Mind Fields: On Being Complete
Posted: January 30, 2026 Filed under: Commentary, Mind Fields | Tags: Arthur Rosch, Commentary, Mind Fields, Writing to be Read 4 CommentsI’ve lived in the world of my sexual fantasies for my entire adult life. This is normal reality for people young enough to still own a libido. As the years pass there have been physiological changes to my body. Libido is less intrusive, less commanding, and this comes as something of a relief after so many years of panting after sexually appealing humans. I’m seventy five years old. I’ve had enough sex in my life. Men born in the forties and fifties grew up entitled, so they thought, to all the sex they could get. Things have changed and sex is no longer a perk of the boomer male. Sex is more complex because we became aware (some of us) of the fact that women have been abused and treated with utter cruelty, apparently forever. There is no style of feminism that comes close to redressing that injustice. My fantasies pulled me away from my partner. We are the same age. She doesn’t’ conform to the image. She’s a granma. Of what sexual use is she? I’ve deleted post-menopausal women from my sex fantasy life. At least, that is, I’ve deleted her. She doesn’t want it.
SO….I’ve come to a decision to put away the fantasy. I don’t need it any more. This issue, the transition OUT of sexuality, is difficult. . I ‘ve been slow to release it and give it to the process of my emotional maturation. There is an evolution to such feelings. This inner transformation takes time and help from our therapists and peers. It’s been something of a wild ride for me but things are settling down. I’m revising my identity. I am an elder. I have been motivated by a sense of my having new tools at my disposal and new insights. I have a relationship right now that contains nothing of my fantasy elements. The relationship has problems. We’ve sailed along together and now as we get old we engage in our personal ways of aging. I’m good at self-care. Fox isn’t. We have unconscious areas of bitter conflict. I hope that Fox can recognize in herself this bitterness. My own shadow sits and watches. He doesn’t speak. He’s just there. A rage in a boiling rock.
I had burdened myself with a fantasy of falling in love with someone other than my partner. The fantasy of falling in love is powerful. It can be all enveloping, overwhelming. Its allure is its intoxication with a sensual element. Being in love is one of the most intense forms of pleasure that we will ever experience. Everyone wants those feelings of love: until they have them. Then, it is often a case of getting what you wished for and discovering its unintended consequences. A new vulnerability exists, and a new responsibility. Falling in love brings the possibility of confusion and devastating betrayal. Knowing this from personal experience leads me to a simple formula: one cannot make someone else happy. Don’t look for love to complete you. Be complete. It sounds so simple. It isn’t; but completion comes at the right time, when one has prepared the way for being complete. Or so I hope.
About Arthur Rosch
Arthur Rosch is a novelist, musician, photographer and poet. His works are funny, memorable and often compelling. One reviewer said “He’s wicked and feisty, but when he gets you by the guts, he never lets go.” Listeners to his music have compared him to Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Randy Newman or Mose Allison. These comparisons are flattering but deceptive. Rosch is a stylist, a complete original. His material ranges from sly wit to gripping political commentary.
Arthur was born in the heart of Illinois and grew up in the western suburbs of St. Louis. In his teens he discovered his creative potential while hoping to please a girl. Though she left the scene, Arthur’s creativity stayed behind. In his early twenties he moved to San Francisco and took part in the thriving arts scene. His first literary sale was to Playboy Magazine. The piece went on to receive Playboy’s “Best Story of the Year” award. Arthur also has writing credits in Exquisite Corpse, Shutterbug, eDigital, and Cat Fancy Magazine. He has written five novels, a memoir and a large collection of poetry. His autobiographical novel, Confessions Of An Honest Man won the Honorable Mention award from Writer’s Digest in 2016.

More of his work can be found at www.artrosch.com
Photos at https://500px.com/p/artsdigiphoto?view=photos
____________________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
__________________________________________
This segment of “Mind Fields” is sponsored by the Roberta Writes blog site, where you can find the poetry, photos, videos, and book reviews by Robbie Cheadle and so much more.
Mind Fields: When Nothing Makes Sense
Posted: October 17, 2025 Filed under: Commentary, Mind Fields, The Human Condition | Tags: Arthur Rosch, Commentary, Human Condition, Mind Fields, Writing to be Read 3 CommentsMuch of our personal sanity depends on our ability to form a narrative that describes our life in a coherent and stable way. Without that….we’re crazy! And perhaps its necessary to be crazy some of the time, to let the choo choo run off it’s tracks. The main reason craziness is so important is that it often breeds originality.
Here is the question: Is there a Power, a Force, an entity that is either within my body or external to it that “takes care” of me in matters of spiritual and emotional progress? I would like to believe that there is, but I must first be aware that wishful thinking plays a huge part in any such inquiry.
My life experiences seem to demonstrate that there is some sort of “path” which can appear if one makes a commitment to the walking of the path. Who or what supervises the traveling of this path? Is it ME, myself, or is it something that is both of and alien to my personal guise?
I suspect that the only answer to such a question must be found somewhere in my mind or consciousness but that would be a cop out. There apparently is no answer available on the human realm. My inclination is to BELIEVE that such a force does exist. Essentially the question resolves to this: is there a god? I’m a sort of pagan pantheist; I believe that not only is there a god, but there are gods by the millions; beings who live on another plane of life. We can only access this plane via disciplines or sheer grace. They are HERE, but we can’t see them.
About Arthur Rosch
Arthur Rosch is a novelist, musician, photographer and poet. His works are funny, memorable and often compelling. One reviewer said “He’s wicked and feisty, but when he gets you by the guts, he never lets go.” Listeners to his music have compared him to Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Randy Newman or Mose Allison. These comparisons are flattering but deceptive. Rosch is a stylist, a complete original. His material ranges from sly wit to gripping political commentary.
Arthur was born in the heart of Illinois and grew up in the western suburbs of St. Louis. In his teens he discovered his creative potential while hoping to please a girl. Though she left the scene, Arthur’s creativity stayed behind. In his early twenties he moved to San Francisco and took part in the thriving arts scene. His first literary sale was to Playboy Magazine. The piece went on to receive Playboy’s “Best Story of the Year” award. Arthur also has writing credits in Exquisite Corpse, Shutterbug, eDigital, and Cat Fancy Magazine. He has written five novels, a memoir and a large collection of poetry. His autobiographical novel, Confessions Of An Honest Man won the Honorable Mention award from Writer’s Digest in 2016.

More of his work can be found at www.artrosch.com
Photos at https://500px.com/p/artsdigiphoto?view=photos
___________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
____________________________
This segment of “Mind Fields” is sponsored by the Roberta Writes blog site, where you can find the poetry, photos, videos, and book reviews by Robbie Cheadle and so much more.
Mind Fields: An Insight In Sight
Posted: September 15, 2025 Filed under: Commentary, Mind Fields, The Human Condition | Tags: Arthur Rosch, Commentary, Human Condition, Mind Fields, Writing to be Read 2 CommentsConsciousness is a word that describes the phenomenon of processing information so that it turns into experience. Experience is the next phase of consciousness. It feeds back the enhancements it has acquired to its original source in Consciousness.
The human brain is not the seat or source of Consciousness. It’s a tool in the workshops of awareness. It’s complexity may in fact be some kind of microcosmic expression of a macrosmic purpose. Neurons touch stars; this is quantum reality, where everything is interconnected. The source of Consciousness is simply everywhere.
About Arthur Rosch
Arthur Rosch is a novelist, musician, photographer and poet. His works are funny, memorable and often compelling. One reviewer said “He’s wicked and feisty, but when he gets you by the guts, he never lets go.” Listeners to his music have compared him to Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Randy Newman or Mose Allison. These comparisons are flattering but deceptive. Rosch is a stylist, a complete original. His material ranges from sly wit to gripping political commentary.

Arthur was born in the heart of Illinois and grew up in the western suburbs of St. Louis. In his teens he discovered his creative potential while hoping to please a girl. Though she left the scene, Arthur’s creativity stayed behind. In his early twenties he moved to San Francisco and took part in the thriving arts scene. His first literary sale was to Playboy Magazine. The piece went on to receive Playboy’s “Best Story of the Year” award. Arthur also has writing credits in Exquisite Corpse, Shutterbug, eDigital, and Cat Fancy Magazine. He has written five novels, a memoir and a large collection of poetry. His autobiographical novel, Confessions Of An Honest Man won the Honorable Mention award from Writer’s Digest in 2016.
More of his work can be found at www.artrosch.com
Photos at https://500px.com/p/artsdigiphoto?view=photos
_________________________
Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.
__________________________
This segment of “Mind Fields” is sponsored by the Roberta Writes blog site, where you can find the poetry, photos, videos, and book reviews by Robbie Cheadle and so much more.
Mind Fields: Bloodbath
Posted: August 30, 2024 Filed under: Commentary, essays, Mind Fields, Writing to be Read | Tags: Arthur Rosch, Commentary, Mind Fields, Writing to be Read Leave a commentBloodbath
This century will be a bloodbath.
Our planet is stressed beyond endurance.
The Earth is intelligent. The universe knows what we are, even when we don’t know. Given the power of this Intelligence, I trust it to decide the fate of many nations. Too many people live on this planet, choking it with the ash of man made volcanoes. Our fate approaches; it will be dark before its transformation. Billions will die in the next century.
Earthquake, flood, all kinds of disasters are already triggered by the greed of industry and the complacent raping of forests and farms. I am afraid. I’m not afraid for myself. I’m old, I’ve lived my life. What about my kids, my grandkids? They will suffer and adapt. I hope this is so.
As the Great Dying unravels across the planet, conditions will change quickly. Already the pace of change makes me dizzy. I feel the misery of the Turkish earthquake, the misery of hapless Syrians who did nothing but oppose a tyrant and lost their rebellion. People die all the time. People die in huge numbers once a while. Wars cause death on massive scales. We are seeing these wars arise from the minds of ignorant men who think they can dominate by force. The bloodbath is upon us and it will only intensify in the coming years.
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About Arthur Rosch
Arthur Rosch is a novelist, musician, photographer and poet. His works are funny, memorable and often compelling. One reviewer said “He’s wicked and feisty, but when he gets you by the guts, he never lets go.” Listeners to his music have compared him to Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Randy Newman or Mose Allison. These comparisons are flattering but deceptive. Rosch is a stylist, a complete original. His material ranges from sly wit to gripping political commentary.

Arthur was born in the heart of Illinois and grew up in the western suburbs of St. Louis. In his teens he discovered his creative potential while hoping to please a girl. Though she left the scene, Arthur’s creativity stayed behind. In his early twenties he moved to San Francisco and took part in the thriving arts scene. His first literary sale was to Playboy Magazine. The piece went on to receive Playboy’s “Best Story of the Year” award. Arthur also has writing credits in Exquisite Corpse, Shutterbug, eDigital, and Cat Fancy Magazine. He has written five novels, a memoir and a large collection of poetry. His autobiographical novel, Confessions Of An Honest Man won the Honorable Mention award from Writer’s Digest in 2016.
More of his work can be found at www.artrosch.com
Photos at https://500px.com/p/artsdigiphoto?view=photos
________________
Want to be sure not to miss any of Arthur’s “Mind Fields” segments? Subscribe to Writing to be Read for e-mail notifications whenever new content is posted or follow WtbR on WordPress. If you find it interesting or just entertaining, please share.
________________
This segment of “Mind Fields” is sponsored by the Roberta Writes blog site, where you can find the poetry, photos, videos, and book reviews by Robbie Cheadle and so much more.
Mind Fields – Healed By A Cat: An Autistic Man Meets A New Friend
Posted: March 4, 2022 Filed under: Commentary, Mind Fields | Tags: Arthur Rosch, Autism, Cats, Commentary, Mind Fields, Writing to be Read 2 Comments
One day we found out that an autistic man was going to move in next door. At the time we lived in an RV park in a 38 foot motor coach. “Next door” meant that we shared a small yard with our neighbor.
I was concerned. How autistic is he? I wondered. Autism can be a vague diagnosis. It has stretched beyond its original meaning of a soul completely lost to human interaction. The park’s manager described the man as “a little autistic”. That could mean almost anything.
As Henry was helped to park in his site, he took a look at me and The Fox. He said one word, “Whew”, and then vanished into his RV.
“Whew.” Where did he live before he came here? His former neighbors, we later learned, were motorcycle people and meth freaks. Whew, indeed.
Henry divulged little about himself. He said he liked cats. That was fortunate, because we have two indoor cats and two outdoor cats, plus a wide variety of feral visitors and neighborhood pets. There’s something about this space that draws cats. It might be the plum trees and their abundant population of wrens and robins.
There are people who claim their pets have super powers. I regarded such people as harmless nuts. Lately my thinking has changed. Our cat Obsidian is a big brown tabby with green eyes. I’ve seen him tame people in that Little Prince way, literally capture their unruly spirits and put them back in a more harmonious order. That’s Obsidian’s super power, the power to restore tranquility.
He’s getting old, and so are we. He doesn’t jump the fence and climb around with the younger cats any more. He has more important work to do.
Our new neighbor Henry is middle-aged. He is a fearful, cranky and withdrawn man, but he’s an ideal neighbor. We barely know he’s here. He can be easily upset by minor disturbances. He is so averse to noise that he can be pushed into a ferocious sulk by the mere revving of a motorcycle.
He has been adopted by our two outdoor cats, wise old Obsidian and his sidekick, the comical black and white Cookie. These cats have given structure to Henry’s otherwise bleak world. By loving Henry they have tricked him into loving. I looked out the window one day to see the elusive and feral Cookie sitting calmly on Henry’s lap. I had never seen her behave this way. It was strangely impressive. Henry is a cat savant, he has some magical affinity that he didn’t know he possessed until he moved close to Obsidian and Cookie.
I hope that you, my readers, understand how easily a friendly animal can become a tyrant who turns your life upside down. Henry is such an innocent that he immediately began flirting with disaster. We had to set him straight without setting him off. If he let Obsidian into his home even once, he would become nothing but a door man, opening and closing all day, all night, at the cat’s demand. I caught him just on the verge of doing this very thing and rushed to halt the action.
“Don’t let him in, Henry! Close your door, quick!” He was frightened and cut Obsidian off just as he was about to slip between his feet.
I explained what had almost happened. I spoke towards Henry’s averted eyes and raised defensive shoulders. I spoke to him as I would speak to any intelligent adult. In Henry’s heart, the need to trust someone was rising like a powerful burst of magma from a volcano deep beneath the sea. His need to share the cats’ companionship was forcing him to emerge from his shell and talk to us. The cats pushed Henry past his fears.
In the next few weeks we learned more about Henry. It wasn’t easy but we supported his struggle to communicate. Then something unexpected happened. Henry and Obsidian fell in love. I’m not being flippant. It’s just that simple. When Henry left to visit his mother, Obisidian sat on his front step, waiting for his return. He would emit an occasional sob. There’s no mistaking Obsidian’s sob. He has an amazing gamut of vocalizations, including a perfectly robin-like cheep that must have been useful during his hunting years.
I can’t put it any other way. They were in love with a pure emotional connection. Perhaps Henry’s autism short-circuited his intellectual activity and left his feelings to flourish without interference from the busy mind. I watched this fountain of feeling take shape between Henry and the cats.
Henry leaves the campground for treatment four days a week. When he first went away, Obsidian was inconsolable. He went into a paroxysm of grief. He stared into space for long periods. He moped and cried. But Obsidian gradually learned that Henry ALWAYS comes home. Thus our cat friend’s tranquility was restored. He knows Henry will be back and that’s enough to comfort him. It took him a few weeks to get this; I watched him unwind and relax. I watched his attention return to his world: the falling leaves and the showoff Cookie with her bounding up and down fences and trees. Obsidian resumed his lordship of his domain. The lost baby possum was under his protection. The upstart kitten Stinker was not welcome and he meant business, even if he had to hire Cookie to teach Stinker a lesson.
Now Henry has left for two weeks. He has gone to Connecticut to visit his sister. “Three thousand miles!” cried Henry in terror before he was picked up by his ride. The enormity of this journey was paralyzing. I shared with Henry my own fears about travel: the feeling that I’ll never get home; I’ll be trapped in some alien environment without the solace of my place and my people. Henry and I aren’t so different. This bit of one on one engagement gave Henry something to take with him on this unprecedented trip. He had shared an emotional link with another human being. And he had given his heart to a big brown cat with green eyes.
How different is Henry’s world today? That’s not for me to say, but I suspect that it’s just different enough… enough to make a difference.
Mind Fields: I’m Confused
Posted: July 16, 2021 Filed under: Commentary, Mind Fields | Tags: Arthur Rosch, Commentary, Internet, Mind Fields, Photography, Writing to be Read 4 Comments
Listen. A month ago I saw one of my bank statements and I saw that Adobe had been paid $119 in February. They’ve been getting the same $119 for five years. Uh? For what? Apparently I had signed on to an app for a one-time signing of a PDF contract. That was how Adobe got me. I’ve been paying 119 a year for that one-time signing. I should have seen it. I didn’t.
Software did it to me. Adobe. Photoshop and its minions, Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. Adobe has such a tight grip on the photo image market, it’s like an octopus with twenty four tentacles. I’ve been on fair terms with the awesome app for a long time. I’ve been using Photoshop CS5, which is about fifteen years old.
I figured that as long as I’ve paid Adobe through the years, I may as well install all the photo apps to which I am entitled. The latest Photoshop. The latest Lightroom, the latest Lightroom Classic.
Here’s where the confusion starts. There’s a guy on Youtube who looks like a Hindu version of Peter Lorre. His face is motionless, frozen into an amused smirk. He’s so good with Photoshop he just riffs with heavy duty stuff like “eliminating the background”. And he does it with a few clicks and brushes. Isn’t that fundamental with a thousand images you’ve taken? Wouldn’t it be great to have a tool that automatically erases the background?
That’s what’s happening now in Photoshop. It can do that! The Revolution has come! Not for me, not yet: I’m following Frozenface’s instructions and it’s not happening. That’s one aspect of Photoshop. There are hundreds of ways of doing the same thing. I follow FlatFace’s steps and I’m not erasing any background. I’m erasing the foreground. I WILL figure it out.
So I’m running two versions of Photoshop, I also have Lighroom, Lightroom Classic and Canon’s Digital Photo Pro. And all the Windows photo apps, all the Microsoft photo appos, all these image apps jumping in my face and saying “Use me! Use ME!” All these programs are supposed to run harmoniously together and shepherd my precious images towards their apotheosis.
I’m not comfortable with this stuff. I’m especially confused by the shift in terminology and the way “Save As” has become “Exports As” and now there are Collections instead of Folders. Folders had to give up their guts and ride the Adobe Train.

I’m lost and confused. I don’t know where my photos are any more. I don’t know how much duplication has happened and how much drive space these previews and previews of previews and preview previews for comparison photos, before and after, showing how many iterations of the same image exist.. Over and over again. Where they are. They’re on my computer. I can click and make an image appear. In fifteen different programs. Everyone loves photography. The internet is all about photography. And video, don’t forget video.
I think it must be okay. The people at Adobe are experts. They must have deep insight into the process of editing and transforming images or they wouldn’t be able to anticipate what photographers and graphic artists will need in the future. Even with the latest mega Terabyte solid state drives, space will always be a major consideration.
Hell yes I need a tool that can erase a background from an impromptu portrait snapshot. Hell yes. I just have to figure out the procedure. Right now I’m erasing the faces that I’m hoping to preserve. Maybe I need a better Youtube teacher than Mister SmirkFace.
It’s okay to be confused. Don’t let it alarm you. Ever since Walt Disney took control of this culture’s imagination things haven’t looked right. You never know when a set of whiskers will appear on the side of a woman’s face. Or dogs are fitted out as astronauts and interstellar explorers. Dogs, pigs, mice. Disney was a major zoophile. Things haven’t looked right for the last sixty years.
Where do archetypes end and stereotypes begin? Ask Walt Disney. Ask his ghost, I don’t care. He has a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.
I’m still confused. I expect to be less confused as I get familiar with this new software. OR…I’ll toss this shit and go back to Canon DP Pro, because it’s just easier.
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Arthur Rosch is a novelist, musician, photographer and poet. His works are funny, memorable and often compelling. One reviewer said “He’s wicked and feisty, but when he gets you by the guts, he never lets go.” Listeners to his music have compared him to Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Randy Newman or Mose Allison. These comparisons are flattering but deceptive. Rosch is a stylist, a complete original. His material ranges from sly wit to gripping political commentary.
Arthur was born in the heart of Illinois and grew up in the western suburbs of St. Louis. In his teens he discovered his creative potential while hoping to please a girl. Though she left the scene, Arthur’s creativity stayed behind.
In his early twenties he moved to San Francisco and took part in the thriving arts scene. His first literary sale was to Playboy Magazine. The piece went on to receive Playboy’s “Best Story of the Year” award.
Arthur also has writing credits in Exquisite Corpse, Shutterbug, eDigital, and Cat Fancy Magazine. He has written five novels, a memoir and a large collection of poetry. His autobiographical novel, Confessions Of An Honest Man won the Honorable Mention award from Writer’s Digest in 2016.
More of his work can be found at www.artrosch.com
Photos at https://500px.com/p/artsdigiphoto?view=photos
_________________________________________________________________________________
Want to be sure not to miss any of Arthur’s “Mind Fields” segments? Subscribe to Writing to be Read for e-mail notifications whenever new content is posted or follow WtbR on WordPress. If you find it interesting or just entertaining, please share.
Mind Fields: My Bank Account Has Termites
Posted: May 21, 2021 Filed under: Commentary, Opinion | Tags: Arthur Rosch, Commentary, Mind Fields, Writing to be Read 1 Comment
My bank account has termites. Look at this statement! I’m paying $2.99 a month for National Geographic Online. I pay $4.99 for Bookbug, $3.99 for InfoTune. I’m still using the free version of Spotify. I can’t keep up! I did an audit of my books last night and my monthly internet charges are out of control. The total crept up on me like an infestation. One day it wasn’t there and the next day it was in my life like bugs in the basement. I can’t wonder: How did this happen? because I know how it happened. In the course of acquiring a normal amount of services and entertainment I accrued a creeping army of little debits. Look at this one: Chordbuddy.com. It’s a site that helps me practice piano. It gives me access to every musical chord ever devised. Many thousands of chords! It’s $5.99 a month and I use it every day. What chord is that? OK let’s look it up on Chordbuddy.com. Aha! Cminor 13. What a bizarre chord.
This tool is a miracle! Beethoven didn’t have the internet. He figured out his own shit without help from the digital universe. NOW… we have the digital universe and I’m teaching myself how to play and write with the aid of these tools.
I’m so grateful. I take nothing for granted. The world is always fluid and plastic. It melts and flows. Y’gotta be like a surfer.. Ride the waves as they come, big ones and small ones. My bank account gets nibbled at by a horde of seafloor crustaceans in digital form. Here’s my charge for keeping my Viewbug photo website up and running. It’s 10.99. I have to keep my amazing photos visible to the world because that pays part of my rent. Then… there’s $2.99 a month to Google for enough online storage to hold all these images and videos. Holy shit. I started writing this, kind of larking it but now it’s turned serious. I better audit my account again, for real this time. I need to know this essay has not been an exaggeration.
There are these fleas too. You get one behind your ear and for the next week even though the flea is long dead you still itch there, still scratch it now and then.
I keep a Sticky Note on my desktop. It has all my credit cards and internet debits listed by the company and last four digits. If I’m going to get hacked I’ll get hacked. One time I had my computer held hostage by a bunch of guys named Rah-jer. It cost me five hundred dollars and a lot of work to recover the contents of that computer. It wasn’t the machine that was hostage, it was the contents. Of course I had back ups. I always have backups and backups to the backups. Still, it was worth 500 dollars to ransom my computer.
I’m going to put the cover on my digital piano now and go to sleep. In the morning I may discover that I’ve signed up for a live Zoom conference with therapists at the South Pole. I don’t know what’s going to happen next:. The pace of change is positively sweaty! Close your eyes and turn around three times. Zipp! The world has changed. If you don’t change with it… well… you haven’t changed with it. That’s okay. If you want to be stuck in the past, pitch your tent with spikes made from old AOL discs.
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Arthur Rosch is a novelist, musician, photographer and poet. His works are funny, memorable and often compelling. One reviewer said “He’s wicked and feisty, but when he gets you by the guts, he never lets go.” Listeners to his music have compared him to Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Randy Newman or Mose Allison. These comparisons are flattering but deceptive. Rosch is a stylist, a complete original. His material ranges from sly wit to gripping political commentary.
Arthur was born in the heart of Illinois and grew up in the western suburbs of St. Louis. In his teens he discovered his creative potential while hoping to please a girl. Though she left the scene, Arthur’s creativity stayed behind. In his early twenties he moved to San Francisco and took part in the thriving arts scene. His first literary sale was to Playboy Magazine. The piece went on to receive Playboy’s “Best Story of the Year” award. Arthur also has writing credits in Exquisite Corpse, Shutterbug, eDigital, and Cat Fancy Magazine. He has written five novels, a memoir and a large collection of poetry. His autobiographical novel, Confessions Of An Honest Man won the Honorable Mention award from Writer’s Digest in 2016.
More of his work can be found at www.artrosch.com
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Want to be sure not to miss any of Art’s “Mind Fields” segments? Subscribe to Writing to be Read for e-mail notifications whenever new content is posted or follow WtbR on WordPress. If you find it interesting or just entertaining, please share.
Mind Fields: Fish In Or Out Of Water
Posted: May 7, 2021 Filed under: Commentary, Humor, Opinion | Tags: Arthur Rosch, Commentary, Mind Fields, Writing to be Read Leave a comment
We’re just like the fish; we don’t know what water is. But the element in which we swim, the element that is impossible for us to recognize, is stress.
You may think you know you’re stressed. This isn’t the kind of stress I’m talking about. We have become denizens of a culture that is actually a Torture Machine. It drives us insane by presenting demands so complex as to be impossible to achieve. Every day, it issues orders to our nervous systems. Turn on your left blinker. Pay your insurance premium. Pick up your kids’ school uniforms. Don’t forget the doctor’s appointment. Where’d you put the McFarland file? Where are the paper clips? Why is this milk sour? Screw it; not worth my time, flush it down the sink. Are the dogs’ vaccinations up to date?
Do I have the receipts for my tax audit?
Why am I always left with the feeling that I’ve forgotten to do a homework assignment? Who is this screaming at me, right next to my ear so that it hurts?
The Antifa people are scurvy hippies. Our government is letting people steal on a massive scale. My bank account only exists long enough for the auto-payments to hit, and it’s gone and I’ve got nothing left to spend.
I think I’m going crazy. I don’t have any sexual desire at all. The last time I felt truly alive was… when? Have I ever felt truly alive? I truly don’t think so.
There’s nothing to look forward to. My old age will merely be a time when insurance machines squeeze the remaining dollars from my estate, leaving my kids with nothing. Zero. The globe is warming up. It’s true. The waters are creeping on shore, slowly. The future is a tsunami.
OUR SOCIETY IS A TORTURE MACHINE, so complex that it takes a genius to maneuver its daily routine. It tortures by its relentless pressure. We don’t need Stalin or Hitler. We have modern life in Amerika. See that guy with the cardboard sign sitting at the parking lot exit? “Will work for food.” He isn’t a pathetic loser. He’s you or me or someone we know who just cracked under the pressure and opted to sit in the TIME OUT box in front of everyone. He couldn’t take the complexity any more. Now he’s doing better. He has a shoe box where his money piles up. He’s doing better than I am! Could I take sitting in the TIME OUT box in front of everyone? I don’t think so. I’m not tough enough.
Life has always been complex, but not like this… Hunting, gathering, fighting off raiders, that was easy stuff compared to this. The modern Torture Machine can’t be dodged. Your assignment is late! Punishment will be swift and merciless! Your interest will rise, your credit will be cut.
The injustice of it! I’m choking on injustice. I can’t breathe! Give me a cigarette. Where are all these voices coming from? Let me turn off the radio.
The off switch doesn’t work. The voices are coming from my pocket. It’s my Z-Phone. It doesn’t have an OFF switch. The argument continues, shouting everywhere, lies compound in blatant and shameless huckstering. Everything is a trick. Even the tricks we know to be tricks conceal more subtle tricks. Those Antif types are going to burn down Manhattan in a giant riot. Quick, we’d better launch a pre-emptive pogrom, mow them down before they find out where we’ve stashed the money.
The fish don’t recognize the sea. The people don’t recognize the element that dominates our lives. I will coin a term for it: Phobagonovia. Phobe-ago-NOVE-ee-yah. It causes us to curl up inside our homes with the giant TV playing football games and scripted “reality” shows where people are abused by their in-laws. Phobagonovia. We are afraid of new experiences. The Torture Machine has implanted this condition in our nervous systems. We are afraid of relating to one another openly, of crying in front of strangers, of expressing feelings easily, of hugging or kissing spontaneously, lest we be inappropriate, our strait jacket is “Appropriate”, we haven’t a clue how to dance in a circle while deeply in love with members of a clan, to sing ancient songs, to sit around a fire feeling wonderful under the stars. That doesn’t mean we want to go backwards. We want to invent new communities. We are dying of Phobagonovia. Our neck ties are cutting off our breath. Our high heels are warping our skeletons. The future is over. Donald Trump will be reborn as a talking pig that can only sputter nonsense. The people of his remote village will laugh at him holding their sides with mirth. They will postpone the time to eat him. He’s so strange that people come from villages far away to throw him pieces of rubbish. His time will come, at last.
When the chief takes the first bite, he will spit it out.
“We laughed too long,” he will say. “This fat talking pig tastes like shit.”
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Arthur Rosch is a novelist, musician, photographer and poet. His works are funny, memorable and often compelling. One reviewer said “He’s wicked and feisty, but when he gets you by the guts, he never lets go.” Listeners to his music have compared him to Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Randy Newman or Mose Allison. These comparisons are flattering but deceptive. Rosch is a stylist, a complete original. His material ranges from sly wit to gripping political commentary.
Arthur was born in the heart of Illinois and grew up in the western suburbs of St. Louis. In his teens he discovered his creative potential while hoping to please a girl. Though she left the scene, Arthur’s creativity stayed behind. In his early twenties he moved to San Francisco and took part in the thriving arts scene. His first literary sale was to Playboy Magazine. The piece went on to receive Playboy’s “Best Story of the Year” award. Arthur also has writing credits in Exquisite Corpse, Shutterbug, eDigital, and Cat Fancy Magazine. He has written five novels, a memoir and a large collection of poetry. His autobiographical novel, Confessions Of An Honest Man won the Honorable Mention award from Writer’s Digest in 2016.
More of his work can be found at www.artrosh.com
Photos at https://500px.com/p/artsdigiphoto?view=photos
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Undawntech: Ghosts in the Living Machines
Posted: September 4, 2026 | Author: DL Mullan/Undawntech | Filed under: AI Technology, Commentary, Undawntech | Tags: ai, AI Technology, artificial-intelligence, Commentary, DL Mullan, Privacy, technology, Undawntech, Writing, Writing to be Read | Leave a commentIn this technical world, do you have control over your identity, sovereignty, or even privacy?
The answer is no.
Why have our rights been eroded to this point? Well, because you never bothered to make them your priority. You have not researched the technology being used against you. You have not studied the laws pertaining to technology and your rights. And, you have never put the government or corporations in their place: out of your life.
So, the encroachment continues until agencies, cities, counties, and businessmen put Flock and other overreaching security cameras on streets and in your neighborhood.
Did you stand up against it?
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Backlash
“This is the biggest, most grassroots privacy backlash that I’ve ever seen in more than 20 years working on these issues,” Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told ABC News.
“It just shows people don’t like mass surveillance,” Stanley added.
https://abcnews.com/US/flock-cameras-trigger-nationwide-backlash-privacy-concerns-police/story?id=136084771
But the mass surveillance is here in every facet of your life.
Are you going to stand up against it? Or, wait until something worse than Flock cameras are instituted into public and private life? Perhaps on a streetlight pole?
But… did you know that it is already inside your home?
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The Lies of RFID
If corporations can follow you anywhere, you know they would do it, don’t you?
At first, it is a law for “transparency.” Next, it is not really tracking you. And, finally, Artificial Intelligence, AI, will confirm: we know who you are, where you are, and yes, we are watching you.
Who is going to stop them, it?
You have not yet.
Take for instance RFID technology, it helps large businesses keep track of their inventory. That tracking does not end at the store’s doors after a purchase, but all the way to your home.
“In the early 2000s, Walmart reshaped the retail landscape by becoming the first major retailer to mandate the use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology across its supply chain. This groundbreaking move in 2003, aimed to improve inventory accuracy, reduce theft, and enhance overall efficiency. Walmart’s forward-thinking strategy sparked a ripple effect throughout the industry, setting a standard that continues to revolutionize retail in 2025.
Today, leading retailers like Lowe’s, Zara, Macy’s, and Nordstrom have followed suit, implementing RFID mandates to streamline operations and meet consumer demands for accurate, seamless shopping experiences. In 2025, Walmart’s RFID mandate is once again expanding to new departments and working toward all products being RFID tagged in the near future.”
https://www.atlasrfidstore.com/customers/rfid-mandate/walmart
This includes apparel; the bras and underwear you buy your underage daughters.
But they cannot do that!
Websites will tell you that no one can follow your purchase from a store straight to your home. That it is impossible. Corporations will obfuscate reality to lessen the impact of bad press on their brand.
What is the truth?
“Of course, your smartphone is among those devices and has RFID contactless payment capabilities through NFC. As with everything else, such capabilities can be used for tracking by various actors.
But unfortunately, this is not limited to your smartphone, and you also probably carry some amount of RFID enabled device with you all the time such as:
https://privacytools.io/guides/how-your-rfid-enabled-devices-is-tracking-you
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How far away can you read an rfid chip?
Low Frequency (LF) chips read at up to 10 centimeters. High Frequency (HF) chips reach about 1 meter. Ultra High Frequency (UHF) passive chips read from 3 to 30 meters. Active tags with batteries can reach 100 meters or more . So if you’re worried about someone scanning your passport from across a crowded room, don’t be—that’s HF, max range 1 meter, and usually much less for security . If you’re managing a warehouse, UHF will cover your needs.”
https://www.cykeorfid.com/how-far-away-can-you-read-an-rfid-chip-complete-range-guide-by-type
If someone had a high frequency UHF, which would be 100 meters, or 109 yards, or 328 feet. From your front door or garage, the street is on average 40 feet away.
With smart devices in the home, such as, routers, computers, cell phones, and televisions, through software updates, all someone needs are a few yards to feet to access what you prize in your household.
Have you removed all the labels, stickers, and chips from your purchases before keeping them in your home? washing them? Do they survive the dryer?
Have you ever asked?
Here is more information about how radio operators and the military use the same type of frequencies as RFID and other tracking abilities of your store purchases in your home:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLoSw5zidM0
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Probable Cause Doesn’t Exist
And, that does not cover the ability for law enforcement, or anyone else, from watching you inside your home through your WiFi.
“Researchers have demonstrated that standard WiFi signals, the same ones streaming video and connecting smart speakers, can be passively intercepted from outside a building to track the movements of people inside. The technique requires no cameras, no hacking of devices, and no cooperation from the target. As WiFi-enabled gadgets multiply in homes and offices, the gap between convenient connectivity and involuntary surveillance is narrowing faster than most privacy frameworks can address.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/scientists-reveal-how-wifi-signals-spy-on-people-inside-homes/ar-AA1XjPee
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The digital gulag is here, but you never noticed it until it was too late. Now, governments and corporations are watermarking words. In the United States, no one can patent, trademark, or copyright words, unless it is specific for the marking of one’s business. Beyond that, anyone can use the entirety of the dictionary without legal squabbles.
What if that was about to change?
Anthropic, the creators of the Claude AI models, have been toiling in their secret lairs again. Corporations want you believe they are innocuous, even giving their AI models “constitutions.” That is not about rights and responsibilities.
For an understanding of Claude, let’s read its Constitution. What is Claude made of?
https://www.anthropic.com/constitution
How about Claude’s new constitution?
https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-new-constitution
It appears AI models evolve at the behest of their human, corporate masters.
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As a creator (art, poetry, writing), do you have a corporate overlord?
Corporations believe so. Anthropic believes so. Publishing houses, including print on demand, believe so.
Can a watermark be traced back to me or my organization?
“No. The watermarking applies to Claude and its outputs. It doesn’t identify anything to do with individual users. There’s nothing in the watermark, or its key, that would allow anyone to recover any information about the user, their organization, or their chats with Claude.”
That is a load of rubbish.
How Claude’s text watermark works
“We’re implementing watermarking to comply with the EU AI Act. Anthropic, along with several other major AI model providers and around 190 total signatories, signed the EU Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content in July 2026. This requires AI system providers to use methods of “marking” AI-generated text. We’re applying watermarking globally at launch because we don’t yet have a durable way to scope it by region. However, we will continue to evaluate different approaches, and will share updates when we have them.”
https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-text-watermark
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Independent Publishers
Even publishers are working together to keep your book out of the marketplace. As an independent author and publisher, my creative works are ineligible for publication and distribution based on private corporate terms that I am not allowed to know:
“Thank you for contacting us. Your title withheld from Bookshop.org because the current edition(s) do not meet the eligibility criteria that Draft2Digital applies to titles submitted through our Bookshop.org distribution agreement. Those criteria include considerations such as the length and overall content volume of a title. This is a private negotiation between D2D and Bookshop.
Bookshop.org may apply different requirements to publishers who work with it directly. However, direct-publisher arrangements are separate from Draft2Digital’s contractual distribution arrangement. We cannot speak to what standards Bookshop.org may apply if you approach it independently. You are of course welcome to list directly with Bookshop if you would like.”
How can creative writers publish to distributors, if the terms of service are secret?
You can’t.
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What does it cost to use Draft2Digital?
For accounts that want to publish, there is a non-refundable, one-time activation fee of $20 (USD) for new accounts and an annual maintenance fee of $12 (USD) for accounts that earn less than one-hundred dollars a year in book sales. Accounts with no titles in distribution (no active request to list at stores) are not subject to the maintenance fee. Draft2Digital earns revenue primarily through commission on book sales, which equates to approximately 10% of the retail price of every book sale. For accounts earning less than one-hundred dollars a year in book sales, the maintenance fee helps offset ongoing compliance, security, and infrastructure costs.
https://draft2digital.com/faq
This reaction is due to people publishing AI slop, or books written by AI with little to no human creativity involved.
Still believe you are free?
Innocent before proven guilty?
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The Powers that Be
Corporations through government power (laws) are inside your home, tracking and tracing you and your family, dictating terms, and disallowing you any basic human identity, because you are a serf. You no longer have rights, sovereignty, or privacy. Warrantless searches happen daily to your information. Probable cause is out the window.
You are guilty before proven innocent.
Why are laws protecting corporate power instead of individual rights, which the US Constitution and governmental framework are based on?
When will you start fighting back? Until you are in chains?
The noose is about to be slipped over your head and the knot tightened. There is not much time to save your family and yourself.
When is enough going to be too much?
In the 250th year of the United States Constitution, will you preserve it, or commit treason by siding with technology and become a ghost in a living machine?
The choice is yours.
-~~o0o~—oOo—~o0o~~—-
THE INITIATION
Eliza Chisum is following in her father’s footsteps. She is a scientist at heart, but she’s also gifted with her mother’s abilities to pierce the veil. As her intuition educates her on the ways of the universe, to the chagrin of her college professors, she feels the truth. Her teachers know the facts. And, facts don’t care about anyone’s feelings.
When her unconscious reality intersects with an immortal being, Thothiemus from the lost civilization of Atlantis, she discovers that there is more to her parent’s car accident, which killed them, than meets the eye. Eliza volunteers to reorient the space-time continuum.
During her search, she uncovers the truth: her creative physics placed her brothers’, Samuel and James, lives in danger. This leads the young woman down a path of soul-searching, self-actualization, and quantum consciousness.
Will she set the timeline back before the damage cannot be undone? Or, will she be fated to watch her brothers incur the wrath of forces out of her control?
Whatever the future holds, Eliza Chisum ventures beyond time itself, revealing her own destiny from a past she had long forgotten.
Welcome to The Initiation.
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The Initiation is part of Undawnted’s Quantum Consciousness Series:
http://www.undawnted.com/p/quantum-consciousness-saga.html
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About DL Mullan
DL Mullan’s lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lectures. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate in the creative arts.
As a creator, Ms. Mullan, began writing short stories and poetry before adolescence. Over the years, she has showcased her literary talents by self-publishing several collections of her poetry. She also writes novels, designs apparel, and creates digital art. DL Mullan‘s creative writing is available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is an award-winning digital artist and poet.
Currently, she has embarked on writing her multi-book Legacy Universe, Supernatural Superhero Series, as well as creating original soundtracks for her publications and independent electronic music albums, featured on SoundCloud and YouTube.
DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology, and is a syndicated columnist, writing the creative nonfiction, Undawntech.
For news and updates, subscribe to the Undawntable Newsletter. Find DL on Amazon, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube via her website.
Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.
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This segment of “Undawntech” is sponsored by WordCrafter Press and the Legends: Monsters that go Bump in the Night anthology.
Legends take many forms, but most carry a warning within. For instance, stories of monsters such as the Chupacabra, Snallygasters, and Windigos were told to warn children to behave themselves. The tale of the ghost girl who haunts buildings in Cleveland, is a warning to daredevils, who would chance their lives and safety in old derelict buildings. And Trooper 666 is a deterrent against drunk and dangerous driving. The angel of death and gilgul offers lessons to be learned about our spiritual lives. And any one of the monsters found between these pages could decide to follow you home.
These diverse shiver-inducing tales introduce readers to ghosts and monstrous creatures, which each hold a certain sense of justice. Introduced by multi-genre author Kaye Lynne Booth, these stories are a celebration of legends of old, and some new ones, too, but there are no happy endings.
Featuring stories by Kaye Lynne Booth, Abe Margel, Chris Barili, Sara W. McBride, C.R. Johansson, Rebecca M. Senese, Danaeka Scrimshaw, Robb T. White, DL Mullan and Joseph Carrabis.
Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/LegendsMonsters
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