Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Foolin Around
Bonk?
Every once in a while a guardian angel—one of many—drops a bit of grace on you. Bonk? There it is: What are you going to do with it? Notice in the picture the other possible fates withheld. This is not a capricious decision. It is finely calibrated to what your needs are for another go-round […]
Brahma-Hurta: Spirit of Mid-Night Inspiration
Some of these musings emerge from mid-sleep—a time in the South Asian yogic tradition called “brahma-hurta” (I think that’s how it’s spelled)—when awakening between dreams, at 2 -4 in the morning, certain ideas intrude and begin to elaborate on each other, building an impulse to get up and write. It’s a mixture of inspiration and […]
Camp Chipaway
In my family a name sometimes captures a spirit. Allee and I call our home the “Home for Assistance in Living.” My son David came up with a new name for his office: “Camp Chipaway”! His motto is "A little bit more each day." We may adopt this name too for our world. We may […]
Cartoon Satire
Some modern cartoonists tickle my fancy: Would that I could be like them! Wait: I am like them, but not professionally. That is, I don’t have a syndicated column or sell my cartoons to magazines or newspapers. It occurs to me that I might. A number of these artists take off from Gary Larsen (the […]
Cartoons from Medical School (First Year)
When I went to med school at the University of California at San Francisco (class for 1963) — they have a big ol’ medical center there up on Parnassus Heights just southeast of Golden Gate Park—I would sometimes cartoon during lectures. Sort of multi-tasking. These came to be included in a yearbook we did for […]
Certificate-Ology
With the multiplication of diploma mills, I wondered, why not? I imagined this: a fancy-schmancy sign on a webpage: INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CERTIFICATE-OLOGY You can create, grant, authorize, bestow, honor, authenticate, and in other ways issue diplomas (and of course) certify as well as the best of ‘em! Deans, boards of Examiners, diploma mills, so-called […]
Changing Computers!
I amth in the complex challenge of changing computers and hope to be in contact again in a few weeks. I’m going to get another windows, but I found out from my son, who is a big shot in desktop publishing, that my Wordperfect desktop publishing program has dropped back in the competition. He doesn’t […]
Chariots of the Angels
In the late 1960s a book was published titled “Chariots of the Gods,” and its truthfulness was doubted by many. Still, it’s a great title, and if we shift from polytheism to a modified monotheism that includes many orders of angels, well, what do they get around in? It would be too easy to assume […]
Cheap Diplomas!(?) Shop and Compare!
I’m dismayed at the sheer volume of spam email about “genuine” diplomas for sale—cheap! On one hand, I playfully want to join the bandwagon: I’m allied with The Wizard of Oz who created a Diploma for the Scarecrow because of his “cleverness” in rescuing Dorothy. Hey, why not? I can make up one for you […]
Check Your Check Lists
In preparation for one of our projects this last year—in this case, the visit of both of my adult kids and their families, I remembered this joke: Moses is at the Red Sea shore. Behind him are 10,000 of the Hebrew liberated slaves, plus their families and what little they can carry with them. They […]
Clowning
I’m 13.2% clown. I just made that up. Clowns seem to do that—not use percentages, but rather make things up. I’ve learned the hard way not to clown on the job, even slightly. But it’s sorta-kinda true that I have a fondness for the wacky, and Allee and I clown around in our marriage, in […]
Clutterbugging
I’ve been in a phase of going through my cartoon-doodles and realizing that they offer a wealth of diagrams for my pixilated mind and its philosophical meanderings. This cartoon expresses some trends that I hope to forestall, but it’s not easy. By the great cartoonist, George Booth, the old lady is saying, “There’s more inside.” […]
CoCreating My Living
I have created my living, and I wrote a book about it—privately published—called “Creating Your Living”—and I’m planning on revising it some day. But. I just now realized that my “higher self” of which I only know the tippy-tip and then through its effects—yes, that higher self!— “It” has been living me, more or less. […]
Coleg Degrees 4 Sale
So what are diplomas worth nowadays, really? Here’s an addition to a previous blog, with some further thoughts about a recently received ‘nother bit of spam: Subject: “The education it’s prestigious ! (Really their words!) To: (recipient) Date… whatever.. Actual text: You have a choice today! We are an experienced company, who will give you […]
Comics—Positive vs Negative
So many comics have been "dark"—feeding on the "dark side"– while I turn towards the light if I can, and enjoy happier commentaries. Still, I get pulled into the dark on occasion. I have come to recognize that this is a theme in comics or stylized illustration—a theme of dark versus light. Alas, comics are […]
Complexoids
On occasion I dare imagine elves and faeries and the like, just for fun. Looking over my cartoons I imagine there’s a “race” or category of lil’beings that are similar resonant energy fields, expressing various complexes. Just as if there’s a spirit of this tree or that rock, so too aspects of mind can generate […]
Confabulations
“Confabulation” as I learned about it almost 50 years ago is a neurological condition (when it’s done flagrantly) in which people are not obviously demented, but will immediately spin out a plausible story, a pseudo-memory, and sincerely feel that it happened. What occurred to me some years back is that (1) this is what happens […]
Confabulations (More)
I am impressed with mind as capable of confabulating, making all manner of thoughts as meaningful. The effectiveness of confabulation depends on the seemingly convincing things that are made up by the person, consciously, un-consciously, or in-between. It often serves in dream-work and occasionally while awake. (It’s a feature of alcoholic encephalopathy or some types […]
Confabulations (More)
I make up stuff, fool around. A fancy word for that is “confabulation.” At the bottom of my listing of Papers on my website are the links to a series of webpages that have to do with foolin’ around, mythmaking, art, and miscellaneous other stuff. It’s an art form, my wife says, a mixture of […]
CONFABULATIONS 1
Adam Blatner, Imagination-ologist Confabulation is a term derived from psychiatry and neurology, describing the way some people make up stuff when they have certain kinds of brain damage. I realized that everyone makes up stuff, a lot, some more than others, but it tends to be a bit more aligned with consensual reality, whereas the […]
Confabulations 10: The Latest Theory
It May Be More Like This (see diagram above) Or perhaps more like what is shown here to the left. If sentences can be diagramed in terms of their grammatical structure, why not theories? Of course, theories involve many world-views, basic assumptions, sets that operate at a meta-level, hinted at by this picture on the […]
Confabulations 12
Auxiliary Units The Need for Such Devices Auxiliary units are important elements in facilitating the emergence of mandala-forms in the noodle-sphere. As each mandalaform emerges, it is far from perfect. It requires ancillary function implementation. To the right is an example of such a unit, along with an explanation in the original meta-paraphysical language […]
Confabulations 13
How It Really Works May I Dispute That? I mean, how do you know how it really works!? What are you, omniscient or something? “No, but I speak with the perspective of a higher dimension.” “What if it isn’t “higher” as in value or access to truth, just another dimension. I mean, I’ll concede you […]
Confabulations 14
A “Holiday” Greeting How Holiday Presents Are Really Manufactured & Delivered Using 3-D construction technology, riding behind Santa’s sleigh is a toymakermobile, a complex gizmo that adapts the toy right there on the spot from wishes and good behavior residues. A translated example is shown on the right. Of course this misses much of the […]
Confabulations 15
Explaining Explaining There are times my meandering thoughts seem inexplicable, I have been told. Alas. I mark this up to the possibility of there being ambiguous alternative interpretations I didn’t think of. If one considers the sheer depth of meaning inherent in whatever, and / or further meanings, not to speak of analogies and reflections […]