the last 36 hours have not gone well, but they're gone.
i spent a lot of time late yesterday archiving files to cd, moving files to other disks, and in general trying to slim down files on partitioned disk that no longer had enough room to process quark -> pdf. of course quark didn't like it, and i spent a few hours more restoring picture files to appropriate folder.
i finished this off early this morning, and then lit out to sign up for courses at unca college for creative retirement. i lasted in a mob scene two hours, still in line, gave someone my enrollment form and told them to treat it as if i had mailed it in, which means they will process it at the end of the day, courses may be full, but i don't care, i'd had enough.
now about the language of political discourse: the lady who lost a son in bush's war and is waiting outside his pseudo-ranch to talk with him apparently will be arrested tomorrow if she's still there, as a "security" threat. heard a call on air america yesterday - or today, i can't remember - from ex-marine nam vet who said his marine friends returning from iraq have been told not to express any negative views on the war, verbal, print, chat rooms, whatever.
living under the threat of terrorism means living under the threat of fearing to speak out. livlihood and it's loss are the threat.
we have all been pretty well trained to keep mum by our "jobs", where most everyone learned not to rock the boat, not to speak the truth, and pretend to be enthusiastic about whatever the word of the day was.
but as the unease of the "good" americans increases, expect the realization to grow that there comes a point when one must speak-up no matter what the consequences may be.
or stem-cell research. excess frozen human embryos are an integral part of the process by which infertile couples can birth a child. you can't have one part of the process without the other. is the case that as long as they remain frozen society has remained within a moral imperative? why?
i'm grumpy, confused, tired of being horsewhipped by stale rhetoric. the culture is a wasteland, glossy, jumpy, in denial, and if you'll notice outbreaks of violence seem to be increasing as the longer, hotter summer continues to melt down the marginal. i'd bet even money that the murder rate this summer takes a huge jump upward.
enough, i've got to get back to real life.
this was emailed to me yesterday and i am posting the email here. it has to do with SB 223, Public Confidence in Elections. do more than just read it.
yesterday was R&R for me. didn't make the friends meeting at 10 again. the windows were open all day, and so was i. maybe i won't have to move to canada. barely made it to 4:00 Baba meeting at rita's. good clean straight to the point gathering. back home and watched the simpson's and to bed.
fooled around most of the afternoon and ended up in personality test land. these are the results.
-------------
some kind of mythos test:
You are Form 3, Unicorn: The Innocent.
"And The Unicorn knew she wasn't meant to
go into the Dark Wood. Disregarding the advice
given to her by the spirits, Unicorn went
inside and bled silver blood.. For her
misdeed, the world knew evil."
[yikes... misdeed indeed... i wonder which one of many?]
Some examples of the Unicorn Form are Eve
(Christian) and Pandora (Greek).
The Unicorn is associated with the concept of
innocence, the number 3, and the element of
water.
Her sign is the twilight sun.
As a member of Form 3, you are a curious
individual. You are drawn to new things and
become fascinated with ideas you've never come
in contact with before. Some people may say
you are too nosey, but it's only because you
like getting to the bottom of things and
solving them. Unicorns are the best friends to
have because they are inquisitive.
[because they are inquisitive? i guess i would rephrase it to say that the best kind of friend's for a unicorn to have are inquisitive.]
Which Mythological Form Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
----
[this one was enneagram test - i think - & i don't speak enneagram. a year ago i tested 5W4.]
Main Type | Overall Self |
 |  |
| Enneagram Test Results
Your variant is self pres [low on perfectioism, image focus, and anxiety. wonder which image? (self-image i suppose, but which self?] |
| Maslow Inventory Results |
| Physiological Needs (47%) you appear to have an adequate supply of basic necessities. Safety Needs (37%) you appear to have a very secure environment. Love Needs (47%) you appear to be semi-content with the quality of your social connections. Esteem Needs (60%) you appear to have a medium level of skill competence. Self-Actualization (73%) you appear to have a high level of individual development. |
| INFP - "Questor". High capacity for caring. Emotional face to the world. High sense of honor derived from internal values. 4.4% of total population. |
no sleep last night. i found myself walking around the apartment time after time. sleepwalking? no, i was awake. watched TV for awhile, infomercials about money.
still spring cleaning, have a truckload of stuff to take to landfill. did kitchen yesterday, will finish today by going thru drawers and cabinents to unload any unusable pots, pans, gadgets, and all of the stuff that typically gets left in drawers.
did do a nice photoprint which i'll send off today. it's a gift.
my youngest son nathan is leaving tomorrow to visit my oldest son eric in northern california. should be a welcome break for both.
i've been having some anomolies posting to this blog. probably has to do w/ ancient code in templates, guess i'll fix.
a busy week, sliding towards this and that. for those of you keeping track, i got a great night's sleep. it's about 8 in the morning and i'm about to drive south on the parkway to take some pictures, moody cloudy foggy mountain landscapes. or whatever the morning offers.
yesterday i went for yearly diabetic retnopathy check and got a gold star, no complications, so you can call me hawk eye.
tonight i hope to see japanese cartoon, howls's moving castle, i think that's the name, i'll repost if it isn't.
Movie Review: Howl's Moving Castle / Mountain Xpress / Asheville, NC
printed a bumper sticker last night, the print quality is great. it reads "crazy old men barely make history" and is a little too esoteric - or dumb - to fool around with any more. reworked out of control watercolor with guoach to see what happens. long ago in a watercolor book i saw an italian landscape which knocked me out. it was done with gouach and then varnished, gave it an almost photorealistc sheen and brightness, so that's what i'm after.
made it up the parkway and back down. here is what i brought back:
yesterday i observed silence day.
sure was quiet.
ran across 2 quotes from odd sources that might be useful to us all:
"war effort will be justified or stand condemned not by the results it produces, but by the ends by which it was inspired."
Meher Baba during WWII.
"i think the american regime, the current american regime, seems to reflect a sort of gangsterism. and when i look at hip-hop in particular, it reflects the same. i see a sort of Republican agenda in commercial hip-hop. it's like,"i don't want to talk to you if your money ain't right". and i see the same mind set in the upper exhalants [sic?] of the republican regime which now reigns."
saul williams, quoted in asheville disclaimer.
just got back from 2 doctor's appointments and it's high noon. so now, for the rest of the day, it's playtime. by that i mean photos, paintings, letters, postings, software enigmas and finding a few lost objects that are more lost than normal.
in one doctor's office i found this in some reading material:
i seem to be in a summer slump lately, keep pecking away on random projects, but it's like i'm sleepwalking.
last night mike may of reems creek was bludgeoned to death by some creep he was trying to help. those of us who knew mike knew that he was a little rough around the edges but truly had a heart of gold. a generous and free spirit. another hole in the life of his many friends. see CITIZEN-TIMES.com: Suspect charged with murder of Reems Creek man
attended potluck sunday evening. Baba folks, very pleasant, a breath of sanity, cool breeze of meaning in what is turning out to be a hard summer.
well despite the humidity & the heat i guess i'll go on hiking club jaunt to the parkway this morning. "it'll be some kind of change."
i got a brass magnifying lamp from my sister yesterday. she gave it to my dad and he didn't like it, so she sent it to me. Beautifully made, but not very useful. reminds me of those expensive tripod mounted telescopes you see in homes from time to time, that serve an ornamental not functional purpose. however i can use it in my visual painting/photo/greeting card production system which is, after all, composed of all sorts of oddball equipment. thanks jane <=== who should be in europe somewhere by now (she left yesterday).
third night of chaotic dreams. i think it may be because of the antibiotics i'm taking.
wanna peek into the future of the dubious branding meme? go here:
deseretnews.com | Mom sells face space for tattoo advertisement"
'Will it go numb?' she asked.
'It'll go as numb as your brain,' Brouse replied."
the long flat weekend begins. i have no fond memories of the 4th.
and as for driving somewhere that is the same as where i drove from, no thanks. especially since the highway became horsepower hysteria, revved up adrenalin-charged insanity.
kind of analogous to society in general these days. back in the bad good old days i remember wavy gravy urging humans to emerge from their urban caves into the daylight.
it was a good idea then, and might be now. but no thanks, i just flat can't take it any more. too much of nothing, and most of it collective insanity that is difficult if not impossible to be in and not of.
now on to a more important topic: the last two nights i've been dreaming up a storm, so to speak. this is not usual for me these days due to cerebral wear and tear.
night before last was not bad, a pleasant jaunt to paris with my old old friend Kathy f. she guided me through crowded but not threatening streets full of folks she seemed to know well.
but last night. i was stuck in some sort of philip k. dick nightmare. it started in a sort of dorm place where i ordered a movie. turned out that in order to see it i had to step into a sort of large hall which began to fill up with other folks who were on viewer list. the "movie" or whatever the hell it was began, only this one swapped all our identities. and realities. there was occasional drop-out where the technicians running this thing could be heard or seen dealing with problems. whoever i was could vaguely remember a bag or kit i had brought, and ended up crawling through a crowd of shifting personality fragments looking for it. this totally screwed up the behind the walls equipment responsible for maintaining this particular world, and a long series of point-of-view flip flops and shifts began, personalities flickering in and out of existence, new ego every "now", walls and worlds dissolving and reforming for ever.
after an eternity i woke up. at least i think i did. not so sure after a dream like this.
it's been raining and my phone went out yesterday. i won't go into the madness of trouble shooting etc, you've probably been there yourself. if i can post his - if you're reading it i can - then the only glitch left is that i can receive email but can't send it.
[much later] somedays the bits and bytes just don't play together well. here goes one more try.
friday morning, i'm struggling with a laptop. one monumentally obvious design flaw:
they should either have illuminated keyboard or white keys with large black alphanumeric showing,
i'm at nicole's headed for eli & melissa's. heading back sat or sun. haven't established contact w/ jim or doug/ think folks are doing heavy duty online stuff.
new grandchild arrived yesterday. details sketchy but mother and new daughter doing fine. seven pounds, red hair. not totally clear on name at this point. congratulations to eli, melissa, and sister lily. i'll be leaving wed. morning to say hello to beautiful new person.
stayed home and worked all day yesterday, several cards and prints the result. at 4PM got out of the house and attended laurel's salon. great potluck.
tomorrow i will continue the list of words, memes, phrases the junta is so skillfully using to keep control of us all. "freedom of expression" might be a good one to look into.
but today i want to talk about my right hand which has become a real problem. i have a brace that i wear. immobilization seems to be the only cure. all agree to that. but i keep pushing it, not wearing the thing, and playing the piano or whatever to see if it's doable. it ain't.
but the last few days an interesting and possibly helpful change has bubbled up from somewhere. goes like this:
when i first started using a mouse way back when, i used my left hand. i write, draw and paint left-handed.
but in cubeland this became a problem. everybody's computer i would often have to use or fix was right-handed. eventually i decided to switch and have moused with my right hand for maybe 15 years.
so i'm going to switch again, back to my left hand. today. right now. i'll let you know how it goes, and no comments on emotional limbic dyslexia please.
yesterday i posted about the difference between the wars between nation states and today's war between a nation state and a noun ("terror"). wars change over time. for instance at the battle of waterloo in 1815, the europeans fought while the peasants continued their agricultural doings in the surrounding countryside.
my point is that the "war on terror" is terrible strategy because our side is still thinking nation against nation. obsolete. but the phrase is good PR, good enough to fool most of us most of the time.
there is a second confabulation that the republicans have been using a long time, even some of the "real" republicans and not just today's junta. it goes:
on an extended media-fast, i am still picking up a hopeful slow shift in the feelings of the hoi polloi or joe six-pack concerning the junta in power.
maybe the downing street memo was the catalyst. i think that the real republicans, most of whom i have little in common with, have been feeling more and more uncomfortable as the invisible coup-d'etat the populace chose not to see has repeatedly outdone itself. note that i said "feeling", not realizing.
still, the stress we accept in day to day life has a lot to do with these feelings. and people are beginning to realize this.
so maybe the fundamental, basic underlying flaw in the "war against terror" is floating to the top of the noise.
it is simply this:
"terror" is a strategy of war, not an opponent. reminiscent of "war against drugs" or "war against fat", it is a war between a nation state with a government and military against a catch-phrase.
how does such a war end? do both parties meet and sign papers? is there an armistice? a parade down madison avenue?
or, like past "wars" against sin, or the wars in 1984, is it over only when the nation-state declares "terror" has been vanquished.
the mismatch between this kind of war and traditional war is in my humble opinion an anachronistic, obsolete response to 9/11. an example of the junta's finesse with language, but one that is slowly unraveling.
one of those nice day's george and i were talking about the other week. it's 4 in the afternoon and i've been sitting here for most of the day. solved a few problems, that was fun. pushed a few projects a little further. when i finish typing this i will do what i've been putting off for a couple of weeks now and clean up the back room,
pleasant & unusual sunday.
finished one print in the AM, am happy with it. have two more i' working on. a few days left to complete it.
doug b. dropped by on his way to and from his hideout in yazoo county. then ninian dropped by, heading to work mon morning down east from bluff mountain old timey music festival. as usual the high point of the day was conversation.
i may be wrong, but it seems to me that there is a narrow demographic out there (of which i am one) who because of historical reasons enjoy the rare afternoon of talking. this seems to link back to the bad old days of coffee houses and conversation as an art form, metaphysical and meaningful but without pulling the load of contemporary social stylistics, which all too often devolve into clicheland.
got a kick out of listening to bill hick's latest CD, especially enjoyed song including his helping kerouac pull car out of a ditch. we still remember that week, sort of. a story that reverberates in so many ways today it may be beyond telling.
didn't sleep much last night and "coast to coast" slithered in and out of my consciousness all night long. something i learned: phoenix is the hot spot today of the UFO contingent, largely because of last week's video of lights in the sky. they are expecting first contact anyday now, so to speak.
Amazing UFO Footage, Phoenix
"right in the sky above the mountain appeared a huge formation of lights... So we decided to stop and try to get them on video"
it's noon, gotta move on.
here is a site that i haven't gotten into much but promises a lot: live concert recordings offered with the musicians blessing:
Internet Archive: Live Music Archive
spent the day yesterday.
and enjoyed it.
the morning was taken up talking on the fone to sister jane and dad. the afternoon on a couple of print projects. i was in extreme slow mode and it took me forever to fix a few simple glitches.
at 4 i was downtown sitting at a table with a group of bloggers from the paris of the south. sympatico bunch, various backgrounds and agendas. beautiful day, sitting outside, talking about this and that.
=====>"Blogs representing at the first ever Asheville Bloggers Summit":
these were the first folks i have ever met face to face that blogged. just that fact was a surprise to me when i realized it. some had started a blog with a goal in mind, some like myself just to see what would happen. quite a few with a political bent, not surprising in this age of the american oligarchy in full swing. i'll add links soon.
the idea of group blogs surfaced again and again, on which has always appealed to me. let a thousand flowers bloom. it's too much for one person to maintain a blog day after day. unless, like this one, you sit down and type off the top of your head. and it's so easy for it to degenerate on your own to self-indulgent self expression like the teen-age blogs ("mom was mean to me today").
one feeling i left with was how much i need to redesign this thing, it's a little bit stale and a shambles at present. of course i've felt this way for awhile. and of course i have quite a few improvements in mind that i might get to someday.
the main evolution of this blog has been away from commentary on the world and towards pictures. this co-evolved with learning watercolor, oils, pencil, and the scads of visuals that i continue to produce for fun. but the image archive is about 2 or 3 years out of date, which must mean i have put up maybe 400 pictures that cannot be found in the archives.
speaking of which i have 2 prints to do by the end of the day, starting pretty much from scratch. at 4 i'll be at unca where will david will have some sort of exhibit of his acrylics opening.
one note: the question i have raised in past posts of what "virtually pain-free" might mean came up in conversation. looking the word "virtual" up this morning, it sure enough is from the same root as "virtue" [ME. possesed of certain physical virtues. fr ML virtualis, fr L. virtu, strength, virtue] (1654). what's the connection between "goodness" and today's usage?
