inadvertantdeliberation

2006-08-16T07:30:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted words in a long time. I have been struggling to get my finances in the black after being unemployed for a month. I was about to catch back up when I heard a bad noise in my engine while returning from Macon in July. It was nothing really serious but still cost some big bucks.
I have been looking at Paul Klee art. Kasimir Malevich's supremicist compositions were careful distillations of placement of shapes and lines, while Klee seems to be a gut reaction, like reaching in for the Id. Something in me wants to create a synthesis of the two.
This should be quite a challenge. Every attempt to borrow the dynamics of a Malevich work, I seem to reach a balance that thwarts the dynamic imbalance of the source work.
I have a painting of a friend's Mom & Dad and it looks like it might come out pretty good.
Working with acrylics have been challenging this summer. One of my ways of trying to recover from debt has been not using A/C and the heat makes my acrylics dry very fast. I last tried spreading a little retarding medium on the canvas, spraying a little water & coating the whole surface, and then laying the paint down.
I miss all the people I saw back at Clemson. I am glad that school will be back soon.
I finally have insurance. I got my card last night during work. I need to find a local doctor and start getting healthier.
Marion

2006-08-01T06:35:00.000-04:00

This is Lude Act, a band I shot a few weeks ago.

2006-08-01T06:31:00.000-04:00

2006-06-25T05:45:00.000-04:00

This is the bass player for Lude Act. I just went to hear him play with another group as a fill-in and, as soon as I got home, I looked through my photos for something I might could work with to produce an interesting pic of him. I'm slow with names... Martin, right?

2006-06-23T22:11:00.000-04:00

One of those Civil War re-enactmemts. They actually act it like we played as kids: the better strategy wins that year. Many of the participants know details about the type character they portray; what they did & why, etc. Well, it is another chance to play with pictures.

New Job

2006-06-14T18:49:00.000-04:00

My new job seems like one I'll like. The company makes brake systems for railroad cars. I'm working in the deburring section of the machine shop.
The first thing I did was to debur these metal blocks with channels cut through them; probably for distribution of hydraulic lines and maybe some cylinders fit into the larger channels. I take off the rough edges with hand tools and sandpaper.
Then, they showed me how to use this cleaning extruder. The pieces are placed on special holders over this machine that presses a putty/clay-like substance through the holes. The stuff takes out with it small pieces of loose metal and powdered metal from the inside. I kept thinking how my ex-wife would love something like this to extrude clay into special shapes, not to clean parts.
Today, I burnished. I smoothed and finished the opening size to the largest opening in the block. It is done with a drill press and a special burnishing head/bit that the diameter can change by about 3/100,000 of an inch in steps.
I've worked three days and the boss wanted to have me at the demonstration/training on a new piece of measuring equipment. After four days, I will be working on the second shift; the only person in that section . I feel that these people have lots of confidence in me.
Well, there's those jobs and some washing of parts, rinsing, and getting quality dept to check on the work. Our new measuring tool is more accurate than the one in quality. Everybody is nice and I just learned the burnishing from a guy who speaks almost exclusively in Spanish.

Rose

2006-06-01T23:54:00.000-04:00

make sure to click on the photos and get them as large as possible so that you can see some of the textures

2006-05-31T22:57:00.000-04:00

2006-05-29T12:46:00.000-04:00

2006-05-28T11:02:00.000-04:00

some more pics.

2006-05-25T11:28:00.000-04:00

Some scenes from The Joint, Clemson, SC.

2006-05-18T12:35:00.000-04:00

A guy is mysteriously emerging from a side door or such.

2006-05-15T08:36:00.000-04:00

A slight hint of winged creatures in the sky

2006-05-11T03:23:00.000-04:00

A dancer gets some attention.

2006-05-11T03:19:00.000-04:00

Ok, the chicken crossed the road to get her portrait done.

2006-05-11T03:14:00.000-04:00

This is of the mixing board at The Joint, Clemson, SC.

So, whatzit like?

2006-04-16T04:54:00.000-04:00

Turning fifty... I wondered how it would feel. I didn't think much about it until a week or so before the day. I often did not have much for parties in my past,( though my ex-wife went to the trouble to have something special like a party or dinner for many of my birthdays while we were together: she is that type of thoughtful person) and I had no plans for one, except to go to the club I frequent.
A few days before my birthday, I got my hair cut and was surprised to see how much gray was in the hair coming out from the roots now. I guess I'm not really afraid of the gray, but I didn't want a sudden change as the birthday rolled around.
My birthday happened to be on Easter weekend this year, so I had extra days off work. I looked at my finances and considered a drive to New Orleans to visit my daughter with her birthday coming in the next week: I'm not in a financial hole but I have no extra cash, so I deemed it unwise to take the trip.
The extra days allowed me to get my tomato plants in the ground, lawn mowed, plants put back outside, and still have some time for painting. I went out to eat with two sisters and my Dad on Friday. I also got to catch a band at the Joint, Friday night. While there I told the bartenders and club faithful that it was my birthday after midnight. I got a free drink or two and some hugs & kisses from some really sweet & cute bartenders.
Another gal, for some reason, decided to ask me a bunch of questions. I am still puzzled why she felt the urge to quiz me, but it was quite a coincidence. I started to go to this club because it was in Clemson, SC, where I grew up and I hoped to find some people I remembered from high school days and her boyfriend & several other friends went to school with me. All the times I visited in the area, I'd look for classmates and found almost none and then she knows about five or so.
My return visit this night was a sure let down. The bands were ok. I especially liked the opening band named, Open. The regular sound man played guitar. I got a sketch of him, wanting to catch his dredlocks for a painting and I cropped a neat closeup sketch of his nose and mouth covered by the locks dangling in front of the microphone; could make for a pretty dynamic image.
I tried some other sketches, but the subjects moved too quickly and I seemed to have heads that didn't quite fit correctly onto bodies. I just accept that some days are like that.
No hugs and no surprise connections this night but it has been a good weekend.

Tamassee and another jewel story

2006-04-03T01:15:00.000-04:00

There was a great prophet/ medicine man in the SC Cherokee Lower Hill Towns. Tamassee was his name. One account called him a "Rain Prophet." but I have mostly heard of him being called a "Fire Prophet." He was known in the Nation for his wisdom and healing powers using the "Sunlight of God," a hen's egg size ruby. I have heard accounts that people respected and trusted his word, coming from far away to consult with him, but they feared him a certain amount. He was buried with his ruby when he died.
All this reminds me of a Cherokee legend involving a large jewel and a huge, deadly serpent.
There was an outcast who was trying to be more than marginally accepted into the Cherokee tribe. He was Mohican in background, if I remember correctly. The town where he stayed was stricken with an epidemic and many were getting very sick & dying. Word spread that the only way they could be cured from this disease and save the town was to use the jewel from the great serpent. This man set out to acquire this jewel.
This serpent was huge and deadly. I recall accounts of it being about 40-50 ft long. It had the power to hypnotize animals and humans by strong eye contact, leaving the prey motionless. The poison was so powerful that contact with the skin was lethal without a bite. The serpent could outrun any human. It seemed invincible and that is why no humans lived in that area anymore. The snake had a ruby the size of a hen's egg embedded in his forehead and it was considered to be powerful.
This man journeyed to the area where the serpent lived. He first prayed to God and communed with the spirits of the people who had died there. The spirits said that a circle of fire, properly set, would provide a wall to protect him from the serpent and it's venom. They told him that the serpent could not stay on the side of a hill very well: it would tend to roll downhill and lose it's place.
He set a circle of dried sticks, leaves & brush around his campsite and set a fire in the center. The next morning, he did not extinguish the glowing embers and set a large number of ready arrows sticking into the ground. He went out to search the serpent.
He found the snake near the top of a mountain. He was careful to avoid direct eye contact and managed to dodge the initial strike from the serpent. He ran to the top of the mountain with the snake not far behind. As the started down the other side, the serpent was gaining on him rapidly. He remembered his advice from the spirits and turned to run along the mountain side. As the serpent moved along the mountain side, it would tend to roll downhill and lose ground. It would scurry back up the mountain and try to chase him again and again. This kept the man safely ahead. The serpent followed him all the way to the campsite where he quickly set the circle of brush afire. The snake struck at him and tried to shoot venom at him, but he was protected by the fire. He could, however, shoot arrows through the flames and strike the serpent. He struck again and again, but the adversary was relentless. Finally,in a last desperate lunge, the snake fell and died, sending out one stream of venom.
When the man was sure that the serpent was truly dead, he extinguished his protective circle of flame and cut the ruby from it's head. He took it home and saved many people's lives from the epidemic. They accepted him and made him their medicine man. He was known far and wide for his healing powers with the stone.
The man noticed, however, that people seemed to give him a wide berth and only came to him when they needed him. There was a look of fear in many's eyes. One day, he noticed his reflection in the water and saw what distanced him from the others: there was a miniature serpent protruding from his forehead. He surmised that a tiny drop from that last surge of the serpent had arched over the top of the fire and landed on his forehead. It had somehow not killed him but left this horrific outgrowth. Many feared that the serpent was really alive.
When the medicine man died, they buried him with the jewel. They were very afraid of him and the jewel.

Marion

Those $#^% Bradford Pears!

2006-03-23T02:01:00.000-05:00

Those $#^% Bradford Pears: They mess up mysinuses. I'm sure some other things have helped too, but when I lie down, I cant breathe after about twenty minutes.
Much has happened. I'll give a brief rundown.
I've returned to painting and have gessoed four masonite boards and roughed out the images of the club... even started painting on one. The owner wants me to post some paintings at the club. That is not the best lighting to view the pics, but the exposure will be a great improvement over stacked against my kitchen wall.
Work keeps putting off the time when they may hire and I think that I may have an offer to work a local newspaper. Less travel, but a smaller company with prob. less benefits. Then again, I have no benefits to speak of as a temp and they're leaving me the impression that they won't hire for nine months or more.
My daughter found a cyst on her hand/wrist... not dangerous but will prob. come back after removal unless she quits using her hand, which an artist will not do.
If I ever get my free scanner running, I will post some artwork.

My Isaqueena story disappeared!

2006-02-12T22:40:00.000-05:00

I referred to Isaqueena because I had posted the bigger legend about her. Somehow, it has disappeared, so I will retell it.
Issaqueena was a member of the Keowee village of the Lower Hills region of the Cherokee. In the 1700's they used a path from their home near Seneca and Clemson, SC which crossed the Eastern tributaries of the Seneca River and then switched to following the Western tributaries of the Saluda River to about the area of Greenwood, SC. From there, it worked it's way to Charleston, where the Cherokee traded many things; but primarily deer hides. At that area near Greenwood, a path from middle Georgia met where the Muscogee traders headed to Charleston.
Someone figured that this was a good place to set up a trading post where he did well. It wasn't long before a few families of settlers lived there. Disagreements would occur and there were some skirmishes between Cherokee. Often it went thqat an unscrupulous person of one group would do something like kill or steal and then the victim would retaliate against anyone of the other group. The settlers built a stockace as a retreat in times of unrest.
Later, the British built a fort at the confluence of the two trails (the Star Fort) and another across the river from the Keowee tribe (Ft Prince George), the latter of which only housed eight and was manned by rotating personnel from the Star Fort every month.
Isaqueena was a bit different from most others in her village. She was stolen from another tribe as a child and incorporated into the Cherokee as she grew up. Most stories described her as Catawba, which makes sense in that there was a small band of that nation just East of the Lower Hill Cherokee.
The most often told story is that Isaqueena and a soldier stationed at Ft Prince George became quite fond of each other and were thinking of marrying. Isaqueena asked the chief for permission to marry him and the chief was angry. He had already noticed their attractions towards each other and he wanted it stopped: she was to marry someone else from the tribe. She was upset at this and couldn't sleep. As she restlessly wandered through town that night, she overheard the chief and council set plans to surprise attack the Star Fort where her loved one was already stationed, after performing his month's duty.
She crept to the horses, sneaked hers out from town and onto the path. As she crossed the first creek, she estimated that she had gone one mile. She crossed the next after going six miles; another at twelve, and eighteen miles. These creeks are respectively named Mile Creek, Six Mile Creek, Twelve Mile Creek and Eighteen Mile Creek. Other Creeks were named; Three And Twenty and Six And Twenty. When she reached the fort, she had gone ninety Six miles. The name for the town became Ninety Six. There is also a Six Mile.
I have seen a map with the name Ninety Six and told as being 96 miles from the Keowee Village and no mention of the FT Prince George. It might possibly be a love affair of someone from the old trading post and still have some veracity to the legend.

Stumphouse

2006-02-11T18:33:00.000-05:00

I told the Isaqueena story of Stumphouse. Another story has the first house on the mountain built on three stumps on a considerable slope. One corner was on the ground and the other three were built on three stumps as foundation. The story adds that the builder died, leaving his widow the house. She invited a traveler to a meal, but the passerby had imbibed a bit and became quite improper to his host. She threw him out, down the steps to her house. He retaliated in anger, by burning her house.
I have yet to find any location associated with any story of the Stumphouse name's origin.
This mountain is the site of the attempted tunnel that was never finished (I mentioned it earlier).
Some work was done by slaves contracted by their owners, but there was not a large amount of this. The vast majority of the workers were Irish Immigrants. The Irish immigrants largely were Catholic and were already historically set as enemies to Scotch-Irish; Scotts who had been promised Irish land by the King of England and given rights taken from the Irish, but eventually found themselves treated about as badly as the Irish before them. The area was mostly settled by Scotch-Irish and so there was a history of conflict awaiting the new laborers. There were some skirmishes that broke out in the area.
The work was hard. One person held a bit and two took turns left and right hitting it into the rock with a sledge hammer. By the time it went about a foot into the rock, they took it out and threw it to someone who took the bits to be redone by a blacksmith. When they reached three feet, they went to another selected site to 'drill.' The holes were selected to maximize the rock removal for the tunnel when packed with blasting powder (pre-dynamite days). Others loaded rock for mules to carry to exits and loaded to steam engine powered lifts.
The tunnel was started on both sides and shafts were dug down in four places: about 700 feet from the entrances were the outside shafts and about 1100 Ft from each other. The shaft workers blasted down to tunnel depth, with people, mules, equipment, and rock transported via tandem buckets run by steam engines. Then, they worked outward on both faces, heading towards the other tunnel sections. The Eastern entrance met the first shaft, which allowed workers to concentrate on the other shafts.
Material prices escalated during the years of the attempt and money ran low many times. Many large investors and large numbers of smaller investors became disheartened and work stopped several times. By the late 1850's, it was pretty clear that the project would not continue again for a while; then came the secession and war. The project was doomed from then on.
One tunnel side is open as a park. One can take a flashlight and walk back past the first shaft and to where the blasting ceased and look at all the stupid graffiti people have left on this historic landmark. (There is a story that they could hear the driving of the bits from the next shaft on the latter days of work.) Moist air is always entering the tunnel and condensing in the shaft, so it is 'raining' in the shaft every time I've been there.
About a quarter mile from the tunnel is the Isaqueena falls, where Isaqueena allegedly jumped and hid from her pursuers that I mentioned earlier.

I Mentioned Walhalla

2006-02-11T18:19:00.000-05:00

I mentioned Walhalla, which must connect, in some minds, Valhalla, the home of slain heroes of Nordic mythology. Walhalla was founded about 1850 by an ex-mayor of Charleston; a man of German heritage. He decided that he could attract many people to immigrate to this mountainous region (and buy land from him) and may feel it to be similar to some regions of the Alps. The area seemed to have the potential to become prosperous in that there was a planned railroad that was to pass through the edge of the city and it should become a major trade route.
If you have ever had to endure multiple groups of eight to twelve year old girls "clogging" at some festival, Walhalla is one of the major causes of this: clogging evolved from a traditional German dance in wooden shoes that was preserved through the years in Walhalla.
The nearby Stumphouse Mountain is the site of the attempted tunnel.

2006-02-11T18:02:00.000-05:00

Isaqueena and her husband went to settle not far from Keowee on a mountain just outside the present day city of Walhalla. There they built a house into the huge stump of a tree. While out taking care of life's daily chores, she realized that she had been spotted at a distance by some Cherokee. Since her famed trek, she had been captured once and had escaped. She knew that they would send a party out to hunt for her. She handed her infant child to her husband to, in some stories leave for a while, but in others, hide quietly in the stump house (The mountain is called Stumphouse Mountain and this is one of about three stories about the name's origin.)and set out to lead the search party awry.
When they spotted her, she ran to the top of a falls and jumped. She knew where to jump and landed in a spot where she was able to hide behind a wall of water. The group searched for her but could not find her; finally leaving with the assumption that she must have jumped to her death and washed downstream to somewhere they couldn't find..
Isaqueena then returned to her family and they moved a bit further from Keowee.

So How's That An Opportune Time?

2006-02-01T00:43:00.000-05:00

I needed to stop painting for a short spell and found sources of old maps and some historical notes of varying veracity. This I told in the previous blog.
I picked up a fascination for history when I realized the impact of some things that happened in the area where I grew up.
Somewhere around 1820 or so, the Army was given the task of finding the best route for a transcontinental railroad. Their studies favored a southern route going through Ft Smith Arkansas. It was shorter and had better passages through the Rockies. This was not the answer that the majority of lawmakers wanted to hear and it was still a daunting task, so it was mostly set aside. The more industrialized northern states felt that it was not as useful to run a southern route. There was a comfortable status quo situation where the southern states grew cotton and sold it at the world market price (The bottom would drop out about every 7 to 12 yrs) and the industrial states manufactured goods (including cotton clothing) that was protected by an import tariff.The only way one made well in the agriculture industry was to own a lot of land and have cheap labor (slaves)
Southerners were searching for a feasable rail route across the Appalachians to connect the coast to the Mississipi Valley and one of the more promising routes came right by where I grew up. The route was going to take advantage of some very good mountain passes, but would require two long tunnels; one at just over a mile long. The RR venture failed due to escaliting prices for goods and the failure to complete what would have been the longest tunnel in the world.
I spent many a summer day feeling the cool air pour from one uncompleted side of this tunnel. The place means so much more, since I caught the story behind it, including the methods of construction, the fighting of different peoples and the stories fo the place-names in the area.

came at a good time

2006-01-31T00:17:00.000-05:00

About two weeks ago, a dear friend told me that, not far from here (Belton, SC), is the spot where a man made guns. The story goes that he would dig silver out of the ground nearby and make a silver bullet to go into each rifle for the first shot. I found the place on my not so clear copy of the Mills Atlas Circa 1825.
I mentioned the claim by some that Abe Lincoln was really an illigetimate son of John C Calhoun. She told me that the spot of that tryst was not really far from here too. So I set out to look for Saylor's Crossing, where there was a tavern maid named Nancy Hanks and John C. had a registered court document of paying her monthly for a illigetimate child he fathered. There were five Nancy Hanks and two were easily ruled out by age.
The story goes that a Thomas Lincoln came to the area driving a herd of hogs here from TN and picked up a few contract jobs while in the area. Then Mr Calhoun paid him to take her off where she would be no trouble for him anymore. This would have made Abe five years older than he was officially recorded to be: not much trouble to hide five years in his public carreer days, but a 12 yr old actually 17 would cause notice. Hmm.. maybe those days in the backwoods covered for most of it???
Anyway, I've been reading many old accounts of area happenings and looking at old maps.

Marion

Time for a painting rest

2006-01-29T12:02:00.000-05:00

I have been regularly traveling to The Joint, a club in a college town about 30 miles away. I enjoy the music and I have been sketching scenes from there for a while. I made one painting and decided that I needed more work to capture the unique atmosphere of a club.
There is the black ceiling & walls of the room with the spotlights with color gels. If you look up at them you see the bright color circles and the yellow-white of the light leaking out around the edges also. There are the neon signs with all their colors. The incandescent lighting gives a bit yellowish tint to everything else. This place has three sections. One enters at the left side of the front and must veer right in the next 15 feet as the bar starts on the left there and runs almost to the back wall. There are mirrors behind the bar shelves and neon signs & posters all around. Three wide arches open to the dance floor and stage. Two wide rectangular doorway openings lead out the other side of the previously described music area. This third section has neons, posters and banners around the walls and a small bar opened on really busy nights. It has three pool tables, a foosball game and maybe still a dart game.
The colors of one room tend to contrast the colors from the next. In the music area, light pours in from the other two sides and my eyes are adjusted to the dark. I see silhouettes with light on their edges in the room and then a brightness that blurs the details of the adjoining room. I can see how much the light penetrates the room by looking at the floor.
So I took some available-light photos that were a bit blurry to get some more of the atmosphere and then did about a dozen studies; outline drawings in watercolor pencil, then color in & wash, then come back with watered acrylics. I was loving them but then it was like I hit a wall: I was liking what I did, but I knew that I was not going to like the next ones. I forged ahead with one and really messed it up.
Sometimes I just know I need to stop for a while; gain some perspective.

perception in time

2006-01-17T00:12:00.000-05:00

Part of the visual processing is happening in nerve cells before the signals have even reached the brain, so it processes quite fast. As quick as it is, however, there must be some lag..... say 1/120 of a second or so before that light in our eyes becomes an image and we are ever so slightly living in the past.
We are so easily adaptable to learn how think ahead so well that the ahead seems present and we don't even think about it. Watch a toddler try to catch his/her parent. (S)he runs to where the parent is when (s)he starts chasing only to notice that the parent has now moved and then sets sites for the new position. The parent has a hard time letting the little tyke win. Somehow, the kid figures the strategy to aim for where the parent will be by arrival time and learns the answer to Zeno's arrow puzzle where the arrow never arrives because it always goes halfway... you aim for past or through. Then we experience driving vehicles faster than we were designed to propel ourselves. The faster we go the further we think ahead in the road. At one speed, 10 ft ahead is 'now,' while another speed has 40 ft ahead as 'now.'
So this lag in our perceptions is entirely forgotten. Even those 'living for the now' are experiencing the slight past and thinking to the slight future.

back to perception, or perception, as I see it

2006-01-16T23:21:00.000-05:00

Nerve cells immediately behind our recptors in our eyes already start processing the signal. nerve cells decide whether there is a difference between the surrounding area and what that one receptor is viewing, or what that bunch of receptors are viewing (It depends on how close to the center of the visual field how detailed and how few receptors or how many and so on) and then these cells connect in bunches to the next neural cells. Each step looks for dramatic change for us to connect to perceive edges and lines.
My daughter, now 20, once told me before going into pre-school (4 yrs old, I'm guessing), "You know, everything is made up of lines, like the edge of that seat and the dashboard to the car and that door handle."
"That's really smart of you to notice that, but I'm going to argue that with you."
I tried to show her that the line at the edge of the seat was a ropelike edge and then, looking closely at it, it wasn't a line, but had a line on both sides of it. She held to her point. I was just amazed that she had noticed such a thing at that age and thought that I'd throw out another idea for her to think about. This is veering from the subject, but I will have to bring up how wonderful it was to have a young daughter who could carry on an intelligent conversation sometimes more perceptive than some from people I had seen make it to college.
So our minds delineate areas, fill in the color, and add the sharper details by scanning parts into our center of field of vision. Though our vision is made from color and light receptors we don't just record the spots of light and color and let the image make itself. We beat it to the processing punch by already defining the shapes and movements. Then, rather than starting all over the next instant with an entierly new construct, we can tell that we are essentially seeing the same thing and just fill in the differences.

Need ID?

2006-01-14T17:42:00.000-05:00

If you need another ID, maybe this KGB ID card will help you. Print it, add your photo and laminate.
mc

Back to the story....

2006-01-14T16:42:00.000-05:00

Ever since I switched to BellSoutht from my dial-up CompuServe, I have experienced many attacks on my system. I deflected most, but, once, two virus/spyware protection programs apparently got in each other's way and I got wiped out. It took a couple of weeks before I realized that I was not finding the right files to delete and replace, so I reloaded my computer. Compaq informed me that I can only load the disk twice, just to make sure that all those MS Word users wouldn't want to use my MS Works registration to downgrade their systems.
Someone would send me helpful hints from the Kim Kommando site and sent me one of hers where she recommended a Russian firewall as being extremely good. I loaded the trial version and noticed that, within two hours, my home page had been hijacked. I now had yapna.net and my folder to change home pages was inactive. I tricked it into changing my home page through clicking a "Make this your home page." It responded by taking my internet explorer as hostage.
I got a cold, which added to my usual sinus infections and sent me coughing until my throat was sore and I was too weak to stand. I have had to fight these most of my life and my experience with doctors was that they had no idea how bad they were, giving me way too weak an antibiotic, and needing about three tries before it works. That many visits and prescriptions is too much for one with such a tight financial situation and no medical insurance, so I jumped onto my regimen of extreme measures. (I will spare you readers the details of such... you may have just eaten or such.) Anyway, I just focused on being able to make it to work for quite a stretch and did not even turn on my computer for quite a while. I also did as little housekeeping as possible; the house is a wreck again.
Things are better enough to where I tackled the problem and have stuff working. Bugs still are in the system, but I should be able to clear them at this point.

I'm Back

2006-01-14T16:22:00.000-05:00

Life got so busy that I had no time to fight with my computer. The whole story will be too much for this entry, but I will start anyway.
As I said earlier, my finger has not been working correctly, causing me stress: I can't draw, write and play guitar as well with a finger not working. I was wetting a paper towel and heating it in the microwave at work to hold to my hand and help my movement when someone saw me, asked me what was going on, and whisked me to the medical room. They got me an appointment with a doc, which put me on work restrictions and got me a cortisone shot. For therapy, I am to stretch out and extend my finger, which happens to be my middle finger. I asked if this was for physical or emotional therapy, which garnered a few laughs.
Since I am still working as a temp, I was not happy with something that may make me appear limited in my usefulness. Also, I knew that others have similar hand problems and in worse shape, but have yet to go after treatment. These others have told the boss, as I had done, but this did not prompt him to seek treatment.
They put me on a job that is run separate from the assembly line where I sub-assemble and load programs into modules and got pretty good at it. I trained a replacement and just making things more sensible for him got me a bit of praise for organizational skills.
I am back working on the line now, and feel that my hand is still improving. The bosses have been extra cautious in reintegrated me to the line work, which I appreciate. This experience has made me feel that I have a good chance at getting hired as a full time employee with health insurance and retirement, etc.; important stuff when you can see increasing limitations approaching the big five-oh.

2005-10-17T01:20:00.000-04:00

definitely me but indefinite

Gee.. My first post

2005-10-16T23:40:00.000-04:00

I have put off really getting into posting on a website. I don't know why. I guess I really wanted to do more than I knew how to do and I had not listened enough to my daughter to learn how. I am trying to post a photo of a barn near Highlands, NC... It is my first attempt. Let's see how well I do.
I am reading a book about how the eye sees and the mind makes our sense of that. I have, for a long time, wanted to create things that give a sense of awe and I don't know that my paintings quite do that yet. I try to find that middle ground between design and image; between color and contrast; depth and surface.
We learn to take our perceptions to new levels as we experience TV, movies and driving. We take on video games and see ourselves as a character while looking down on the character from an Ariel view. What's to say we can't invent new ways of interpreting our sight into new perceptions of the world around us? I once took two photos of some pottery on a table and on a mantle behind the table. I shot them like a stereoscope. But with a wide angle lens and a prism that took out the middle of the image. Looking at them as I would a stereoscope took some time to adjust, but I was able to create a single image with a little bit of back & forth shifting of the missing parts. Someone could see the world this way and fill in the information from one eye missing just as we all fill in the blind spot that we have in each eye. I also got one of those cheap cameras that took four sequential photos on each normal 35 mm frame. I could look at many of those steroscopically and there would be a flash back & forth of the parts that moved from one image to the next. Is this not another way to represent motion in a somewhat more real sense than the blur of a single frame image. What would happen if you stereoscoped a movie so that the frames went from, say left to right, in that an image to your left eye then to your right eye and kept feeding the next one to the left and the left one to the right. How would the motion seem to the viewer?
Well, off to where I lie in bed and try to breathe and sleep at the same time.