Book Updates

To those who have hard copies of my book, thank you. You now have in your possesion a very rare item. I went through and fixed a few gramatical blemishes and updated the cover art to print a little closer to what I had initially intended. Of course my love got the very first printing of this book with its little imperfections. Hold onto those rare little gems.

But for those who don't yet have a hard copy, now is a great time to buy a copy of Black Whole Son. You can get the spit polished version. Not real spit, of course.

Rebirth of a Notion

I have a notion.

In the past I’ve really gotten down on the whole 1960’s counter-culture movement. I have questioned their intents and effects. But now I wonder.

Perhaps the hippies set the stage. Perhaps that great rupture of ‘peace and love’ was planting a seed. I will take that as the case for now. Those who study information systems will recognize that once an idea has found an introduction, it will continue to survive. For instance, even the idea of a flat earth persists and a handful of individuals continue to hold onto this idea. They find data to support it and much of it one could find very persuasive.

The concepts of peace and love, the purported foundations of the counter-cultural movement of the late 60’s, have universal appeal. Who amongst us can argue against the virtues of universal peace and universal love. Can we really say that these are inimical goals?

Another aspect of that time was the concept of personal and individual freedom. Are these not also gallant quests?

The 1960’s failed. The revolution many saw as inevitable through the strength of the Baby Boomers’ numbers never manifested. But that seed was planted.

I see now a bud forming from that seed. A pale stem lurks beneath the surface, pushing against the crust of the earth. As an experiment, let us all in this new year focus on doing everything we can to nurture this seedling. What harm can come from peace, love, and freedom?

Dream

Last night I dreamt that I saw an extremely tall black man. I walked up to him and looked up at his face. He looked down to me and asked, "What are you doing?" I replied, "I've always been tall and often wondered what it's like for others to look up to me."

News: Jake Approves of Spying

In a controversial move sure to haunt his upcoming bid for President, Jake recently announced that he supports spying.

"Covert Information Gathering (CIG) has a long and proud tradition in this country and around the globe." In further statements he made it clear that spying would be a part of his administration. "From the Peeping Tom to the Private Dick, people want to know things ordinarily shrouded in secrecy."

The outline for his program, received through an anonymous source, makes clear that Jake wants to expand the current spy network. An excerpt reads;

The paranoia surrounding any form of CIG and the questioning of the reliability of the sources inevitably leads to an escalation in CIG. Bringing everyone into the business of CIG hastens our progress towards it's inexorable goal. Life, Liberty, and the Perusal of Others' Happiness!

The plan for universal espionage calls for the creation of a national 'dumping ground' to which everyone can post their gathered information. Likewise, any individual can search the board for 'dirt' on any other individual.

Jake's theory behind this? "When we learn that people from all walks of life are doing things we never imagined, for instance that (high ranking politician's name deleted) is an alcoholic cross-dresser or that (media pundit's name deleted) is balling three to five guys a night while stoned out of their gourd, maybe people will stop being so titillated by it all and learn how to mind their own business."

Nothing At All

The ghost of Milwaukee
Just glides down the hall
He asks the tough questions
He walks into walls
What if our history means nothing at all?
Means nothing, nothing at all

Three-some

My lover gave me a three-some for X-mass.

I got The Waco Brothers' Freedom and Weep and two Tool DVDs, Schism and Parabola. Very groovy stuff.

What were you thinking I meant? You read too many dirty books.

More AWPC

OK, so work has been somewhat interesting this week.

Sitting around the lunchroom, I explained how one could theoretically employ the same equipment used in hospitals for MRI's in a smaller model to remove the metal slivers from a person's hand at the end of the work day.

Worker 1: See! I knew you were a smart one.
Worker 2: Well, he did used to be a teacher.
Worker 3: And a priest.
Me: And I'm now a writer on the side.
Worker 1: What the hell are you doing here?!
Me: I like to get dirty.

Timing

There were three extremely sexy, smart, lovely, wonderful women in my house this evening.

I of course was at work.

Damn.

Another AWPC

The ultimate in worker pessimism.

Operator: Day shift said they didn't have to have maintenance come over at all today so I'm sure we'll have quite a bit tonight.

AWPC's

Got two of them for you.

Me: We don't need no stinkin' supervisors!

And

Me Again: It can't be that tight and bouncy without a reason.

Gustave Flaubert

"The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois."

Random Thought

For a very long time now, I will look at my hands and not see bloody holes in my palms.

Where has all the stigmata gone?
Long time passing.
Where has all the stigmata gone?
Long time ago.

Holiday Music

There is one Christmas song that I absolutely, positively adore. The Pogues, Fairytale of New York from the album If I Should Fall From Grace With God. This song can actually bring tears to my eyes.

I Like Exclamation Points!

At least one would think so from my recent post titles.

I'll try to tone it down a bit. You know, raving and ranting in a more calm and controlled manner befitting a slave.

Feed the Revolution!

Government doesn't have any problems. Government IS the problem.

People argue up and down about what the founding fathers of the U.S. really intended. If you read up on each of them, you'll get a different answer every time. They couldn't agree on what exactly they wanted. None of us ever can. They did have one thing in common. They could recognize that the system they found themselves under the authority of was tyrannical and intolerable and they had the balls to do something about it.

By reading this post you have agreed to be placed on surveilance under the provisions of the U.S.A. Patriot Act.

They Live!

A big tattooed guy (well, smaller than me) was working the counter at the shop. New guy there. Arms covered in a mess of ill planned ink, much looking like stereotypical prison ink. He was talking with some gal sporting Bettie Page hair about a friend getting new boobs for Christmas. "Everybody agrees she has saggy, flappy boobs." And he was playing the Dead Milkmen, Big Lizard in my Backyard over the store stereo. And he was realy nice and apologized seemingly quite sincerely for me having to wait while he rung up a couple of other people.

Santa Claus is Coming!

As we now enter the longest night, let us each take time to offer up a sacrifice and invoke Santa, that he may appear in fiery red brilliance bringing with him the Sun.

Santa is the light bringer. Strangely, Lucifer is the light bringer as well. He was cast out of favor with Jehovah for giving light to man. Very similar to the Promtheus tale. I guess all those fundamentalist Christians were right. I wish I would have figured that out ages ago. This year I'm actually starting to like Christmas.

And those Christmas trees! Those magnificent Christmas trees in pine, so tall and erect and symbols of eternal life even in these, our darkest hours.

People everywhere sacrificing. They always spend a fortune on gifts and never get what they want out of it. Except the return of the Sun. That's sacrifice! Those milk and cookies that kids leave out for the Light Bringer? Yep, ritual sacrifice. An alien cultural observing this would find it an interesting twist on the Sunday Mass where WE consume to Christ's Mass, where the light bringer, he who was cast out of heaven, consumes the sacrament.

Happy solstice everyone. Santa is coming and he brings with him the Sun.

Hail unto Thee who art RA in thy rising. Even unto Thee who art RA in thy strength. Who travellest over the heavens in thy bark at the uprising of the Sun. Tahuti standeth in His splendor at the prow and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. Hail unto Thee from the abodes of night!

Snow

We got snow and ice here in Portland. Not much. But it doesn't take much to turn this town upside down. Fear and Loathing on the highways.

Rejoice!

Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us.

Adult Material

For those wondering why when you try to view and/or purchase Black Whole Son you get a message saying, "This storefront contains content not viewable by your content access level," here's why.

It's adult material. To view and/or purchase it, you need to create an account on Lulu.com and set your content access level to 'mature'. Then you can see the book, the cover art, and even download a free preview selection.

Happy reading!

Public Enemy

So the Goddess and I were talking over burgers, milk shakes, and fries. A lot of people seem paranoid that the FBI might be tapping their phones and reading their mail. I laughed. I've known for years that the FBI has a huge file on me and likes to check in on the old phone lines and letters business every so often. It happens when you demand some of those things granted by the Consitution. But there, in the corner of the burger joint, it dawned on me;

Who else has been eaves dropping on me? Naval Intelligence has had complaints brought against it for far exceeding its bounds on domestic intelligence gathering. Then there's the Dept. of Homeland Security, they might want to know what I've been up to. Even the CIA has had its wrists slapped a few times for spying around in its own country. And what of local law enforcement? Nobody shares information with other departments. They all think that somehow the others have been infiltrated and will leak the goods to the 'enemy'. So while I used to sleep soundly knowing that the FBI was watching over me and my activities, now I just don't know. Maybe even the aliens are in on it. You can't trust those Doggies from Sirius.

The middle aged gentleman in the next booth wasn't looking too healthy by the time I got done ranting about all of this. I didn't mean to frighten him. I was just theorizing that maybe even the Discordians have super secret sleeper agents planted everywhere, waiting to pounce on the squares in the dark alleys of their minds.

Hooray!

Hooray for wild mood swings! That means life will get a lot more interesting for me. When I've got the big ball of chaos following me around, even ordinary events get a little english on them.

Why do people try to medicate this shit away? Until you see the blood stains on the wall, don't worry so much.

Magick

Thursday I did an Invocation of LIL. It has put me in a very strange head space for a few days now. Strange and wonderful. Playful. Ecstatic. Fantastic. Light. And I've had these wild swings from peaceful meditative budha with eyes unable to focus to large and in charge ego maniac who smiles at the 12 volumes on the book shelf dedicated to his favorite person, himself. But in both cases, I feel a lot of love. I go from loving myself to loving everyone. And while I can find fault with people, I can't find fault with individuals. People are strange. People do all kinds of statistically average things. Individuals can't do anything statistically average, and that's lovely.

I even love GW today. That man has provided us with an icon that surpasses Nixon. It was a damn difficult task, but he did it. Wow. Cheers on that.

That whole administration has taken paranoia and plotting so far beyond what people who lived through the Reagan nightmare could have imagined. Able to whimsically blow off behind the scenes scandals that make Bill Clinton's and JFK's affairs seem trite. Wow.

And those poor politicians who call themselves Democrats. Emperor Norton abolished both political parties during his reign as king way back when. And those poor Democrats are trying so hard to do the will of the people. But people want very strange statistically average things that most individuals don't want. But those Dems just keep right on trying. Way to stay the course. Kudos.

And here I am, alive and happy and acting freely despite all of this. I hope it doesn't bother them much. I know royal families in other countries don't often seem all that happy. This emperor feels pretty good right now. Maybe I have to. No castle, no crown, no jewels. Maybe I need to keep the positive energy up to compensate for the lack of physical manifestations of my status. If somebody wants to give me a castle or two I wouldn't say no. Preferably one with a siege tower so I can use it to drop gelatin products on 'invaders' like people selling satellite television or politicians.

What do you mean yesterday? I don't know what you're talking about.

And LIL didn't seem nearly as short as God. Not short at all.

SpaceTime

You were just imagining it. It never really happened.

You were just imagining it. It never really happened.

You were just imagining it. It never really happened.

Magick

I sent a friend a demon helper by the name of Buné. Absolsute success in my book. He is now richer than he was before. I love using magick to help my friends.

Red in the Neck

I've got one hell of an outfit on today and a mood to match.

I'm wearing my duck cloth Utilikilt, a black t-shirt (of course), a tattered red flannel shirt, my old suede rust colored Silverado cowboy hat (14 years in this hat), a green denim jacket, and my gigantic 30 hole steel toed 'WTF You Looking At?' shiny boots.

The whole thing is this weird punk/cowboy/grunge ensemble that's neither here nor there. Yet this weird combination has come together to create something uniquely and fantasticly 'me'. It pays to experiment with weird combinations.

So to fit that mood, I'm listening to the latest podcast from Bloodshot Records. Acts like Deadstring Brothers and Waco Brothers are really doing it for me right now. But it leaves me wondering why Bloodshot hasn't picked up Fluffers Union yet?

Women in the White House

Some say that Hillary Clinton is set to be the next President. I'm all for women in the White House. Hillary's husband is all for women in the White House as well.

Why is it that the older I get, the more national politics looks like those 'class president' popularity polls from high school? Did your class president ever represent you or your ideas?

Favorite Things

While there are plenty of things in life that make it a wonderful experience, there is one thing that I love and plenty of other people love that so rarely gets mentioned. Warm clothes fresh out of the dryer always feel great. On a cold day, especially so. Even on a hot day they can feel good. I've worn line dried clothes. Even when they've been hanging in the sun, soaking up the rays, it just can't beat clothes fresh out of the dryer.

Difference of Opinion

Recently Knight of Pan and I had a heated debate over Stan 'Tookie' Williams specifically and the death penalty in general. As brothers fight ye!

Both of us have really strong opinions on the matter and we don't see eye to eye on it. But I want to thank him personally and publicly for an excellent discussion of the matter. It's this kind of discourse that I find the most refreshing. Of course, that's why I've always liked Knight of Pan.

A co-worker recently took offense to the fact that while we had many similar musical tastes, I didn't enjoy listening to Van Morrison. She was determined that somehow I had made an error of judgment. Explaining that I loved many bands that she had never even heard of didn't seem to patch over this rough spot.

When isirkus and I went to see the opening of Maybe Logic with a special Q&A with Robert Anton Wilson, a member of the audience questioned how he could like light classical but not contemporary jazz. Somehow the questioner felt that the author not liking jazz was a mistake that could and should be corrected.

As people, we won't always agree on things. Quite often we can't even agree to disagree. Somehow knowing that someone you love doesn't share the same world view as yourself seems 'wrong'. I have yet to find a single individual that will agree with me 100% of the time. We all have our differences. If I could have one trait in common with the rest of humanity, it would be the understanding that while we are all more alike than different, we are still all different from each other. Don't take it so personally.

And thanks to Hayduke for watching and commenting on the whole affair.

Divine Communion

Had another visit from the Lady in Silver last night. Who is she? Read Cosmic Trigger. To make it short, I came to Her as Saturn, She called me Adonis, and She had me drink from her cup.

Citations

Quite often in the midst of a conversation someone will pull a quote, statistic, or theory out as ammunition. Things like 'The Wall Street Journal says,' or 'Mark Twain once wrote,' or even 'Nazi Scientists discovered...' I use references quite a bit myself.

On three occasions now, people have quoted or referred to material from my book, Black Whole Son. Once the person couldn't even remember the source of what she was citing and was a bit embarrassed when I pointed out it was from my book. It's all so fantastic! Less than a month and people reference the book. I am a citation source. Yay!

To Kill or Not to Kill

I won't comment here about my opinions on the upcoming execution of Stanley Tookie Williams. I've already got an excellent dialogue going on with Knight of Pan.

But I would like to point something out here. Have you noticed that people in favor of carrying out his death sentence will typically use the photo on the left and those who argue for a stay of execution tend to show the photo on the right?

Thus God Spake

God came to me in a vision. You know how people often joke about how, "He's shorter than I expected." It's true. I've talked with him a couple of times. Nice guy. Really short. Likes to wear strange outfits and speak with funny accents.

Long story short, I'm in charge of the whole world now. It's kind of nice. That means I can travel anywhere around the globe and still be at home in my kingdom.

God's a nice guy. Really short though.

White

I have never liked Spike Lee. In my opinion, his films are grade A typical of what comes out of an NYU film student. On the other hand, that formula made a much bigger star of Martin Scorsese than it did of Spike Lee.

Watch this. Are the people giving him a fair shake? Are they actually listening to what he is saying? Is what he is saying the least bit plausible?

I'm about as white as they come, and I feel real sorry for Spike in this clip. I don't know if he is right or wrong, but the people aren't even responding to what he actually said, and that's sad.

Wilson Quote

Through the years, (Robert Anton) Wilson and (Albert) Hoffman have stayed in touch. "He's a fan of my books," says Wilson, "and I'm a fan of his drugs."

A GOP Christmas

Now, there are some who would like to rewrite history.

George W. Bush

AWPC

As soon as I heard the guy say this, I knew that this was my AWPC for the day. So I grabbed my pocket notebook and wrote it down, word for word.

Operator: I was like fuck. I mean the bread, son-of-a-bitch. Tuna fish by itself? Fuck. I mean fuck. All eatin' it and shit. Fuck.

Dig DiRT

'Back in the day', as I like to say at work, X and I had worked on a little something we called Demented Radical Thinking, DiRT. We cultivated this as a means of altering reality through the use of our minds. People tended to consider us quite nuts for it and we would often accept the compliment as the freight train rolled through the classroom.

Turns out, we weren't nearly as original as we thought at the time. We did, however, find ourselves in good company. Salvador Dali utilized a method he called Critical Paranoia. While not as all encompassing as DiRT, I must still give a nod to those who trod this path before us.

LAMP!

The League of Armed Marijuanna Patients has great quotes from George Washington, John Adams, Lysander Spooner, and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Spookiness

This girl doing overtime freaked me out last night. Never worked with her before. Nothing really wrong with her. In fact, that's the origination of the freakiness.

Imagine an alien species is looking at humans in America. They scan our communications (radio, phone, and television) to determine our habits. They figure out what kinds of things are going on, what is acceptable, what isn't, and they are now ready to send an agent to the surface for some field work.

So they send the agent in to Walmart to buy everything they need, because it's America's number one retailer. They then try to put together a fashionable ensemble based on what they can get at Walmart and what they have seen in media sources. Trust me, it's very, VERY frightening.

Very nice person. Almost too nice. Almost. See, it's just sort of alien. It's almost like I should turn the whole situation over to the Committee for Surrealist Investigation of Claims of the Normal.

Happy!

Came home from work in an extremly good mood. Not sure why. I'll just take it.

Black Whole Sonnier

I thought about it for a while and have decided to cut the cost of Black Whole Son. You can now buy it for $1.00! Or just $8.05 for a printed copy (plus shipping). This is a first book, written in (less than) one month. The cover rocks! That's what makes the printed version such a value. But I make the same either way.

It really is a great book. Well worth the money to download a copy for a read. So the price has come down to take away everyone's excuse for not buying a copy. You'd spend a buck on a lotto ticket, and this provides some guaranteed entertainment.

Wikinformation

So some hot shot journalist gets upset because a Wikipedia article implicates reporter in the Kennedy assasination.

I like Wikipedia. I like it because I know it is flawed. Anyone can add content. Opinions are part of encyclopedia entries. And if you disagree with an entry, you can add to, edit, or replace it with your own. I like to hound this point but here goes again. When you look up topics in Britanica and Wikipedia, what is the difference between the entries? What makes one a more reputable source than the other? Here's my answer. The authors for the Britanica pieces operate under the delusion that they are seperate from the piece, impartial. They aren't! Light seems to travel as a wave or a particle depending on what we use to look at it. A scientist could be completely objective and talk all about his experiences looking at light waves. Another scientist could be completely objective and talk all about her experiences looking at light particles. Neither is wrong, but their data won't match. That's all information that reaches us. We see what we are looking for. Using an opensource project like Wikipedia is a constant reminder of who the ultimate editor in your life has to be.

Further lessons:

How do you know that the New York Times is telling the truth and the Weekly World News is lieing?

Why did a majority of the population, including Democratic Congressmen and Senators, believe the pre-Iraq invasion intelligence reports?

How is a person in an American flag shirt and a yellow ribbon on their SUV more or less patriotic than an artist who suspends a crucifix in urine and makes people walk across an American flag if they want to view it?

Information consists of what you directly experience. Your brain then filters a good deal of it before you can even 'think' about it. Ever met a reporter? No brighter than you or me. Imagine all the filtering that happens in their brains before writing a piece. Then an editor reads and filters. Then you read an filter.

Mis-Information, Dis-Information, completely altered and edited reality. You create your own reality, every second.

And if you disagree with all of the above, then you are not right or wrong. You are seeing the world through a filter that blocks or edits some of the information.

Happy Holidays!

I found yet another wonderful ode to the holiday season. Check out the video at http://www.karkis.net/. It feels as though the universe has conspired to get me to like December again.

On a Roll

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

George Washington

Embrace Technology

Life imitates jokes. Not too long ago I heard jokes about the 'iProd'. Now I see geek girl's new best friend, the iBuzz. Cyndi Lauper was right.

Santa IS Evil

We sat on the couch and watched 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' tonight. Some things I noticed.

Santa learns from the animals much like shamans do.

When the Winter Warlock's heart unfreezes and he wants to be good, Santa encourages self determination over salvation.

When Santa gets married, not only is the ceremony outside in the forest, but the bride is wearing BLUE! Way to go, Santa!

I'd swear the 'first christmas tree' has rose croix with unicursal hexagrams in the centers.

The extreme right christians might have something when they call Santa Claus evil. After rewatchng the old film even I like the Santa presented.

Smarter Than Cap'n Crunch

Looking at the back of my cereal box.

It asks me how many bells I can find hidden. Easy.
A. None since all the ones I saw were in plain site, or
B. Indeterminate since they are, after all, hidden.

And the final stretch of the maze was cut off by a starburst graphic instructing me to have an adult help me cut out the ticket. So you can't finish it. You're blockaded.

Doing it Right

At work I found myself having to bend over to wire up a new motor, clutch, and brake on a preset table. True to form, I knew my ass crack was showing. For a few seconds it bothered me. Then I remembered, "Hey. I'm doing electrical work. If ever there is a time to have one's ass crack showing, surely it is now!"

So I bared it with pride. And of course no one complained. I was merely showing my professional work credentials.