truly fascinating to watch this natural phenomenon and the presence of these critters really brings you into the moment and just for a moment, you're not thinking about anything, just pure presence with a sense of awe.

<h1>Keep the Garden Growing</h1>
The Learning Garden is a living classroom and a place of sanctuary. We invite you to get involved in the ongoing work that supports this project. There are many ways to participate, from volunteer gardening to donations. Together, we are building a healthier future for the students and the community.
<h2>Volunteering </h2>
If you would like to come to the garden to volunteer your time and effort in keeping us growing, we take volunteers 12pm-3pm on Saturday and Sundays. 
We welcome all people from all walks of life, just wear some shoes and apparel you don't mind getting dirty!
Location: 13000 Venice Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90066
Venice High School Where Walgrove and Venice meet (Access from Walgrove)

<h1><a href="http://www.thelearninggarden.org/donate/">Make a donation!</a> </h1>
Checks should be written to The Learning Garden, and mailed to Julie Mann, 2454 Louella Ave, Venice, CA 90291. 
To make a donation by PayPal, click the “Make a Donation” link above. The Learning Garden appreciates your support and thanks you for your generosity! 
Financial contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

The Venice Learning Garden — @undefined's mag on Magma

Music

Culture

<h1>Bio</h1>
Fusing his hip hop roots with lush and experimental electronic composition, CharlestheFirst has developed a danceable style steeped in dreaminess and pyschedelia. Born in 1996 in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Charles has been heavily influenced by nature and the adventure that coincides with it.

<h1>CHARLESTHEFIRST TELLS A STORY THROUGH ATMOSPHERIC BASS ALBUM, 'THE ASCENT'</h1>
<a href="https://edmidentity.com/2019/01/06/charlesthefirst-the-ascent-album-review/">EDM Identity</a> written by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/cristiaan_b/">Cristiaan Broderick</a>

CharlestheFirst combines nature and music to create the journey that is his second full-length album, The Ascent!

Charles Elias Ingalls, more commonly known as left-field bass music producer CharlestheFirst, released his second full-length album, <a href="https://edmidentity.com/2018/12/22/landing-volume-098/">The Ascent</a> last week. Over the last several years, the Lake Tahoe-based producer has steadily cemented his position as a pioneer of modern bass music.
Much of CharlestheFirst’s discography is embellished with found sound and other foley that add natural texture and ambiance to his pieces. The Ascent is no exception. The manipulation of all this ear candy in conjunction with fluid basslines, ethereal pads, and soft plucks create a very compelling soundscape. The SoundCloud genre tag is “storytelling,” which is fitting; like its title implies, the album is a journey.
While each track is capable of standing on its own, the album really shines when listened through in full.
CharlestheFirst takes conventions of bass music and flips them on their heads, delivering bass-centric tracks that seldom compromise melodic interest. The album showcases creative integrity that a lot of bass music leaves to be desired.
The emphasis placed on nature and its inherent adventure is a salient characteristic of the album. It’s beautiful and humbling, unpredictable and mysterious.
The 11-track album runs just under 38 minutes, with no individual track that’s longer than five minutes. That being said, there is a lot of atmosphere and movement packed into these songs, so I’m going to walk through the album and some of its highlights.

Charles the First at Enchanted Forest 2017

I first saw CharlesTheFirst live￼ at a festival in Humboldt County called <a href="https://instagram.com/enchantedforestgathering?utm_medium=copy_link">Enchanted Forest</a>. After that experience, I had a burning desire to listen to his music and see him perform more exquisite sets such as that one I saw.￼
Pictured in the above video you can watch a flow dance performed during his set at Enchanted.
Below you can watch a video I took myself at a CharlesTheFirst show in November 2019 in Los Angeles.

I wanted to get a tattoo that symbolized my love for bass music. So I decided to get my favorite festival's emblem the Shambhala owl, representing the Shambhala Music Festival, morphed with the bass drop, and CharlesTheFirst's crown on top.￼￼ 
Bass music has allowed me to find a flow to life in so many different ways, from writing code, to dancing, to just pondering life itself.￼ It brings an energy that no other music can manifest. The best aspect to underground electronic bass music such as CharlesTheFirst is the experimental and rather abstract sounds expressed. In my humble opinion, there's no other genre with the same amount of freedom to explore sounds.

CharlesTheFirst - A Young Pioneer of Experimental Bass Music — @undefined's mag on Magma

Health

<h1>Today's idea remains the central thought on which salvation rests. </h1>
For healing is the opposite of all the world's ideas which dwell on sickness and on separate states. Sickness is a retreat from others and a shutting off of joining. It becomes a door that closes on a separate self and keeps it isolated and alone.

Sickness is isolation. For it seems to keep one self apart from all the rest to suffer what the others do not feel. It gives the body final power to make the separation real and keep the mind in solitary prison, split apart and held in pieces by a solid wall of sickened flesh which it can not surmount. The world obeys the laws that sickness serves, but healing operates apart from them.
It is impossible that anyone be healed alone. In sickness must he be apart and separate. But healing is his own decision to be one again and to accept his Self with all its parts intact and unassailed. In sickness does his Self appear to be dismembered and without the unity that gives it life. But healing is accomplished as he sees the body has no power to attack the universal oneness of God's Son.

<h1>Sickness would prove that lies must be the truth. </h1>
But healing demonstrates that truth is true. The separation sickness would impose has never really happened. To be healed is merely to accept what always was the simple truth and always will remain exactly as it has forever been. Yet eyes accustomed to illusions must be shown that what they look upon is false. So healing, never needed by the truth, must demonstrate that sickness is not real.
Healing might thus be called a counter-dream which cancels out the dream of sickness in the name of truth but not in truth itself. Just as forgiveness overlooks all sins that never were accomplished, healing but removes illusions that have not occurred. Just as the real world will arise to take the place of what has never been at all, healing offers restitution for imagined states and false ideas which dreams embroider into pictures of the truth.
Yet think not healing is unworthy of your function here. For anti-Christ becomes more powerful than Christ to those who dream the world is real. The body seems to be more solid and more stable than the mind. And love becomes a dream, while fear remains the one reality that can be seen and justified and fully understood.

<h1>Just as forgiveness shines away all sin and the real world will occupy the place of what you made, so healing must replace the fantasies of sickness which you hold before the simple truth. </h1>
When sickness has been seen to disappear in spite of all the laws that hold it cannot but be real, then questions have been answered. And the laws can be no longer cherished nor obeyed.
Healing is freedom. For it demonstrates that dreams will not prevail against the truth. Healing is shared. And by this attribute, it proves that laws unlike the ones which hold that sickness is inevitable are more potent than their sickly opposites. Healing is strength. For by its gentle hand is weakness overcome. And minds which were walled off within a body free to join with other minds, to be forever strong.
Healing, forgiveness, and the glad exchange of all the world of sorrow for a world where sadness cannot enter, are the means by which the Holy Spirit urges you to follow Him. His gentle lessons teach how easily salvation can be yours, how little practice you need undertake to let His laws replace the ones you made to hold yourself a prisoner to death.

<h1>His life becomes your own as you extend the little help He asks in freeing you from everything that ever caused you pain. </h1>
And as you let yourself be healed, you see all those around you or who cross your mind or whom you touch or those who seem to have no contact with you healed along with you. Perhaps you will not recognize them all, nor realize how great your offering to all the world when you let healing come to you. But you are never healed alone. And legions upon legions will receive the gift which you receive when you are healed.
Those who are healed become the instruments of healing. Nor does time elapse between the instant they are healed and all the grace of healing it is given them to give. What is opposed to God does not exist. And who accepts it not within his mind becomes a haven where the weary can remain to rest. For here is truth bestowed, and here are all illusions brought to truth.
Would you not offer shelter to God's Will? You but invite your Self to be at home, and can this invitation be refused? Ask the inevitable to occur, and you will never fail. The other choice is but to ask what cannot be to be, and this cannot succeed. Today we ask that only truth will occupy our minds, that thoughts of healing will this day go forth from what is healed to what must yet be healed, aware that they will both occur as one.

<h1>We will remember, as the hour strikes, our function is to let our minds be healed that we may carry healing to the world, exchanging curse for blessing, pain for joy, and separation for the peace of God. </h1>
Is not a minute of the hour worth the giving to receive a gift like this? Is not a little time a small expense to offer for the gift of everything?
Yet must we be prepared for such a gift. And so we will begin the day with this and give ten minutes to these thoughts with which we will conclude today at night as well:
When I am healed, I am not healed alone.And I would share my healing with the world, that sickness may be banished from the mind of God's one Son, Who is my only Self.

<h1>Let healing be through you this very day. </h1>
And as you rest in quiet, be prepared to give as you receive, to hold but what you give, and to receive the Word of God to take the place of all the foolish thoughts that ever were imagined. Now we come together to make well all that was sick and offer blessing where there was attack. Nor will we let this function be forgot as every hour of the day slips by, remembering our function with this thought:

When I am healed, I am not healed alone.And I would bless my brothers, for I would be healed with them as they are healed with me.

A read about the process of true Healing - by A Course In Miracles — @undefined's mag on Magma

Cars

Business

Motorcycles

Startups

Los Angeles

<h1><a href="https://instagram.com/westladetail?utm_medium=copy_link">@WestLAdetail</a> does a fantastic job for a very reasonable price and top notch quality.</h1>
I got a 1-year ceramic coat put on my brand new 2021 Audi A4! They have a 5-year ceramic option but my lease is only 3 years, so I'll be back for another ceramic coat in about a year. Honestly, the car looks even better than the detail the dealer gave before dropping it off for delivery. 
Justin, one of the co-founders of <a href="https://instagram.com/westladetail?utm_medium=copy_link">@WestLAdetail</a>, did a great job on the Audi. He demonstrated how water elegantly drips off the paint after the ceramic coat is put on by pouring some water on the hood. Drip drip, it repelled with ease!
His service options are superb and was super easy to work with to schedule the appointment. These guys are all about great customer service and I will continue to promote them as the #1 professional car detail service in Los Angeles.

@WestLAdetail is the best mobile car detailing service in Los Angeles. — @undefined's mag on Magma

Helen Putnam Regional Park

<h1>Helen Putnam Park</h1>
This was the view atop one of the countless hills of Sonoma county in Northern California. Helen Putnam park is a beautiful scenery of rolling grass hills. You will see different birds from hawks to vultures and also deer.

Strolling through the hills of NorCal. — @undefined's mag on Magma

Descanso Gardens

<h1>Descanso Garden</h1>
The Descanso Gardens is a beautiful array of plant-life ranging from ferns to tall trees. The decorative addition of lights create an amazing visual experience. There are many different spectacles to see, each with their own unique experience. 
The place also had speakers setup to play melodic background music that gave it an intimate touch. I think of it as a natural art installation you can walk through and enjoy. I highly recommend going to check it out!!
Descanso Gardens: <a href="https://www.descansogardens.org/programs-events/enchanted/tickets/">Www.descansogardens.org/programs-events/enchanted/tickets/</a>

Descanso Gardens
La Cañada Flintridge, CA — @undefined's mag on Magma

A young ambitious software engineer who grew up in West LA, from Westchester to Venice, trying to forge a path that he's proud of. Specializes in iOS app development using Swift.
Passion for all things tech, still grounded in nature, with a seeking for spiritual realization.
He enjoys working out in the gym, volunteering at the Venice Learning Garden, scuba diving at Catalina Island, and having deep conversation.
Growth mindset. Down to Earth. Moonshot trajectory.
📸: <a href="https://instagram.com/junie.nef?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=">Junie</a>

Weston Mitchell