An Idiosyncratic Perspective

Bipedal Hat Charms, or

Peculiar Definitions for Infinity and Beyond

Love is the satisfaction gained or given from interaction. It is an expression of our best, and a reflection of our worst. Love is the intrinsic value to any economy, it is why we wave our hands when we are lost at sea, it is why we give when we have nothing.

Energy is the intensity of action in an interaction. Energy is always transferred, and never lost. The infinite combinations of directions and amounts of energy create an infinite number of interactions. No one is truly the same.

Gravity is the density of an element, or system. The higher the concentration of elements, the higher the gravity of the system. Gravity, at high enough levels can change directions of an action. Gravity is only as easily manipulated as its condensed elements.

Information is knowledge gained from observation. Information is the spontaneous creation of deterministic patterns by the mind. It can be as complex as ideologies inferred from a piece of literature, or as simple as watching water drip. It is the reason we ask “Why?” or answer “Because.”

Time is the scale to which patterns are concluded. Time is the hierarchical system applied to causation. Phenomena are unrelated without time. It is the reason we are confident, or uncertain of information. It is what breeds us and kills us. It is the direction of life.

These things make the world go round, and legitimize my existence.

Principles of Corruption

I've been doing some nationalistic introspection. I've been reading some troubling articles and watching some disturbing documentaries detailing the flaws of the US American prison system. In response to that, misgivings I have about exploitation, and speculations on responsibilities of leadership, I have this philosophical view to offer.

Under the growing conscientiousness of world cultures, harmless behavioral deviants in society can become part of the norm: a set of lifestyle choices that promote the freedom of human pleasure that are tolerated, if not outright accepted as legitimate and benign expressions.

However, for every harmless divergence from tradition, there are many others that detrimentally affect the culture they stem from. These deviations can be anything as old as bigotry, thievery, and sexual exploitation, or as new as insider trading and cheating vehicle emissions tests. Any number of factors can tempt individuals members of society to act selfishly. Living in an imperfect world, this cannot be avoided. People will stray from the course of communal greatness to pursue exclusively personal rewards.

In essence, these individuals have cast away their stake in a structure that supports them and forfeited stability in lieu of lucrative prospects. They become anomalous elements in their society and are handled according to societal laws. This justice usually dictates that they undertake a punishment proportionate to the crimes committed against the group, before they are re-accepted to society.

A healthy system of justice will also find ways to turn this atonement into a refinement of the individual. Through such a system, an individual that has diverged from the broader group can learn the cost of their past behavior, understand misconceptions of that behavior, and develop alternative means of expressing that behavior.

If a society is to successfully manage its population, it will need to support a tailored rehabilitation for each of these individuals. Like all processes, the utilization of this rehabilitation by its keepers for secondary benefits (like cleaning up freeway overpasses, or making license plates) is acceptable. But only to an extent. Neither the method nor product of these benefits should hinder the realization of rehabilitation's goal: healthy reintegration of an individual into society.

When the leadership components of such a system of justice are given permission to utilize these deviant components to produce and expand the structure for everyone else, this process must be scrutinized. They should by examined by the rest of, or by trusted members of society. The danger lies in the fact that in the past, those in power, when left un-monitored, are tempted to extort a system for personal benefits, without regard to the original objective.

And once a subsystem with conflicting goals is fitted into the broader system without oversight, the upkeep of such a deception begins to take toll on resources. These profit-focused mores will lean the system away from rehabilitation and the effectiveness of the system as a whole will deteriorate.

When the reintegration of individuals into society is put aside for personal profit, such as the exploitation of prison workers as a cheap labor for avaricious economic industries, it begs the question: where is this Church of Money, and how can I get in on the action?

If there are food machine service people taking loose cogs from the machines, using them to open soda bottles they stole, then shoving them in backwards while yelling how “these parts are all wrong, anyway!" it is only a matter of time before the machines are properly restored or eventually go out of business.

Someone tell these guys that historical revisionism is played out.

Pedantic Rule Breaking

I should probably stop pretending that my worst fears have come true and utilize this space for creative design. My world, on your screen, our imaginations and out of this tiny space I call my mind.

What it comes down to is an amalgamation of my different production routines, and putting them on display to communicate who I am, what I want to do, and who I’d like to play with.

There are plenty of ways to do this. I have spent years on an unfruitful desert journey digging at unusual sand dunes, hoping for a treasure chest to supernaturally appear at my feet. My creativity is a plant that needs to be fostered, and there is no place for it in the desert, not without a lot of prayers and a few miracles from Odin and Goliath.

What I have found is a reason to create. There is too much beauty and extravagant, elaborate, exuberant expression, too much ambitious attractive art, and too little being done about it. If there is one curse I would thank my parents for, I would thank them for giving me the drive to develop potential, to utilize opportunity, and not to waste a good thing.

I want to do something great, I want to be a part of something bigger, and I cannot realize this alone, in isolation, in a hermetic meditation. The universe is nothing without a pair of hands to shape it, a pair of eyes to see it and a pair of lungs to breathe it in.

So, here’s to me, to us and to a bright future together.

To Whom It May Concern

I'm seeing stardust in the corners of my eyes. I have been looking in all the wrong places when I should have just been looking out. But honestly, that makes no sense until I got those front row tickets to the Truman Show.

I want to sincerely thank you for this photograph, this parody of a caricature of a carbon-copied joke. This canned flesh is reduced-sodium Spam, deep fried--tin and all--served next to a steaming leg of lamb garnished with embarrassing middle school couplets.

I'm written by aggregating programs looking for this season's Next Big Thing. I've got one eye on the pencil, the other on the screen, and you could fit the library of Alexandria in the space between.

I'm a no-commitment clause, hoping for someone to sign: "Best Wishes, Your Biggest Fan," and getting Kilroy's snot across the page instead. I look like a good read after six chapters, but I only keep you, dear reader, for one. The rest of it's in your head.

I'm present until passed, waiting for my chance, feeding until fed, bleeding until bled, saying until an untimely and ill-begotten said. And I wish I were as drunk as gods is dead.