Liquid Glass

I have been told that glass is a liquid rather than a crystal. If it is a liquid then it does a pretty good impersonation of a crystal.

Daily Bread

In mute wholesomeness the bread sat upon my plate...

I ate it anyway.

Bush Hell

This Bush was outside in the Iowa winter bothering no one. Cruelly, I captured its image, twisted it with Photoshop and have now shamefully exposed it to the world. I am an investigative reporter, I surely shall go to Bush hell.

New Fiesta

We did not have enought plates for everyone so we bought two new sets of Fiestware. It is the new Fiesta. It is not the old, authentic Fiesta. The food tasted okay anyway.

Christmas Corner

Last year the materialism of the season was too much. The torment of presents was too much. This year, thanks to Rejeanne, there is room in the corner for a small tree. A corner is enough I think. It is big enough to be a reminder of the happy parts of the season yet small enough not to overwhelm me. Thank you Santa Rejeanne.

Stonehenge

Me at Stonehenge. Guess I thought I saw something meaningful. There were many rocks there. Merry Christmas.

Chicago Building

It is late in the day in Chicago. Only one person is still working in this building. Can you see the light? I once worked in such a building. I don't do that anymore. I have seen the light...and many other strange things.

Mysterious Curtains

This image orginally started as a picture of some curtains. I believe they are the ones we had in our house in Florida. But then I have been mistaken about what I believe many times in the past.

Tired Purple Flower

Looks like how I feel about now - dried out and a bit crispy around the edges. Late night.

State Flower of Iowa

Whatever

Green Heart Leaf

Fairytale Rose

Early Christmas

Artificial imagination. Photoshop manipulation. Visual masturbation.

Gingkos On Pavement

A friend once told me that you will live forever if you find a Ginko leaf growing in the shape of a funnel. These ginko leaves are not shaped like funnels. They will not live forever. They will have to settle for looking nice against the asphalt.

Fall Finale

What can be said about fall? Nothing that fall gives two hoots about I am sure.

First Snow - Nov. 2005

I will look back on this picture and wonder why I took it. But right now the flakes are beautiful. Some of them are the size of...of...of...well, large fluffy snowflakes.

Rejeanne's Chicken

RDA, my life partner and wife, made this chicken. The chicken is plain. RDA is not

Dr. Science - Stone People's Life Cycle

Stages of the Stone People’s Life Cycle
(© Dr. Science)

The chart above depicts the life cycle of the Stone People, creatures I first discovered while on a trip to Japan. Dr. Science is a person who lives in my head and thinks that he knows a lot. Email me if you have more interest in the Stone People, and Dr. Science. I have more of their adventures available to those who are interested in this sort of thing.

The following describes the contents of the pictures on Dr. Science's chart. You may want to print out a copy of the chart to look at as you read the text. It will make things clearer.

1. Vacancy: This stage in the cycle is not comprehensible by humans. Stone People themselves only grasp it dimly - they are conscious of themselves during the vacancy stage but are not cognizant of their surroundings. A black hole is the closest humans have come to understanding the state called vacancy.
2. Particles: Similar to Black Holes, the vacancy emits streams of radiation containing sub-atomic particles. Humans have begun to define these particles using super colliders. The Stone People enjoy being particles very much – while in this state they are able to freely disappear and reappear and change their composition at will. Also, the bounds of time do not apply to them while they are in this state.
3. Hydrogen: Some particles combine to form protons and electrons which are the basis for the hydrogen atom. Hydrogen is the basic building block of our universe. The Stone People do not like this state. While they are hydrogen, their consciousness is bound to the hydrogen atom and hydrogen has very little going on. Hydrogen is atomic monogamy - one proton and one electron. That is why it is so anxious to turn into something else.
4. Sun: The heat and gravity of the Sun (or suns) fuse the hydrogen atoms into progressively heavier and heavier elements. The Stone People like being in this stage. They say it is like visiting Florida after spending a cold winter in outer space.
5. Elements: The elements humans have defined in their periodic table are but a few of the total elements available for the Stone People to inhabit. Ever the jokester, Mr. Science draws cartoons to represent the elements that are not known to humans.
6. Our Universe/Life: This is the Stone People’s favorite stage. While here they can physically change their shape into any form of life currently hanging around. Further, they can migrate between our universe and the infinite other universes available. They inhabit a multi-verse. They have the freedom they had in the particle state plus the pleasure of interacting with an infinite variety of other conscious life. Additionally, while in this stage the Stone People get to play the role of gods with humans. They try to guide us with people like Zoroaster, Moses, Krishna, Jesus, Buddha and the like but we are stubborn and refuse to relax. We keep trying to figure things out. The Stone People are touched by our child-like insistence on placing ourselves at the center of everything and seeing ourselves as the most important beings in all dimensions for all time. The Stone People don’t understand us but they love us anyway.
7. Decomposition: Strictly speaking, decomposition begins for the Stone People (and us humans) as soon as they enter this universe and life. The Stone People (and some humans) do not fear this process. They simply see it as a natural transition to the next stage. The Stone People do not understand the tragedy of Hamlet, for them it is like a Monty Python skit. When they read the line, “Alas, poor Yorick!” in Hamlet, they crack up.
8. Atoms: In this stage, the form Stone People inhabited in this world returns to atoms and eventually to boring hydrogen once more.
9. Particles: In this stage, the Stone People get one last chance to party before returning to the mystery of vacancy (see stage one). It is sort of like New Year’s Eve for them.
   

Picture of Nothing

This was a picture of a leaf. Then I used the sharpen and bas-relief filters in Adobe Photoshop. Now it is a picture of nothing. Still, I find it pretty to look at.

Minnesotan Sleeper

I saw this man at a coffee shop in Minnesota. He tried and tried but he could not stay awake. It was around lunch time. I guess he should have had the expresso.

Purple Flower

This flower exists only on paper. I hope that it does not experience identity theft.

Eggs In Blue

Smelling eggs is not fun. Eating them is.

Self Portrait

A self portrait. Not very attractive I must say. I must have had gas that day.

Dancing Shoes

Long ago I danced. I seem to have forgotten how. The shoes appeared in my head as I was walking one morning. They seemed to want to dance. I put them on paper. Perhaps they will dance soon. Perhaps I will dance before they do.

RDA Rose

This rose decided to be pink. I do not know why. Because it made the choice for pink it is now immortalized on the internet.

RDA Leaves Part Deux

Leaves for RDA

REPOST from July 20 - Dream

My pictures are done with ink pens on archival paper. Most of the time, like with this picture, I simply start making dots and let them go where they will. I sometimes sketch out the image in pencil before beginning and then erase the pencil after I have captured the image in ink.

The originals generally are 8.5"x11". It takes anywhere from a few thousand to over 1 million dots (an average of 100 dots per minute) to fill a page.

If you like the image use it as you wish. I like hearing from people who use my pictures - mailto:daleshankins@yahoo.com

Toronto Lady

Another Iowa City day. I saw this lady in Toronto and brought her home. She has difficulty with cars.

Strange Leaves

Fall Weeds

These blond weeds knew they were posing for a picture. I told them several times. Despite this they allowed an ugly stick to jump in front of them.

Patches and Romeo

Something witty was supposed to be written here but it was not. Our cats, Patches and Romeo, looked very hard for the witty saying but they could not find it.

Grandmother Hankins loved Iris. She planted hundreds and often ordered rare varieties from overseas. For many years after she died the Iris stopped blooming. In the last year or so they started blooming again. No one knows why...

I often walk. I have walked hundreds of times, sometimes overseas. Last month I did not walk as much. But in the past few days I have started walking more. I don't know why. My walks are not as pretty as an Iris. Grandmother Hankins loved me anyway.

Bluebird (Repost from 7-19-05)

Last October, to help deal with changes in my life I began to make pictures. This is one of my more recent efforts. I will load more. Please use this image as you wish. If you like it please make a donation to my favorite non-profit - Uptown Bills Small Mall at uptownbills.org. They help handicap people create and run businesses.

Morning

Morning in Iowa. If you call 4 AM morning. Some people call it night.

When I was younger I used to want to sleep late. Now that I am older I like to wake up very early. I am excited to still be breathing I guess. I never expected to live this long. I did not ask for it. It is not my fault. But since I still am alive I guess I will make the best of this day. I will try to use all the parts of me - mental and physical - that are still working. It beats the alternative.

I took this picture of a yellow Iris at my Father's house in Arkansas. I do not know its name. It does not know its name either. I asked it but it did not reply. It is still a pretty flower. Guess names are not that important.

Tribes

This is a repeat of a post from my original blog which died and is now slowly being reborn.

I am a tribe, part of a tribe and someone who needs freedom from tribalism.

I am a tribe of one because I can only speak, or try to speak, what is true for me. When I try to speak for others or give them advice on how they should behave I cease to be who I am and try to become a leader, teacher or priest. This is dangerous for me. Several visits to institutions and countless vain arguments have taught me at long last that I have no particular talent for, or interest in shaping the lives of others. If I do influence others these days it is due to a remnant of ego that I cannot shake. I am trying to get better. Please excuse me when I relapse.

In a way, this blog site thing is a relapse. Ego certainly is involved in releasing my thoughts into the vastness of the electromagnetic sphere – sending out a virtual “message in a bottle”. My only excuse is that writing is one of the things that I must do every day as a prophylactic measure against my return to the hospital. I have chosen to put these writings (drawings, photographs, etc.) on the internet because some friends say they like them. I like writing. My friends like reading what I write. Perhaps we are codependent! Maybe we need therapy!

I am part of a tribe or many tribes depending on your point of view. I am member of the tribe of animate beings. I am warm blooded and have an endoskeleton. I am a mammal. I am a human being. I am an inhabitant of earth, in the Milky Way galaxy, etc. I am white. I was raised Southern Baptist. I have attended university. On and on, the number of tribes seems to be infinite. This should be a beautiful thing and it is except that each tribe seems to want me to hate or, at a minimum dislike, all the others.

I appreciate the value of tribal loyalty. If I had not had loyal tribe members in my past I would not be here. A solo human on the plains of the Serengeti would have had trouble staying out of reach of the lions. When my ancestors roamed the earth in little groups they formed tribes to stay alive. They killed members of other tribes in order to survive, and let’s face it - often for greed and the pure pleasure of exercising the power of life and death over another.

The system evidently worked fairly well for small groups. If we didn’t like our tribe or we ran into a tribe too powerful for our tribe there was always the option of running away. There was always another place where there were no other tribes – at least of the human variety.

I no longer have that option. If 9/11 taught me anything it was this – I am part of one global tribe whether I like it or not. I must learn to accept you and your differences. I must make some attempt at treating you with love and kindness or I will become extinct. When I drive my SUV at 70 on the interstate I must be aware that I am angering those who do not have SUVs or even highways. It used to be that the “have nots” were fairly powerless and far, far away. Now with the internet, airplanes and telecommunications the “have nots” are my next door neighbors. Also, as 9/11 showed, the “have nots” now have the capability to reach anywhere they wish. If I bomb them, they can bomb me right back. If I hit them in the face, I am in fact hitting myself.

At times I long for the good old days. Days like in the westerns where the good guys wore white hats, the evil doers wore black hats. In my dreams, life was simpler then. But it was also much harder. They had no SUVs.

What to do? Returning to the good old days is not possible without giving up many of the comforts I have grown used to - comforts that others eye jealously. When someone in a stone hut, without indoor plumbing, watches television they see the wide difference between my world and theirs. An ad for an air freshner does not play will to the stone hut crowd. Guess I will have to look for ways to help them get their own Fabreeze, or better yet learn how to get along without Frabreeze, drive at 55 rather than 70 and save a little more of the Earth’s resources for other members of my tribe. I hope that I am successful.

Right Path

I often wonder about finding the right path for my life. I have wondered and wondered. I have studied and studied.

I once tried to study Christianity - for 18 years. I once tried to study from a teach who said he taught True Buddhism.

I have concluded that I am not a skilled student and that I lack the discipline for serious study. I no longer try to study.

Much of my time today I spend making dots. This is my first dot picture. I made it at Tony's grill in Iowa City, Iowa. The people there said they liked it so I gave it to them. It hangs on their wall.

I like toast better than my attempts to study religion. Toast tastes better and it is crunchy. I guess I am a better student of toast than I am of religion. Not so bad really. In the end we are all toast anyway. I hope that the eternal essence, God, Dharma, whatever will give me a little butter every now and then.

ANTS Are Small

This was originally posted on 7-17-05 - I am gradually reposting items from my orginal blog that died.

Was thinking about the size of ants...very small.

Wondering if they ever think they are at the top of life's pyramid like humans do.

Then I decided this was a silly thought.

Of course they do - that is why we must kill them.


Things to do today:

1. Call Bill Ives about blog conference this fall - Bill has a great site - http://billives.typepad.com/portals_and_km/
2. Go to Lowe's and check up on status of new blinds.
3. Arrange Hawaii. - it is such a mess.
4. Call David about his blog and set up time with Steve.
5. Make new list...this one is too long.

Night Light

There is an artist named Shrigley who lives in Glasgow. I looked at his book this weekend. It made me laugh. It made me angry. Now I do not worry about Shrigley anymore.

This is Dorothy from Uptown Bill’s Small Mall. Each morning she cleans the alley behind the mall. No one asks her to do it. No one compliments her or pays her for doing it. Dorothy is a great teacher. Maybe someday we will figure out what she is teaching.

Dorothy is very brave – sometimes the alley is very smelly. I am not very brave. I walk through the alley quickly.

Hawaii Couple (Originally Posted 7-13-05)

THIS WAS POSTED ON MY OLD BLOG BEFORE IT CRASHED. FOR REGULARS - APOLOGIES FOR THE REPEAT.

REJEANNE AND I IN HAWAII

Aren't you thrilled for us? We did have a good time. We stayed at the Ohana Reef Lanai - a wonderful place. Hi Tim! I will go back to Hawaii someday soon.

Christian Wisdom

Driving home from Dad’s I saw this truck. It is a garbage disposal truck. I am confused by the name of the company.

Does this company use Christ to promote its business? Does this company dispose of Christians? Are there too many Christians? Are there too many people calling themselves Christians? I do not know the answers to these questions. I lack wisdom. I wrote a poem to explain my lack of wisdom…

Wisdom comes wrapped in pain.
Razor chains circle a pretty box.
Blood tipped fingers struggle with the lock.
Unlocked, the box has nothing within.

Each box holds another – an endless game.
Inside each box there is more of the same.
Scarred hands again wrap wisdom’s box.
Wisdom crawls to new lovers of locks.

Let wisdom’s chase pass me by…
Let nothing stand between me and the blue, blue sky…
May I find no need to study life’s meaning.
May I see clearly past all dreaming.

Just Me (Originally Published on 7-12-05)

Just Me

AAARGHHH!

My template has been corrupted and I must copy and repost everything that I want to save.