Monday, August 31, 2009

Some new color schemes have replaced old ones.

Following discussions at conceptart.org with some artists I have created seven new color schemes to replace seven of the old ones for my English Transformation Art, available here on my blog. Three, c201, c202, and c204, are unchanged.

I think the new ones are exciting and I hope you will take a look. Click here.

For those interested in purchasing a special, whether of the text, "GLENBARD WEST", or of the text, "YALE", There is now a greenish color scheme--c209--for Glenbard West, and a blueish color scheme--c210--for Yale.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

New specials on English Transformation Art

I have now added specials for English Transformation Art, one of "GLENBARD WEST" and one of "YALE", at $40 for a 18"x24" unsigned print instead of $60, and proportional savings for larger sizes and signing. So now you Yalies have an alternative to the blue and white Yale Banner. You can have it in ten different color schemes, and it will be art, not letters.

Go HIlltoppers! (Glenbard West)

Go Bulldogs! (Yale)

Go English Transformation Art! (by James Batek)

Friday, August 28, 2009

Life poor

Resource distribution is the central conundrum of economics. It has one character amidst wealth and a different one amidst poverty.

I live a poor man among the mentally ill, who are unable to beat stigma and therefore can at best command a living on social security. I have observed life among these people and found it rampant with larceny and indolence. These fester because they are not improved over time by life experience. Furthermore, they tend to cloister themselves out of reach of policing, with the result that injustice becomes normal, and this lowers expectations all around.

I more or less expected this when I decided to become poor when I was a freshman at Yale.

The only hope for the poor is in nobles who see how thoroughly immoral wealthy people are and decide to become poor instead.

life design at Yale

When I was a freshman at Yale I rapidly accumulated a sense about other students. They were almost all bent on material success. I considered their humane values poor and I wanted to pursue a more noble path by aiming to be poor.

I certainly have succeeded.

But I find that, being poor, I can't eat as well as I would like. I realized at Yale that finding a spouse would be difficult if I were poor. I didn't realize I would have trouble eating well. Knowing a spouse would be problem I have worked on that ever since. I believe that I have made progress in that matter, with my courtship of Crystal Newell. However, I have not made progress in the matter of eating well. It is bounded by income.

Being poor was a frightening prospect when I was young. I soon realized I had put myself irrevocably down a road that would prove more difficult than I desired life to be. I began to improvise ways to avoid it. I tried majoring in economics. That didn't work. I tried architecture. Here I was confused by the difference between nobility and professional ability. It drove me insane.

Insanity completed my trajectory into poverty.

Now poverty has proven to be a task master of the highest order.

English transformation art is a noble business. Nobility is profitable only at vast scale. The final vast scale is time.

The blog art sale is up. Time will hone it.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

I don't like twitter.

I don't like the way twitter treated me, suspending my account and not explaining why, then not providing even any way for me ask why. Fine. Twitter can go to hell.

Monday, August 24, 2009

engaging the client in a conversation prior to forming the art

The blog, being devoted to careful, inspired use of words, is the perfect setting in which to cultivate the interest of clients in the art I produce, English transformation art. By creating an environment in which a conversation naturally evolves, ideally with the client participating in comments and in that way engaging the artist in the client's own deepest language development, a speedier arrival at the central focus of interest can be brought about--the one or two words which most transform the client's everyday experience into that magic realm of wonder, the world of ideas.

a biography of James Batek

I was going to create two wikipedia articles, one on Batek Binary and one a biography of myself, but on entering the wikipedia world I found that they require a neutral point of view, prohibit original research, and require that all material have a reliable published source. I don't know if they would consider a blog a reliable published source, and although maybe they would I'm not going to push it. I readily admit I deal with controversial original ideas that aren't discussed anywhere else and to label them as coming from a reliable source is way beyond the good will that I have accrued in the publishing world. To assert that to wikipedia, where these issues are primary, would be a waste of time.

However, I will go ahead and publish these two articles, already written, here on this blog, by my usual method with scholarly work of first publishing to scribd.com and then embedding the scribd.com document here. I will place this introduction, from the beginning to here, at the head of both articles.

This is the second article, a biography of myself, James Batek.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19040742/James-Batek

Batek Binary as the only way to properly communicate with other species

I was going to create two wikipedia articles, one on Batek Binary and one a biography of myself, but on entering the wikipedia world I found that they require a neutral point of view, prohibit original research, and require that all material have a reliable published source. I don't know if they would consider a blog a reliable published source, and although maybe they would I'm not going to push it. I readily admit I deal with controversial original ideas that aren't discussed anywhere else and to label them as coming from a reliable source is way beyond the good will that I have accrued in the publishing world. To assert that to wikipedia, where these issues are primary, would be a waste of time.

However, I will go ahead and publish these two articles, already written, here on this blog, by my usual method with scholarly work of first publishing to scribd.com and then embedding the scribd.com document here. I will place this introduction, from the beginning to here, at the head of both articles.

This is the first article, Batek Binary.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19040144/Batek-Binary-Too-Original-for-Wikipedia

Sunday, August 23, 2009

suggesting successful friendships on facebook

One of the things I am most proud of in social networking is the success of friendships I have suggested on facebook. These are people I knew in high school at Glenbard West who were part of a large number of social connections which I belonged to. They ranged from the very visible figures in organizations and school work to the very formless connections of some students who may have been extremely successful in one way or another but who never established, or wanted to establish, a visible presence among their peers. I have found that my concept of these connections, all told across all the various degrees of visibility, is replete with potential friendships that I do not have a specific memory of but which are to one extent or another a likely match, based just on these very intangible memories of connections. It is always a thrill to me when I get a message from facebook saying that a friendship I suggested was accepted by the two people, and it is usually two people whose knowing each other was no more than a guess on my part.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Art now available unsigned at less cost.

I have now added an option for the buyer of my English transformation art, on this blog, to buy the art with a "trademark" instead of my signature, at $60 for an 18"x24" print, instead of $100. Larger sizes are proportionately reduced.

This will enable me to hire a staff to perform all the work on this unsigned product, while retaining the option of a signed work at a premium.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

defense of my dispute with a resident over Crystal

After I posted about my dispute with a Bryn Mawr Care resident over Crystal, which see, I had a discussion of it with a good friend who objected to my handling of it because of what he said was my use of violence instead of my "grey matter". I asked this friend for pemission to post to my blog a certain part of my correspondence with him as it seemed to be a good defense of my position. He gave me that permission. Here is the exerpt:

Life in the city, if you're really serious about it, eventually gets you into fights. You can't stake your claim by polite competition, not indefinitely. Crystal does not say I am her boyfriend. I am making progress on that, as you note. One aspect of the pursuit is the consensus in the community about who is pursuing whom. If someone feels comfortable making statements about Crystal that can be interpreted as vying for her despite my making it known I am pursuing her, then the consensus needs some correction. I did that. Mr. Lisk didn't take me seriously as a condition in his role here with respect to Crystal. He was not listening to me when I simply told him she isn't his girlfriend. He would not have listened to me if I simply repeated it, or rephrased it or elaborated. He was content to make such statements without fear of reprisal. I did not accept that this was a necessary situation. There was only one way to change it and I used it. Mr. Lisk felt the fury of my action and was visibly shaken by it. Then I continued in it until I was satisfied he changed his tune. It took every ounce of my grey matter that you cited to me so aptly in a way, to structure my response to get that result--the staging of the battles, the selection of objectives, and the phrasing of statements--as a permanent change in the consensus of the community at the nursing home. Now they all know what I will do if someone rivals me for the hand of Crystal, and it's not unsupported by the degree to which she has allowed herself to be pursued by me. She was present at the final argument that saw Mr. Lisk back down and so she is aware to some extent now of how I am pursuing her in the larger context beyond the two of us alone. It is intelligent. It, if you will pardon my license, is honorable. It certainly is not taking the easier path.

On Religion

I am a complete atheist. I have no doubt that all of my own extraordinary experiences, including hearing extracorporeal voices, materializing in other person's bodies, seeing lights that looked like humans, and witnessing on a building the same fire that Moses saw on a bush, are reducible to the laws of physics.


I consider religion an early system of incorporating extreme experiences into civilization, formed by those who have such experiences in an attempt to harvest them for mankind rather than have them discounted as irrelevant to day to day existence. This is a valid motive. It produced a strong civilization out of what were unorganized bands of humans.


However, this strong civilization has continued to evolve and now we have a population largely equipped with a scientifically valid cosmological perspective, principally that the Earth is not the center of the universe. The stability generated by such a perspective seems to be greater than the stability that was generated by religion. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly acceptable to discredit religion and rely on the cosmological perspective alone for one's orientation to the world. This is not an ideal situation. Discrediting religion is destructive to many people who are not yet to the point where the cosmological perspective has thoroughly saturated their worlds. Religion arose out of an inchoate abyss and that abyss has not vanished, even with the expansion of the cosmological perspective. Most likely it will never be entirely supplanted. In this abyss there will always be a role in many people's lives for religion. If history were more transparent it would be easier for scientists to grant to the masses their obsession with religion. I certainly do not wish to make history more obscure by promoting unorthodox concepts, but neither do I wish to allow the existing obscurity to cause mankind to founder.


It is this view on my part that makes me quite forgiving of radical Islam for making America its spiritual enemy. America has done nothing for Islam. It is consumed with its role as champion of freedom and is unable to enlarge its agenda. It was hoped that freedom would take the world to its next stage of development, but that has not happened. World events have advanced in parallel with America's championing of freedom, not really with any sort of resonance, as far as the rest of the world is concerned. It is America's larger nature that keeps us among the world's leaders, not our self-image.


You, by way of the Italian Mafia, have made me your First Citizen. I have taken this honor and responsibility to heart and made every effort to develop it in intellectual terms, as I consider that its greatest worth, rather than an opportunity to enforce my persuasions upon the people, though I certainly have embraced a cause or two.


The results of this intellectual sojourn have been in a sort of exploration of the limiting values of my own ability to set out on a new course as a possible first generation of a different civilization than America, the Western World, or Homo sapiens. I do not have unlimited ability in this respect. However my limits are somewhat determined by my own decisions and efforts. I was not made First of anything in particular. I was just made First. I took that fact to imply that it was up to me just how far my being First extended.


I have a major protection here. I do my work in my own language, whose characters I created, and I do not share this language with anyone but my mate apparent and when we have children with them. I can do this because I am proving able to establish an income independently without taking employment. In the past those who have been driven by exigence to create a new character set have been unable to survive without enlisting the cooperation of the people, and so have had to share their characters with their nonblood contemporaries.


This leaves me in a favorable position. I can satisfy the Italian Mafia that I am providing leadership by blogging in English. I can generate income with English transformation art. Everyone goes home happy.


By the way, I endorse the objectives of the United States government to bring democratic rule in Iraq and Afghanistan. I offer radical Islam the pen. I will deny them their swords.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

The transformation of English transformation art into a solely manufactured product without a signature

The creation of a work of English transformation art, once the color schemes have been determined, is a matter of careful computer work. It is all work that follows a formula and therefore can be completely automated. Today there is general acceptance of the idea of digital art--work generated completely by a computer--and English transformation art is a cousin to that. This is the basis on which I, the artist, justify placing my signature on the work and selling it as art rather than an object solely of manufacture.


However, while the signature adds a certain value to the art it does not affect the aesthetic qualities of the art itself. Why not then operate as a manufacturer by omitting the signature and placing an imprint of a trademark on the work instead? Production of a work would in that case not require the imposition, at a key place in the manufacturing process, of the natural hand of the artist, making of the whole a manufacturing business rather than a craft business, and establishing the artist as the owner of that business with full power to hire a staff which would design systems of manufacture according to engineering standards based on the general aesthetic principle of English transformation art. The price a work produced in this manner could command would be less than the price a signed work could expect, but the labor required to produce the work, and thus its cost of production, would be less also. Profit margin would be roughly preserved and the owner of the business would be faced with business challenges rather than craft challenges.


As for the sense one would get from a manufactured item, the machine-like nature of this art is not the sort of thing that makes one look for the hand of a human author. It is the thinking up of the idea for the art, and the sharp simplicity of its expression, that impresses the viewer, not some consideration of craft, whether strongly to the technical side or strongly to the manual side. A signature speaks to craft among the general body of craftsmen while a trademark speaks to thought among the general body of thinkers. Certainly good aesthetic judgment plays a part in the formation of the business and would never be relegated to a minor role. But like other items that have been transformed by modern industrial capabilities into mass markets, to the benefit of the whole population, so would cheap English transformation art make a novel and attractive form of self-expression available to the masses at an affordable cost. Design savvy is as much a part of the industrial revolution as is engineering.


Price would depend on volume so it would be strictly conjectural what the price of manufactured English transformation art would be. Going to manufacture would only be possible if first the work proves to have a market as signed art. The first milestone was sale of one item and that has been passed. It is a new, and in a sense risky, art investment, a hurdle which every new artist faces, but made especially tricky by the somewhat intelligence-driven effectiveness of the product to make an impression on both the owner, who chooses the text and more than anyone else feels its impact, and others, who presumably have little or no investment in the text and react to the work as is in purely abstract terms. Jumping past this hurdle, especially the one of the owner, is the biggest challenge the business faces at this stage of its development.


These are the considerations that will guide the development of the business from top to bottom. Only sales and profit will prove them to have value, for the artist, for the client, and for the public at large.

Friday, August 14, 2009

I have made my first sale of artwork from my blog.

For the past couple of weeks I have been in conversation with a client wishing to purchase a work of English transformation art. Today I received his payment.

This is the momentous event I have been waiting for. It is no longer an abstract concept alone to be selling art on my blog. Now it is real.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The buyer of my art chooses the text that becomes the art.

The buyer chooses the text that becomes the art. That is the central message I wish to convey. You can see clearly what kind of image you can expect by looking at my gallery. There is a certain look about them that is immediately recognizable. Yet each one is unique as the word or words it represents.

Everyone has a different feeling about individual words. My art gives you the chance to immortalize the word or words that mean the most to you. Perhaps that is your spouse's or child's name, a favorite person or social group, a cause you believe in, a motto, a geographical location. There is no limit to the ideas that people might want to give a special place to as an artwork hanging in their home or office. And you have ten very different color schemes for the piece, each one of them showing off the theme in a special way.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Crystal proves herself a good judge of quality in art

Yesterday I invited Crystal, my girlfriend, to look at the recent colored pencil drawings I have done and pick out those she wants for herself. I was worried about this because I didn't know for sure what her tastes are and it will be one thing to pursue her hand if she has good taste and quite another to pursue her hand if she doesn't.

My greatest fear was that she would want none of them.

However, she picked out four, and I was tremendously encouraged by her selections. Of the nine small works (about 2 1/2"x 4") she picked the one I was confident was the best, two others among the best five, and another I don't recall. This was a quite good yield in terms of being similar taste to my own.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Crystal, like me, is mentally ill.

The obstacle to marrying Crystal and having children, at this point, is that she is mentally ill. My own mental illness I seem to have controlled. Hers is a different matter. She does fine when she is with me--I have the tools to facilitate things. But when she is away from me for any length of time things tend to get frantic. If I can get more time with her I might be able to help her reach a better level. Marriage would give me the time. However it's not a certainty that I can help her. This is a crisis, as it means my plans to raise a family are completely uncertain.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

lack of philosophy in a nursing home

Institutions develop infrastructure of rules and regulations. Persons within and without institutions, if they are reputable, have expectations institutions will incorporate better rules and regulations rather than worse. But what is the mean between better and worse? It is usually taken to be whatever exists in the present. The penetration of the mean everywhere in an institution is the first principle of governance, whether public or private.

That being accepted, it is to be noted that persons within and without an institution, beyond expecting better rules and regulations, will cultivate certain bench markers to judge the state of the institution in its mean between better and worse. Rare or unknown is a philosophy of such bench markers. Consequently, judgment degenerates into an assortment of gross specifications which institutions, as a result, are expected to exhibit or run the risk of dissent, possibly venomous dissent. Foremost, for many people, of these specifications is that of consistency. It is foremost because it works in many cases, that is, it enables dissent to be informed by clear and simple illustration of why certain forms are better and certain forms are worse than the mean penetrating throughout the institution. Without this bench marker conditions would easily slip into incomprehensibility for even the most cogent of analytical observers, both within and without the institution.

But consistency is only a gross specification. It cannot accompany the mean everywhere. It is limited in breadth and depth of import throughout the footprint of an institution within itself and without itself. For breadth and depth of import everywhere, admittedly a distant standard for humanity, it is necessary to move in the direction of science, and for this civilization the result in both popular and professional orientation to passage upon the thoroughfares, into byways, and advancing upon frontiers, that has produced philosophy, whose primitive manifestations have included religion and folk tales, and whose recent improvements have led to the general availability of a liberal education. Application of philosophy to life is not easy but it certainly is better than religion and folk tales, and it tends to do better within and without institutions than mere gross specifications as a demand upon judgment of rules and regulations as being better or worse than the mean throughout the institution.

Science, in the ideal case being mathematically formulated natural philosophy, does not accompany men's judgment everywhere they go. For the best of men such accompaniment is limited to simple, non mathematical philosophy, and this structural foundation of civilization's advance has been pursued vigorously for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, with occasional major advances by persons who have consequently acquired legendary status--persons such as Pythagoras, Buddha, and Fu Hsi. I am not so optimistic as this makes me sound. What of war? Poverty? Abuse of one or more persons by one or more persons whether its obscurity is found in small or large degrees of authority? These will only pass away when the accompaniment of men on all paths is science. Certainly the attainment of such a state is not guaranteed to any species, even homo sapiens in all his trust in his progress's inevitability and non reduction to a limiting sum of an infinite, or perhaps finite, series of species-wide steps.

Philosophy therefore being preferred over gross specification, it is to be considered greatly arguable whether a certain rule at the nursing home where I live is better or worse than the mean which penetrates throughout that home, that rule being that residents are to be always accompanied , supervised, assisted, and even stood in for, when getting hot water out of the hot water outlet on the food line, by staff. I think anyone who has read much of this blog will see how absurd this will be when it is applied to me, as it was this morning (August 5, 2009).

But is it a rule that is worse than the mean? Here is where the great argument will commence.

I have observed something else in the kitchen that also irritates me, and I see it practiced widely everywhere. Someone getting food in a group of equals gets his plate and then tells the server to give him more of one item than the server gave to him as his equal share with everyone else. The server accedes.

Now maybe the server first refuses, but the person gets more forceful. This may go back and forth at length, but eventually, more often than not, the server gives in and puts another spoonful on the person's plate. When I observe this happen I am always on the verge of bursting out, "You get more and the rest of us have to accept what we're given because we're not rude like you are. What justice is there in that?"

Anyone who does this would undoubtedly read this post with a different sense than anyone who sees what I'm talking about.

So while they are bending over backwards to stop me from pouring my own hot water, they are putting an extra helping on the plate of the guy ahead of me because he is rude enough to make a scene, and this in full view of others in line who will be met with less conformity if they should say, "Hey. You let him have more. Why can't I too?" It's the same employee who does both, literally.

So here is where most analysts would argue from consistency against the simultaneous execution of both practices.

But for me it is not so simple. Consistency, as I said, is not able to go everywhere in breadth and depth with rules and regulations. In this case, we could say that while here you are being strict, there you are being lenient, and that's not consistent.

But real consistency demands that two situations have a common framework or foundation, and this is not true here. In one case, there is a safety issue with special relevance because of the large number of functionally challenged residents living here. In the other, the issue is one of authority. Does the server have the authority to deviate from nominal equality? If he does, then I will have to accept it if he decides for his own reasons that he will honor a rude request. If he does not, then we have a roguery completely legitimized, merely by isolation of the point of service in the setting of the institution. This roguery is spread from the serving line to the server. But which is it? Does he have the authority to decide himself, or do regulations leave him no tolerance? One condition, the one where regulations leave the server no tolerance, requires a lengthy discussion between the philosophically endowed observer, who is also a paying resident, and the staff hierarchy. Most likely such hierarchy will not have the patience with a resident, none of whom are recognized as philosophers in any true sense, to reach a satisfactory conclusion with the resident who brings the matter up. The other condition, the one where the server has all the authority he needs to give out more food as he sees fit, may be poor organization, but it cannot be faulted on its command logic. My initial question to staff hierarchy will be simply whether servers have authority or do not have authority to give larger portions as they see fit.

Returning to the first case, of hot water pouring, the critical factor is to what extent is it practical for staff to become familiar enough with different residents that a decision of whom to stop from pouring hot water and whom not to can be made easily, which means without having to create a "no pour" list, and also faithful enough to residents' own view of their own functionality that arguments will not erupt over hot water.

As can be seen from these examples psychiatric nursing homes are fraught with delicate bureaucratic ensnarements, some commonly encountered and some particular to nursing homes.

What allows institutions to function is as much the frequency of philosophically adept observers in society as it is good rote analysts who usually make up the rules in the first place. It is the patience and continuing reflection of the first that gives the second time to eventually make the right decisions. Where the frequency of philosophers is low, thing tend to get mired or maybe just mediocre. Where fortune smiles and the frequency is high, much good will follow.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

the New Haven, CT, fire department, 1973

I consider the New Haven, CT, fire department of 1973 a suspect in my continuing bad luck.

I had a fire in my off-campus apartment at 35 Trumbull Street in New Haven in 1973. I fraternized with the firemen in the burnt out remains afterwards.

I grabbed my spider plant babies off the fire escape, exclaiming "Life continues!" or something like that. They weren't amused.

I pointed to the charring on the kitchen floor, saying that was where I had lit a candle before leaving the apartment for the library. I said it must have burnt to the wooden stool it was on and caused the fire. They weren't amused.

The next day the owner of the building asked me for a list of my losses. He said he would be good for them.

When I came to his office later with the list, one of his people took me aside and told me that the firemen had come to the owner and had said something about the young hippy type with long hair who had the fire having caused the fire himself. The offer of being good for the losses was retracted.

I became mentally ill one year later.

I didn't tell the firemen that the reason I lit the candle was that I was having trouble with the girl I loved at the time and wanted to reflect. I got very depressed and forgot to extinguish the candle when I left the apartment to study at the library.

I best a rival suitor for Crystal Newell

Sunday, August 2, 2009, I took Crystal to the DuSable Museum in Garfield Park, Chicago. It is a museum of African American history, and Crystal is black.

It was an excellent trip.

We went after the museum to the campus of the University of Chicago, not far away, where we walked around the grounds and stopped inside a couple of libraries. On the way back to the bus stop we passed Stagg Field, where the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was produced, and I was thrilled by seeing it. That historic achievement was presided over by Enrico Fermi, who became a hero for me when I learned that he had a gap in his teeth. On January 4, 2008, I lost one of my front teeth. That's when I started to look at African descent girls to date. They aren't repulsed by tooth gaps, and some of them are really good looking, like Crystal.

After that we stopped at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where I studied graduate architecture for three years, and I showed Crystal around.

Back at the nursing home, an hour went by and I was standing in the lobby with Crystal nearby and a resident named Keith Lisk came in and said to Crystal, "come and help me unload some snacks."

Crystal went right away with him. I was disturbed that he was taking liberties with her and it seemed as if he was trying to horn in on me.

They came back in with cartons of Coke and I said I would carry the Coke up to his room. I didn't want this little business to continue. Crystal said she would do it. Mr. Lisk said, loudly, "Crystal is my girlfriend."

That was war.

I said, "Crystal is not your girlfriend."

He said, "yes she is."

I said, "no she isn't"

He said, "oh yes she is."

Then he went to move past me to get the Cokes and said "excuse me," expecting me to move aside.

I said, "No."

He said, "Are you trying to start something?"

Then he and Crystal disappeared into the elevator.

I began to plot my attack on this rival suitor.

I decided to challenge him to a fight. The problem was that he is a big guy, customarily wealthy and used to getting his way, and his behavior at this point showed that he didn't respect me. I figured the danger was that he would just ignore my challenge and retain his right to court Crystal separately.

I considered the situation at length and saw that the challenge must be rendered immediately and strategically to prevent him from ignoring it in the long run. I composed a speech: "You're a pretty big guy. Do you think you can beat me?" I went to his room hoping to find him in. He was coming out the door and I immediately issued my challenge, verbatim.

He said, "I don't know." and walked by me and headed down the stairs. I went to the stairway and said to him, "If you don't fight me you're a coward." I had composed that too, before going to his room.

He didn't say anything and kept going. His roommate was there and asked me what I called him. I said, "a coward." His roommate laughed.

Now it was necessary to rally my forces. I went to the activity room where there was a big line of residents waiting for dinner. I announced that I had challenged Kieth Lisk to a fight because he was trying to horn in on me. I called upon a friend there, Ken Houk, to be my second. He said something that showed he was not the right choice and I said forget it. I moved on to Charles Gassman and repeated the call.

Charles had once told me he had been in 50 fights, plus he is a genius. I said that the fight would be at the Lake. He asked what the weapons would be. I said I would suggest that there be no weapons. He asked would it be to the death. I said I didn't want to speak of death. It would be no holds barred, no time limit. He asked when the fight would be. I said Mr. Lisk had not yet agreed to the fight. Mr. Gassman said that if I got him to agree to the fight he would serve as my second. I said ok, that I would get back to him when I got Mr. Lisk to agree to the fight.

Then I addressed the room again and said that this fight had nothing to do with Bryn Mawr Care, nothing to do with mental illness, and the staff was not to be informed.

I was on my way out the door then and Linda, the receptionist, walked in and asked if everything was alright in there. I said, "everything is fine in here" and walked out.

I hovered in the area waiting for Linda to either get ornery, because she surely must have heard the whole speech in the activity room as I spoke very loudly and there was no other sound, or wisely ignore the action which I had successfully brought to a tight conclusion at that stage of development of the battle.

Linda returned to her desk in the lobby. I approached her to be sure she was not going to interject herself in my affairs. I said, "do you have any questions for me?" She said no. I indicated acknowledgment and that was another end in my favor.

I returned to my room and planned my next step. I determined that I needed to repeat to Mr. Lisk what I said before to him as he was going down the stairway.

I went to his room, where he was sitting on his bed, and said, "If you don't fight me you're a coward."

He said, "If you don't get out of here I'm going to call the C.N.A."

This showed he didn't want to fight. It changed the battlefield but it didn't lesson the peril. I would have to face staff now to beat him.

I took a walk to get my bearings and decide my next action. I saw that I would have to approach staff proactively. I decided I needed to go and present my case to the administrator, the top on-site official of the facility.

While still outside I engaged in some martial arts movements and determined I was out of shape, martially. I did my best to limber up. Then I returned to the facility.

I was standing in the lobby and engaged in distracting the staff to keep them from getting involved and to reinforce in their minds I was calm and collected, when Mr. Lisk entered the Lobby and immediately called out, "this man tried to start a fight with me."

I said yes I did, because he was trying to horn in on me.

Staff questioned what I meant by that. I said we all know what that means. Let's not pause in our discussion to figure that out now.

Words were said about violence being not the way to solve trouble, etc. etc. etc. I said the fight would be outside, not inside, with seconds, and no weapons.

Amanda, a case manager on duty tried to imply she knew better what the situation called for. I said her experience was minuscule. More words were said. Then I offered that if Mr. Lisk would guarantee that he would never say to anyone that Crystal is his girlfriend, I would drop my challenge.

Amanda was visibly relieved to hear this and turned to Mr. Lisk and asked if he would guarantee it. The two of them haggled a bit, she repeating my accusation that he had called Crystal his girlfriend, he saying "but she is my girlfriend. My friend." This was effectively where I saw that I would get what I wanted. Amanda asked him again if he would agree to the guarantee and he said yes. Then he got on the elevator and went away.

Amanda asked me if I was satisfied and I said not 100%. There was a lot of side action going on during the argument and Mr. Lisk didn't look me straight in the eye when he made the guarantee. Still, I was fairly sure that things were now in my favor.

Amanda took her position on violence a little further, apparently worried I would press my case again, and I said to her "you have sufficient wisdom for your needs. I would like you to grant the same for me." She didn't get it and said again that violence never solved anything, and I said "there hasn't been any violence." and walked away, still ready for a fight because I had been physically preparing myself for a time unlimited battle at the lake at any moment with a man much bigger in stature than myself.

I didn't see Mr. Lisk again until today, the day after. He didn't avoid my glance but he didn't express the perilous cockiness, and I put a little grin on to allow him to smile back if he wished because I knew he had no chance anymore of rivaling my courtship of Crystal. He didn't smile back, went on talking to people as if nothing had happened, and thus enforced the idea in my mind that he underestimated the stakes regarding Crystal.

This then is where I have taken a stand in pursuit of Crystal Newell. The residents, a large number of them, know what I will do if someone rivals me, and now that I have done it I will do it more freely in the future, having delivered appropriate words in the moment embarking on combat. Physical fights I have had but not in my home state. Now those will accrue to my honor and lend credence to my continuing threat of willingness to enter a fight for what I hold dear.

Monday, August 3, 2009

on homosexual policy

The purpose of my policy regarding homosexuals is not to punish them. I am not a believer in retribution. The policy of a death penalty for the first offense of a homosexual having contact with children is a measure of discouragement from that conduct, not punishment. Under this policy it is necessary to strengthen the provisions for individual rights of homosexuals--the prohibition of discrimination primarily. Gay bashing is contrary to a solution to the problem posed by homosexuality. I suspect it is done only because no prior policy based on understanding of both the crisis and the poignancy of homosexuality has existed.

The distinction between individual rights and mating rights is critical. Under my policy, which may or may not be endorsed by the ruling elite of the United States, homosexuals will get no mating rights, none whatsoever. This means not only that they cannot marry, but that public displays of affection, which is a de facto mating right rather than an individual right, is prohibited to them. It is my interpretation that the rights of consenting adults in private, which allow homosexuals to conduct their sexual affairs, are an extension of individual rights and are not actually mating rights. The right to take a coupling anywhere in society, as certified and regulated by marriage, is a mating right, and it is not to be extended to homosexuals. This is a deviation from present laws and will not be easy to achieve in actual manifestation.

Homo sapiens is a compassionate species. This is why leniency with homosexuals is currently a winning proposition. Compassion will yield to understanding when understanding reaches a state of greater persuasiveness than compassion. Understanding and compassion are both eonic processes and both their effects, including leniency for homosexuals, are to be respected. I believe the transition from leniency for to elimination of homosexuality will be similar to the transition from geocentrism to heliocentrism. Great weight is enjoyed by the forces lenient to homosexuality, just as it was enjoyed by the church on the matter of the earth being universally accepted as the center of the universe. Only time will tell whether the crisis of homosexuality is to get equal attention as does its poignancy.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

affair on the forums at wetcanvas.com

I recently posted to the forums at wetcanvas.com, where I am a member, asking for comments on my art and linked to here, to my blog, where, as you see, I am selling art with a slideshow at the top of the sidebar.

The post got a comment that alluded to content on my blog that wetcanvas.com members would find contrary to their art interests. I replied with a post offering a conversation and saying isn't that the strength of America. Then there was a reply from a third party who said that just by mentioning America that way I was showing I wanted to go in other directions than art.

I next sent a private message to the third party, as follows:

You seem to take this matter casually. I do not. The content of my blog is not for WC to censor and I get the feeling you two are trying to do that. I was not aware of any policy regarding llinks on WC. I linked to it because I show and sell art there. I do other things too. I don't disown any of it and I advance all of it as circumstance permits. The link was a way to advance the art and I took it. I expected controversy regarding the art and I linked fully prepared to engage in dispute over it. But not disowning the other things either I accepted the challenge issued by the poster. It would have been more prudent to send him a private message but then it would perhaps have been more prudent for him to send me one too if he wanted to dispute a matter unrelated to art. He could have left his comment on my blog but he left it here. I spoke about it on WC only because it was brought up here by someone else, sullying my name in a way which I will not sit idly by and allow to remain unchallenged where it is open to public view. I believe I did so with integrity, offering a conversation rather than engaging in epithets ("homophobic vitreol"). I am content with my response. You didn't like it. The whole matter should have been handled in private, but once it was out I had to defend myself, or would you disagree? Pehaps the intention of his comments is to disuade other WC members from going to my blog, knowing that he has no grounds to challenge the link. He is intitled to his politics and their advancement like anyone else. What I do about his advancement of his politics is my business, also like anyone else.

This is a private message. Who is responsible for bringing non-art issues to WC? My art is at the top of my blog. My reference to the blog at WC was about art. The other things on the blog are irrelevant to art. Why bring them up? Every day webpages are visited that contain widely diverse subject matter. Some are entirely monothematic. WC, appropriately so, is strictly monothematic. To ask outside sources to link in only if they too are monothematic in art seems to me to be going beyond due process. I made every attempt on my blog to make the art separable from the other things, placing it at the top and putting in a sticky referring only to it. I think I am just as devoted to art, and to keeping business and politics separate, as you are. I don't like this affair. It puts me in a bad llight. I love art. I spend a great deal of time with it. I believe in blogging, and that means openness. It puts a person at risk. It is wide enough a venue to allow anyone to say anything about anything, provided it it lawful. You might say it is more freedom than even the artist has. If by defending my blog I am bolstering bloggers' freedom then art can only gain additional freedom by my standing firm on my position, not on an issue, but on my freedom to link to my blog as a platform for art, as well as other things easily ignored if one is really just interested in the art. I risk comments such as I see here. I would like to appreciate everyone who disputes with me for their every strength. I invite you to do the same. Maybe we should take a cue from President Obama and all go out together for a beer. Make mine a virtual, barkeep!