Truth Seekers

Kevin Elwell of Get A Head Shot [https://getaheadshot.net/](https://getaheadshot.net/) will be donating his photography talents to help motivated job seekers by giving them professional headshots to use on LinkedIn and other sites. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/getaheadshot/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/getaheadshot/) After registering, you will receive a SignUp Genius to reserve your 15 minute slots. In preparation of this event, [https://getaheadshot.net/preparing-for-your-session/](https://getaheadshot.net/preparing-for-your-session/) At the end of this session, you will receive 1 Free Image to use. There are some people who (wisely) chose to purchase photographic touch ups and other services.

# Happy Birthday, You’re Dead Written and Directed by Terry Smith Produced by Jerri Wiseman ***You are invited to a surprise birthday party for Candy Crush, a D-list actor. She’s the hottest ticket in town. But her birthday party isn’t the only surprise she will get tonight! Someone’s about to be murdered. Only you can prevent this from happening before it’s game over. To miss this would be a crime.*** February 13 at Firefly Cellars Winery in Hamilton (with dinner) Firefly Cellars, 40325 Charles Town Pike, Hamilton, VA 20158 6:30pm Doors and dinner buffet start 7:15pm Show starts There will be a 15-20-minute intermission. Tickets: $85 plus ticketing fee and sales tax includes the show, catered buffet dinner, dessert, and welcome drink. Menu: Baby Greens Salad with Feta Cheese, Roasted Apples, and Toasted Sunflower Seeds with House Ranch and Vinaigrette Dressings. Baked Lemon Sole with Pommery Cream Sauce. Grilled Sliced Steak with Braised Onion Demi-glace. Sauteed Mixed Vegetables. Whipped Potatoes. Rolls with Butter. Flourless Chocolate Cake. Unsweetened Tea. Coffee. Special meals can be accommodated with 48 hours’ notice. Wine will be available for separate purchase. ### [Buy tickets for Firefly Cellars. ](https://www.stagecoachtc.com/happy-birthday-youre-dead/) You must buy a ticket to attend. An RSVP here will not save you a seat.

You must read the following NVHC Sign-in Sheet Statement/Liability Disclaimer, [https://nvhc.com/signin.pdf](https://nvhc.com/signin.pdf) and then answer the question that you will see when you RSVP with "I accept" to be permitted on the hike. **Description:** This is a 7½ mile hike with \~200-feet of elevation gain on the Cross County Trail, from Rt 7 (near Colvin Mill Run) to the Washington and Old Dominion path and back. We will start on the Cross County Trail access road just north of route 7 near Colvin Run Mill. There are 2 stream crossings: one on rocks *(see picture above when it was uncrossable, it should be lower and crossable on Friday)* and the other on concrete pylons. **Dogs** are permitted on this hike in accordance with the NVHC Dog Policy. [https://tinyurl.com/nvhcdogpolicy](https://tinyurl.com/nvhcdogpolicy) **Leader:** Harvey Haines **Rating:** C (7¼ mi + 200 ft/400ft/mi = 7¾ equiv. mi. C-hikes range from 7-10 mi) **Maps:** A pdf map of this section of the CCT: [https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/05eVzFBePshItlpjqZzE4Q6og#cct-9-difficult-run-stream-valley_8.44.46_AM](https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/05eVzFBePshItlpjqZzE4Q6og#cct-9-difficult-run-stream-valley_8.44.46_AM) GAIA-GPS map of the trail: [https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=17.0/-77.2931/38.9696&pubLink=nT5xNso4Vt4cJS590reDYkXJ&trackId=da5ca300fac1600e2994ed97cc7756bb](https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=17.0/-77.2931/38.9696&pubLink=nT5xNso4Vt4cJS590reDYkXJ&trackId=da5ca300fac1600e2994ed97cc7756bb)

You must read the following NVHC Sign-in Sheet Statement/Liability Disclaimer, [https://nvhc.com/signin.pdf](https://nvhc.com/signin.pdf) and then answer the question that you will see when you RSVP with "I accept" to be permitted on the hike. We're all ready to start hiking again and next week the Weather is warming. It looks like we will have 3 days of balmy (everything is relative) temperatures to start melting/ softening the snow for the Friday hike day. We will be hiking on cleared trails. There are still occasional patches of packed snow/ice so bring your poles. This is an enjoyable hike with beautiful lakes, wooded trails and even a snack/rest room break at a Starbucks. It is about an 7.8 mile hike with 358 feet of elevation gain around lakes and among the woodlands of Reston. We'll meet in front of the Starbucks at the South Lake Shopping Center at 8:45 am and hike through the Glade Stream Valley and then along Lake Audubon and Lake Thoreau. We hike at a pace of approximately 2.5 mph while moving. You must be experienced with hikes of this length and elevation gain. Dogs are welcome on this hike in accordance with the NVHC Dog Policy. [https://tinyurl.com/nvhcdogpolicyhttps://tinyurl.com/nvhcdogpolic](https://tinyurl.com/nvhcdogpolicy) Leader: Steve Frith cell 703-629-0174 Park Entry Fee: $0.00 Map for hike: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/custom-routes/custom-route-d57db7d?u=i&sh=iypgzx

Kevin Elwell of Get A Head Shot [https://getaheadshot.net/](https://getaheadshot.net/) will be donating his photography talents to help motivated job seekers by giving them professional headshots to use on LinkedIn and other sites. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/getaheadshot/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/getaheadshot/) After registering, you will receive a SignUp Genius to reserve your 15 minute slots. In preparation of this event, [https://getaheadshot.net/preparing-for-your-session/](https://getaheadshot.net/preparing-for-your-session/) At the end of this session, you will receive 1 Free Image to use. There are some people who (wisely) chose to purchase photographic touch ups and other services.

Monthly meeting: Second Saturday of the month International House of Pancakes (IHOP) 775 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852 7:00 PM – 10 PM. Late arrivals always welcome. Look for the table with someone wearing a red hat. Questions, please call 1-240-644-5230 Agenda: What are more things we can do to wake people up? What can we do to get more people involved? Other things people would like to talk about. This will be a joint meeting with: DC 9/11 Truth [https://dc911truth.org/](https://dc911truth.org/) dc911truth Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/groups/dc911truth/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/dc911truth/) 911 Meetup Group [https://www.meetup.com/meetup-group-kyegaoqu/](https://www.meetup.com/meetup-group-kyegaoqu/) Central Bank Digital Currencies CBDC Meetup Group [https://www.meetup.com/central-bank-digital-currencies-cbdc/](https://www.meetup.com/central-bank-digital-currencies-cbdc/) Freedom of Speech Meetup Group [https://www.meetup.com/silver-spring-freedom-of-speech-meetup-group/](https://www.meetup.com/silver-spring-freedom-of-speech-meetup-group/)

**Come Join to Celebrate Charles Darwin's Birthday! Banana Splits will be served! Our Talk is** **Beyond the Bare Bones: What Human Evolution Means to You** The study of human evolution isn't merely an academic exercise in looking backward. It tells us who we are and the kinds of things we do. Hence, it can inform us about our impact on the environment and our future as a species. This presentation will be illustrated with revealing images from the Smithsonian's Hall of Human Origins. Our speaker, Fred Edwords served eleven years as the founding editor of the American Humanist Association’s *Creation/Evolution* journal, refuting creationism in print and on the debate platform. He also served fifteen years as the American Humanist Association's executive director and twelve years as editor of the *Humanist* magazine. This is an in-person meeting only. We serve coffee starting at 10:45. Come then and chat!

[Profs and Pints Northern Virginia](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“Love and Monsters,”** on the inescapable bond between romance and horror, with Joshua Barton, scholar of horror and lecturer in English at Virginia Commonwealth University. [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nv-love-monsters](https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nv-love-monsters) .] Romance and horror might seem like opposite genres, but they share a deep emotional core, and the combination of them has captivated audiences across time and culture. Put even your worst Valentine’s Day in perspective by hearing this strange relationship discussed by Joshua Barton, who has earned a big following among Profs and Pints fans with his past talks on cryptids, American horror, and Christmas ghosts. He’ll explore the undeniable and unsettling intersection of romance and horror and examine how and why love and fear intensify each other and combined to create tension, drive narratives, and explore human vulnerability. We’ll look at works that have blended passion and terror, including Gothic literature like the vampire novella *Carmilla* and modern films like *Spring* and *Crimson Peak*. We’ll study the fine line between obsession and adoration running through Stephen King’s “I Know What You Need,” Adrian Lyne’s *Fatal Attraction*, and the timeless *The Phantom of the Opera.* We’ll discuss the seeds of monstrous love that were planted with *Beauty and the Beast* and *Creature from the Black Lagoon* and bloom ferociously in works like *Twilight* and *The Shape of Water*. Through it all, we’ll find the threads of otherness and the taboo that intertwine horror, love, and reflections on identity. Join us for a journey through storytelling that combines the grotesque and the scintillating as we uncover why romance and horror are a match made in the dark. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image: From the original 1954 advertising poster for *Creature from the Black Lagoon* (Artist: Reynold Brown / Public Domain).

**Hopi Eleventh Hour Prophecy** The Hopi Eleventh Hour Prophecy speaks of a critical moment in humanity’s story—a time of choice, responsibility, and renewal. In this gathering, we’ll explore the meaning of the prophecy as it’s commonly shared today, its cultural and spiritual context, and the questions it raises about modern life, environmental stewardship, and collective values. This is a **discussion-based meetup**, not a lecture. Participants are encouraged to listen deeply, share perspectives, and reflect together. Whether you approach the prophecy from a spiritual, symbolic, historical, or personal lens, you’re welcome here. **All are welcome.**

**DCR’s DECADES SHOWCASE 2024!** 5 bands, each paying tribute to a different decade of Rock n’ Roll, to perform a 1 hour set. This is an ALL AGES SHOW! Email ericSeisler@yahoo.com with questions **(2:00pm) Barco Loungers** **(3:30pm) The Redactions** **(5:00pm) The Wanderers** **(6:30pm) The Spirographs** **(8:00pm) Dad Bod** **Rules:** All musicians must be active DCR members, or must join DCR prior to the gig. Sets should maintain a PG-13 rating as this is an all-ages show. Availability subject to organizer’s discretion, otherwise on a first-come-first-served basis. Please list your choice of decades (multiple options will more likely result in a spot), preferred practice location, and preferred and secondary instrument/vocals.

**How To Live From Higher Love Master Class** A Free Live Zoom Experience \| February 14 **This Valentine’s Day, go beyond romance…** and step into the remembrance of love as God intended. We lovingly invite you into a sacred experience devoted to **Living from Higher Love** - the love of God Almighty - embodied and aligned within a relationship. Higher Love is not about fixing your partner, perfecting yourself, or performing love “the right way.It is about **anchoring into God’s love within you** and allowing that love to become the foundation from which you relate, communicate, and choose one another — day by day, moment by moment. In this free **LIVE MASTER CLASS,** we will share from our lens how to live in a relationship from Higher Love. A way of loving that is rooted in presence, devotion, truth, safety, and divine alignment — rather than fear, ego, or unconscious patterns. Whether you are: • In a committed relationship • Calling in a sacred partnership • Or desiring to elevate the love you already share This experience is designed to **open your heart, expand your awareness, and reconnect you to love as a living truth**. A return to love as **presence, devotion, and choice**. Come as you are. Come with your partner or on your own. Come if you feel the call to love more consciously, more deeply, and more divinely.  **To RSVP for this FREE Master Class, please email:** **info@ascensionalchemists.com** We look forward to sharing this sacred Valentine’s Day with you. With the Joy of God ALMighty's Pure Love, Rev. HoniB & Michael of Ascension Alchemists™ Podcast 🎧 FOLLOW & LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ascension-alchemists-podcast-assisting-individuals/id1838325380

[Profs and Pints Northern Virginia](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“The Hidden Cleopatra,”** an excavation through myth and slander to uncover the real Egyptian queen, with Jacquelyn Williamson, an Egyptologist and associate professor of archaeology and ancient art at George Mason University. [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/hidden-cleopatra](https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/hidden-cleopatra) .] Depictions of Cleopatra are abundant in popular culture. A long list of painters have depicted her, Marilyn Monroe and Kim Kardashian have posed as her, and Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor famously portrayed her in Hollywood films. At the end of the day, however, what most of us think we know about Cleopatra is wrong, the product of the ancient Rome’s “fake news” and anti-Egypt propaganda. Learn about the real Cleopatra—and how our understanding of her came to be so distorted—with Professor Jacquelyn Williamson, scholar of women and power in ancient Egypt, teacher of courses on ancient Egyptian art and archaeology, and author of *Nefertiti’s Sun Temple: A New Cult Complex at Tell el-Amarna.* Dr. Williamson will walk us through how the first Roman emperor, Octavian, created the distorted image of Cleopatra as seductress that we know today as part of his political scheming to defeat his rival Antony and end the Roman Republic once and for all. Cleopatra has been the subject of debate and controversy ever since. William Shakespeare later relied on ancient Roman sources such as Horace and Plutarch in writing *Antony and Cleopatra*, and his play helped give rise to countless other works offering a distorted picture of her. Professor Williamson argues that “Cleopatra was a human being, like you and I,” and “deserves the dignity of being represented as accurately as possible.” Her efforts to set the record straight have met frustration, however—after being extensively interviewed for the recent Netflix historical docuseries Queen Cleopatra, she concluded that it, too, had missed the mark. You’ll gain a much deeper appreciation of the challenges of researching and accurately depicting the ancient past from Dr. Williamson, who also has taught at Harvard, Brandeis, and the University of California at Berkeley and is involved with an ongoing archaeological investigation of Queen Nefertiti’s sun temple. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image: Layla Taj portrays Cleopatra VII as part of an Egyptian Cultural Performing Arts Society production. (Photo by Amos Gvili / Wikimedia Commons.)

[Profs and Pints Northern Virginia](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“Satanic Panics,”** a look at waves of fear of demonic activity as an American tradition, with Luxx Mishou, cultural historian and former instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy and area community colleges. [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nv-satanic-panics2](https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/nv-satanic-panics2) .] The 1980s found the United States gripped by fear of Satanic cults targeting children. They were believed to be corrupting young ones in daycare centers and tempting teens through subliminal messages on heavy metal albums or through the quiet inclusion of demonic rituals in role-playing games. Satanic serial killers supposedly stalked the suburbs. Doctors helped patients uncover what were claimed to be repressed memories of ritualistic satanic abuse. Parents, police, and politicians were urged to protect impressionable youths from both moral and physical danger. With Satanic cults deemed to be a real and material threat, it was a frightening time for everyone, including those who suddenly came under suspicion for doing evil deeds. Then, suddenly, it all faded from public consciousness, just as surely as did eighties fads such mullet haircuts, leg warmers, and Cabbage Patch Kids. Why did it all start? Why did it stop? And has this happened before or since? Hear such questions tackled by Luxx Mishou, a cultural historian and media specialist who has long researched the devious and villainous in cultural artifacts. She’ll discuss moral panics as a longstanding cultural tradition, with each new one stemming from fear of cultural shifts and shaped by the time and place where it occurred. Among the panics we’ll look into are the Red Scare of the 1950s and the public response to the gruesome 1969 murders committed by the Manson Family. Delving into the 1980s panic, Mishou will describe how it began with the 1980 publication of psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder’s memoir *Michelle Remembers*, detailing the suppressed memories of ritualistic abuse reportedly suffered by a patient. As that book quickly became a best seller, its ideas saturated American culture. A California daycare center became the focus of a three-year investigation, followed by three years of trials, based on allegations that its owner had engaged in secret ritualistic abuse of the children in its care. Mishou will lead you through the media that convinced the public that devil worshipers were among them, and she’ll talk about how reactions to imagined threats can have very real social costs. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image by Canva.

Hybrid registration links at https://greatcareers.org/events-calendar/career-success-group-job-seeker-accountability-networking-23/ The Career Success Group is a networking meeting held on the 2nd Monday and 4th Thursday of each month from 9:30-10:30 AM ET with [Kevin Keene](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinekeene/). Join us if you are looking for a new opportunity, to grow your career, or if you are in a job transition. 1. Practice your elevator pitch in a safe space 2. Check-in for accountability 3. Set goals for your job search for the week 4. Meet others to build your LinkedIn network 5. Learn about upcoming events 6. Ask questions **CHAPTER LEADER** [Kevin Keene](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinekeene/) kekeene@comcast.net

This is the first of several meetings on *Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic*, by Matthew Stewart. For this meeting, please try to read the first three chapters (pages 1-129 in the paperback). **Where did the ideas come from that became the cornerstone of American democracy?** America’s founders intended to liberate us not just from one king but from the ghostly tyranny of supernatural religion. Drawing deeply on the study of European philosophy, Matthew Stewart brilliantly tracks the ancient, pagan, and continental ideas from which America’s revolutionaries drew their inspiration. In the writings of Spinoza, Lucretius, and other great philosophers, Stewart recovers the true meanings of “Nature’s God,” “the pursuit of happiness,” and the radical political theory with which the American experiment in self-government began. [LINK](https://a.co/d/bkTWJNb) I hope to see you there! Fred

**Join the BreadBreakers community for an evening of connection and comradery over the timeless art of boardgaming!** BreadBreakers is a community where people of all different belief systems and backgrounds create community and have meaningful conversation. Usually we do that over the dinner table, but sometimes you've got to change it up a bit! Here's what to expect: * A kind, welcoming atmosphere and community * Several familiar, and several novel boardgames. * Snacks :) * We'll be gathering in Meeting Room 1 at the Reston Regional Library. * Feel free to bring a board game to share if you'd like! **I've never attended a BreadBreakers event before - what is BreadBreakers?** BreadBreakers is a community where neighbors from all different beliefs and backgrounds can **hear, be heard, and know one another.** Most frequently, we do this through the ancient practice of breaking bread around a common dining table. But we're more than just a discussion group - we're a movement to heal our world's broken discourse and forge togetherness in a time of isolation and loneliness. **Through the sacred act of just "being" together, we're working to rebuild the town square, one table (or game night) at a time.** BreadBreakers is a religiously inclusive by Restoration United Methodist Church in Reston, VA. All faiths, beliefs, and stripes are welcomed, and our leadership and community include people who attend Restoration and people who don't.