What is the one thing that you’ll never do in life? Why?

This is a difficult question because who really knows what they’ll be required to do in their lives? Would I kill? In the right circumstances, probably. I would definitely kill if I felt there was no other way to stop someone from hurting myself or someone that I perceived to be defenseless. I could say I’d never steal, but what if my life depended on it? What if I’d starve otherwise? Or other people were depending upon me? Like some bad criminal types were holding my family hostage.

I can say, with confidence, that I would never kill, just to kill. I’d never steal, just to steal. I’d never lie or cheat, just because I could. I would never do anything to simply to be malicious or self-serving. If I had to kill, steal, lie, or cheat, it would be because I couldn’t do anything else.

What wouldn’t I do….? If I ever manage to become president, and that is a big if because who would vote for an asexual female Pagan socialist candidate anyway, I’d never declare war on another country. I would always try to come to a peaceful conclusion to any dispute. I would never favor my country over the needs of the world…. for instance, do you know how much of our trash gets put in overseas landfills? Not only is some of the stuff our country ships out extremely toxic, but there has to be a better way to deal with garbage. I hate these short term solutions which only create more long term problems. If I had my way, recycling would be manditory everywhere in the United States. If something could not readily be recycled, there would be people whose job it was to dismantle anything thrown away to remove any recyclable parts, and I’d have other people working on ways to recycle those things which are not currently considered reusable. There would be no landfills, but public and private composting would be encouraged. Another thing that irks me are the chemicals that the US uses in food and in products that can make their way into the food chain. Some of these products are banned in other countries because of their effects on our biology. How can companies make and use things like that knowing the effect it will have on their children or their children’s children. Seriously, there is not enough forward thinking in the government or the FDA to make a pencil roll off the edge of a table.

So anyway, back on track here… the one thing I’d never do in life is anything for the sake of doing it. I try not to do anything casually. I mean, would I still be a virgin at 33 if I was at all casual-minded? lol If I do something, it’s because I have a reason and that reason usually includes other people and how they’ll be impacted by my actions.
   

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

January 18th

In Japan, the annual Outakai-hajime, or poetry party, is held at Court. Poems on a given theme are selected from the entries submitted by the public and are read aloud.

III Law of Synchronicity

Synchronicity is a term invented by Jung to describe meaningful coincidences which cannot be described by the law of cause and effect. These are events connected by pattern (meaning) rather than time. Some interpret this as an ongoing and developing dialogue between the perceiver and the consciousness of the universe. Two or more events happening at the same time are likely to have more in common than the merely temporal. This dialogue is overt to the degree the perceiver is receptive to (or aware of) it. There is no such thing as a mere coincidence.

Law of Unity Everything is linked, directly or indirectly, to everything else. Every phenomena in existence is linked directly or indirectly to every other one, past, present, or future. Any perceived separation between phenomena is based on fragmentary perception or understanding of the phenomena.

January 17th

Felicitas, the goddess of good luck, was honored in Rome. She was frequently portrayed on coins and was a symbol of wealth and prosperity.

The last day of Pongal is known as Kanyapongal. Coloured balls of the pongal are made and are offered to birds. A kind of bull-fight, called the ‘Jallikattu’ is held in Madhurai, Tiruchirapalli and Tanjore in Tamil Nadu and several places in Andhra Pradesh. Bundles containing money are tied to the horns of ferocious bulls, and unarmed villagers try to wrest the bundles from them. A Bullock Cart race and cock-fight are also held. In Andhra Pradesh, every household displays its collection of dolls for three days. Community meals are held at night with freshly harvested ingredients.

I’m beat. Last night I dreamed I was at work and someone left the door open when they let a fellow employee in. All these people came in at 6 in the morning to shop, even before we had any tills in the registers. I walked up to a pair of old ladies and tried to get them to leave, but they kept ignoring me until I said, Excuse me, MA’AM, in that voice. You know that voice, the voice that pops out when you’ve lost all patience with people, and yet, despite the knowledge that that voice will bring nothing but trouble, it still makes a bid for freedom. Only my dream did one of those blink things where suddenly you’re not doing what it was you thought you were doing. Suddenly I was standing at the phone, which is also our intercom system. I picked up the phone and said, “Attention Borders customers, as we will not open for another two and a half hours, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you all to put up your hands and vacate the store until 9AM.” So then, as I’m on the phone making this announcement, a lady called and asked to put in a special drink order that she could pick up when we opened. Um, what are we? Take out now?

Yeah…. remember that questionaire I filled out where I said my subconscious was “someone” who made me laugh?

And then I woke and had to go to work again. Wasn’t it enough I was working in my sleep??

At least the day was uneventful aside from an old man who insisted we should know what guest-chef Emeril had recently had on his show. As if I should know? Yes, apparently I should. He told me so, that it was my job to know…. Because obviously, all I do all day long is watch tv to see who’s doing what where and with whom. Bah! And then a womam called and wanted to know who Oprah’s chef is and is his book on cd. I don’t have much patience for Oprah or Emeril. lol Don’t ask me what goes on on their shows. Luckily, one of my coworkers knew…. it’s Bob Greene. No wonder we’ve got so many of his books on hand. It’s gotten to the point where I instantly loathe anything that Oprah recommends. I don’t even think she reads the books in her “club.” I hate, absolutely hate, how much she controls what is popular, and I hate the fact that people can’t think for themselves, they just go out and buy whatever it is she’s selling. What I find ironic though, are the people who come in for books that’s she’s recommended and then ask me what is it about. I mean, didn’t she share that information with her zombie hoarde before unleashing them on the unsuspecting?

Ah, but when I left work I went to the gym for an hour and worked out my aggressions. heh I’ve discovered that using the treadmill makes my lower back hurt. It hurts where it hurt when I fell down the stairs a couple years ago though. I’m not sure why. I’m not even sure if it’s sciatica, lumbar, or sacroiliac. I mean I know they’re all down there somewhere, but I have no idea what they do or which could be paining me. I figure though, that I do enough walking in the store that I don’t need to use the treadmill at the gym. I’ll just use the weights more, build muscle which will burn more calories simply by existing, and so I don’t need the cardio…. maybe. I don’t know. This exercise schtick is more complicated than I thought. 

January 16th

Romans honor the goddess of all harmonious relations, Concordia (Greek Harmonia), with prayers for Peace. She is depicted in a bronze shrine dedicated to her in Rome in 304 BCE, and the Republican Romans built temples in her honor in the forum romanum and on the Capitoline Hill. Today was one of the dies comitiales, when committees of citizens could vote on political or criminal matters.

The ‘Queen of the Universe’ appeared in the clouds to all the inhabitants of the town of Arras, France.

Mattu-Pongal is the third day of Pongal, dedicated to the worship and veneration of cattle (mattu). The horns of the cattle are decorated with turmeric and kumkum, and small bells and flowers are hung around their neck. After the cattle have been paraded through the streets, the pongal that was been offered to the local deities is given to the cattle to eat.

So…. I made short work of that gift ceritificate. I selected seven books and will only have to pay $4.95, five horror/pulp books and two books on magick. The pulps tend to be cheaper because most people don’t want to read the old science fiction. It’s too tame compared to the graphic sex and violence in today’s horror, but I like them. I collect Burroughs and L Sprague de Camp (who died only a few years ago), Lin Carter and H P Lovecraft, Robert E Howard and Dunsany, among others. I love finding “new” pulp authors that I had not heard of before. I collect Lovecraftian “mythos” fiction in general. I think it reinforces my feeling that humanity is not so great as it thinks it is. heh But mostly the old pulps are funny as heck.

Of course, I also read the new stuff providing it does not dwell too much on the sex/violence angle and actually has a plot. The problem with modern horror is that so many writers seem compelled to use sex and/or violence as a crutch. To me, good horror has the quality of a mystery in that there is suspense and copious amounts of foreshadowing. There may be sex or violence, but that isn’t what makes the book a horror novel. A good horror novel is overwhelming; the outcome may be inescapable, but the characters struggle on. That’s human nature, to defy fate. On the one hand, horror stories which show humanity to be helpless and infantile in comparison to their adversaries validates my perception of humanity’s place in the universe. We are babies playing in our parents’ closets. On the other hand, I love a character that doesn’t lose hope and faces his/her fate with a smile…. I’m sure the Norse gods in my pantheon would be proud. heh I also admire characters which find strength that they didn’t know they had. That kind of reminds me of myself.

So, my purcahses…. I bought two books new from Amazon iteself, both mythos books: Where Goeth Nyarlathotep by Daniel Reiner and The Fungal Stain and other dreams by W H Pugmire. I had not heard of either author before. I bought the first because I’m a big Nyarlathotep fanatic, even though the book only had one review. So, we’ll see. The second had mixed reviews, but most of them good. Apparently he is a great unknown writer of mythos books that a “serious collector” should own. So I bought it. Maybe I’ll add his other stuff to my list.

The third modern horror book that I bought is really a throwback to the pulps. Every mythos book that I’ve read by Brian Lumley has been pulp. I tried his Necroscope books, but didn’t like them. I don’t have anything against vampire books in general except that everyone seems to be doing them. His mythos stuff though is pulp through and through. I have all of his Titus Crow books. I just picked up the first book in his Dreamlands cylce, Hero of Dreams, so we’ll see how that is. The main characters of his dream series were bit characters in his Titus Crow series, but more importantly, the books take place in the Dreamlands, and the Dreamlands are my favorite setting in Lovecraft’s stories.

The other two books I picked out are old pulps, Beyond Thirty by Edgar Rice Burroughs and In the Days of the Comet by H G Wells. I was really looking for some Tarzan or Barsoom books by Burroughs, but when you’re buying used on a budget, you have to be picky. I won’t buy used books from anyone with a rating below 95%, and I generally won’t go over a dollar, considering shipping and handling prices. I also won’t buy from someone who doesn’t adequately describe the book they’re selling. So that kind of limited what I can get. Generally I’d rather handle a used book before I buy it, but I’ve pretty much combed through all the local used bookstores. I have most of the Tarzan and Barsoom books anyway, but there are a few that I don’t have and it’s driving me nuts. Of course, Burroughs was a prolific author and I doubt I will ever have all of his books. I don’t have much by Wells, but In the Days of the Comet is generally unknown and the price was right for both books, thirty-sex cents and forty, respectively.

The last two books I selected are on Egyptian mysticism. The Leyden Papyrus is a translation by Francis Llewellyn Griffith of one of the few known treatises on magic dating from the third century AD. Oh sure, I could access it on secred-texts.com, but there’s something to be said for being able to hold the book in your hands. I also grabbed a copy of A E Wallis Budge‘s Amulets and Superstitions. I know the man was a tremendous thief in regards to the Egyptian culture, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a brilliant scholar too. I have his two volume set of hieroglyphics and a couple of his other books, but I’ve been looking for his Amulet book at a reasonable price for a while now. I have a talent for making charms and amulets, so I like to do research to be even better. I’ve read and owned many books on amulets, but the Egyptians really knew how to do it with style. Most of what we know about magick is based on what came out of Egypt through the Romans. Throughout the ancient world, the Egyptians were admired and feared for their magickal knowledge. Script in Egypt was as much a magickal tool as it was a form of communication. I like to think that I am upholding a tradition of magickal excellence as imparted to me through my past life as a scribe whenever I have reason to make a charm.

Oh there are so many more books in my wishlists at Amazon; I’ll die before I buy them all, unless I manage to win the lottery. I feel the same way about books that others feel about sex. Not that I’m going to have sex with a book, but the idea of a book, the holding of a book, the owning of a book, is intellectually arousing. I want books. They must be mine. I love the acquisition of information. I love assimilating it. If not for headaches, I’d never sleep or eat. I’d just read all the time. If I didn’t need money to buy more books, I’d never work again.

When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.
                                                              -Desiderius Erasmus

January 15th

Sein-No-Hi, or Adult’s Day, is a Japanese festival to honor those who have turned twenty. A person is not considered an adult until they turn twenty. This is also the Small New Year. Azuki-qayu (gruel cooked with red beans) is eaten to drive away evil spirits and illness for the coming year.

The Second Festival of Carmentalia was created after the Senate prohibited a practice to which mothers had become accustomed. At one time, old matrons drove in carriages (carpenta) during the festival on the 11th. After the honor was taken from them, every matron vowed not to produce any children for her ungrateful spouse. The Senate restored the rite and declared there would now be two festivals in the Mother’s honor to promote the birth of boys and girls.

The second day, of Pongal is Surya-Pongal, dedicated to the Sun god, Surya. On this day, pongal (rice cooked in milk and jaggery) is boiled by women who offer it to the Sun.

It took me over a year to save up the points, but I just “purchased” a $50 dollar gift certificate at Amazon from MyPoints. Not to make this an advertisement for Mypoints, but of all the survey and clickthru sites I frequent (MySurvey, e-Rewards, SurveySavvy, etc), Mypoints gives me the best payback for my time. I can earn points by clicking thru emails, filling out surveys, and following links from their site to various (well known) vendors to earn points for money spent. For the most part, I rarely spend money through them, so the points were slow to accumulate, but well worth the effort.

I’ll be surfing Amazon all day tomorrow to figure out how best to spend my money. I have a huge list of out of print books that I check up on every few months for my “collection.” Sometimes I get really lucky and the seller has no idea of what they’re getting rid of. In many respects I am not a greedy person, but offer me books and well…. I can’t help myself. The first two months I worked at the bookstore, I don’t think I made any money at all. lol

I’m sure I have a thousand books or more, and I probably add at least two dozen or so to that every year. It’s a wonder the floor doesn’t give out! Fifty percent of them are books on various religious and occult topics, ten percent are history or reference, and forty percent are sci-fi, fantasy, or horror novels. I have so many books and so little space that I’ve begun stacking bookshelves and makeshift bookshelves one on top of the other to conserve space. I have one wall almost completely covered with books. It’s like a growth. The books are spreading…. the shelves are like the trunks of trees, and the books are their buds. Each book is like a blossom that will never fade and each time it opens, some new and wonderful aspect will be divulged.

The wall space that is not covered by bookshelves are speckled with glow in the dark stars. (My mom’s boyfriend was Not happy when he saw what I had done to the walls…. oh well.) When I turn out the lights, several miniature galaxies slowly fade into the darkness. I add to them whenever I happen to find more luminescent stars or planets. Two years ago, Borders had holiday decorations based on the work of Robert Sabuda. When we took them down, I took a lot of the pop-up dove decorations, painted them black, and pasted them onto one of my walls. Now I have black birds flying through my room. Raven is one of my spirit animals you see, but they seem to be rather hard to come by as decorations. This year, the Borders theme was a fairy and a polar bear (don’t ask me why). When we trashed the decorations, I cut out a lot of the fairies and now they are sharing space with my black birds.

In addition to the books and the unusual wall decorations, I have a lot of plants. I have eight plants and only two windows. These aren’t small plants either. I have a jungle in my room. Some of the pots are like little communities. I have shamrocks with a Madagascar red devil as tall as I am, an African violet with a rubber tree in a pot too heavy for me to lift by myself, jades in with an aloe, a wax plant growing in the same pot with a rex begonia… and many unkown plants. I wish I had more windows. I feel about as bad about my plants in my tiny windows as a person with a large dog in a small apartment must feel. The poor things. They do amazingly well, considering.

The only other remarkable things in my room are my (mostly) aquatic stuffed animal collection and my altar. I never really cared about the whole beany baby craze, except I loved the marine creatures they came up with. So I have all kinds of aquatic beanies, as well as a couple of non-beanie dragons and sea monsters. They are sitting on my books and among the few raven/black bird figurines I’ve managed to acquire. Set in a little nook is my altar. It’s actually a tiered bookshelf. The bottom two shelves I’ve covered with a lacy table cloth, while the top three staggered shelves are my actual altar. There are figurines and other items emblematic of my gods and various offerings, and a dish where I put momentos of people I want to protect. I have a little silver Ganesha figurine about the size of my pinkie nail. I’d really like to find a bigger one, but I’ve never seen one that I like aside from this little silver one. It’s so small around, that it sits comfortably in the circle of a star sapphire ring on a little pedestal, surrounded by sweets. I’d also like to get a Kali figurine, but again, I’ve never found one that appealed to me. I have a jointed wooden snake (another spirit animal) and a wooden raven puppet. I have a raven feather that I found, that doubles as a symbol of Ma’at. There’s a whole slew of shells which represent my ties to Aegir, whose holy day I was born on. I think being born on a god’s holy day exerts about the same influence on a person’s life as an astrological sign.

So if I came into your homes, what things would stand out? What do you collect or display? What do your “things” say about you? Consider this a writing prompt if you like.

January 14th

The Festival of the Helping Hand is based upon the African proverb, “Not to aid one in distress is to kill him or her in your heart.”

The festival of Makar Sankranti is highly regarded by the Hindus from North to down South. Though the Hindu calendar is lunar, Makar Sankrati is an exception, marking the commencement of the sun’s journey to the Northern Hemisphere. It always takes place on the fourteenth on the first month of the year. Makara refers to Makara rashi, a sign of the zodiac corresponding to Capricorn. In the epic of Mahabharata, the hero Bhishma Pitamah lingered after being wounded in the war until this day. So it is believed by some people that dying at this time brings Moksha or salvation for the deceased (and therefore no rebirth).

The day is known by various names and a variety of traditions are witnessed as one explores the festival in different states. In Punjab, the eve of Makar Sankranti is celebrated as Lohri. Bonfires are lit and people make merry. The following day is celebrated as Maghi. The Punjabi’s dance the Bhangra until they are exhausted. In Uttar Pradesh, Sankranti is called Khichiri. People begin the day by cleansing themselves in water at various holy sites. This is to purify the self and bestow punya. A special puja is offered as a thanksgiving for a good harvest. The festival is known as Sukarat or Sakarat in Bundelkhand and Madhya Pradesh. People make merry and eat sweets. In Bengal, a fair is held at Ganga Sagar where the river Ganga enters the sea.

There is a custom of giving gifts to relatives in Gujarat. The Pundits of Gujarati grant scholarships to students for higher studies in astrology and philosophy at this time. Brightly colored kites are flown in celebration, and in the evening, kites with lit diyas attached to them are flown so that it seems as though the earthen lamps were flying on their own. The symbol of flying kites is to mark the end of the winter season and has become an internationally known event.

Pongal, which literally means “boiling over,” stretches over four days and celebrates the bounteous crops in the fields. This festival is the biggest event of the year for the Tamils as well as for the people of Andhra Pradesh. The first day, Bhogi-Pongal is devoted to Bhogi or Indran, the rain god. The day is linked with the famous mythological tale about Krishna lifting Gobardhan Parbat on his little finger. The day begins with an oil bath and in the evening there is a bonfire made of old cloths, files, mats and rugs. The festival is believed to be between 1000 and 2000 years old.

On Dondoyaki or Ombeyaki in Japan, New Year decorations are gathered up and taken to the nearest Shinto shrine. There, they are burned in a huge bonfire. Some people only stay long enough to throw their offerings on the fire, while others sing songs, roast rice cakes, and indulge in fortune telling.

An official admission of error was issued by the jurors of the Salem Witch Trial in 1696.

Internet Island Topic Post #31: New Year’s Potpourii

31.1: A New Year, A New Page: Each passing year is literally a “page” on your blog. You can go back and “relive” your “Xanga life” if you haven’t deleted the posts. What is different or similar about the “page” that is turning now, in Jan. 2008? Are you writing a “new book” or is this year just another chapter in a long, meandering novel? Be creative.

The women in my family go white, not gray. I’ve noticed a lot more white hairs lately. I’ve always had them, as far back as high school, but now they’re all converging right in the front as if there’s a magnet hidden in my brow. Except where those little whites are gathering, they can pass for blonde elsewhere. I don’t feel old. For a 33 year old (34 in a few months), I am not really showing my age, aside from those hairs. I don’t have wrinkles, not even crows feet. I’ve been considering getting some henna, but that doesn’t really do anything about the fact that I am getting older and I have nothing to show for it. I should have been published by now. I resolved to write more in my blog this past year and I have been, but it’s not enough. I need to write more. Those white hairs are telling me to get off my butt this year!

31.2: The Internet Island: Why did you join this blogring? Are you satisfied with the topics? Do you have any advice for me why there isn’t lots of participation among over 130 blogring members? Do I write too many topics? Too few? Let it all hang out.

I joined this blogring for writing prompts. The topics are alright for the most part. I do think that you try to cram too many topics into the post sometimes. At most, I’d post two distinct topics and possibly expand on those, but giving people so many options can be overwhelming. I usually end up posting an entry for every subtopic you post, but I’m sure there are others who become intimidated by the plethora of options.

31.3: Pet Peeve: When I edited our high school newspaper, there was a feature called “Senior Celebrity”, in which the reporter asked prominent seniors a series of questions. One was always “what is your pet peeve?” What really peeves you the most? (it can be about anything)

My main pet peeve is ignorance. I define ignorance as arrogant disinterest in the facts, a willful blindness. I try to be patient with people, but when they express a belief that is completely unfounded in fact or reason, I wash my hands of them. I can’t stand to talk to people who won’t think through their beliefs, who won’t consider the impact of their actions, who seem to think the sun rises and set upon what they think and everyone else be damned. They frustrate me and rather than argue with them and get angry, I walk away. I don’t have the time to make them look in a mirror to see the face they are presenting to the world. I feel sorry for them, but I’d rather not be gored by the horns of their bullish personality.

My secondary pet peeve is typos and bad grammar, but that’s entirely on me. When I am reading a book, if I find a typo in the first few pages, it’s almost enough to make me put it down. Unless I’ve read the author before or the idea really intrigues me, a typo is sometimes enough to make me lose all interest entirely. If I find a typo in my own work, it’s almost enough to make me pop a blood vessel. I am quick to fix it if I can.

31.4: Happenstance/Predestination: Do things “just happen” or do they happen for a reason? Are we on a rollercoaster which seems to be a crazy ride but is definitely on “track” or are we on the bumper car ride, with no direction at all save what happens when we turn the wheel?

Reality is mostly too complex for us to know what will happen all the time. Depending upon our reaction to events, occurrances that were likely at one point will never happen afterwards. Things happen because of what has gone before. There are so many factors in why things have happened that it can be a real puzzle trying to figure it out, let alone if we try to discern what will happen based on unknown or as yet unlived events. There are many things beyond our control, but we mostly refer to them as natural disasters or “acts of god.” What is not beyond our control is how we react to them. In such circumstances, we can track what may occur after the event based on the choices we make in dealing with the event. Ripples of our actions move out from us and affect others who make choices based on their experiences and desires. The farther our ripples spread out, the harder it is to examine the long term ramifications of our choices. This is the butterfly effect, chaos theory. In the short term and microcosm, we can determine the most likely results of the choices we make when faced with unalterable or inscrutible events. What we cannot predict is how our actions or words may eventually affect others. We can only put out our best of intentions in our words and actions and hope the spirit of our desires will be taken to heart by others.  

31.5: Write a “Dear Xanga” letter: Communicate with the “Xanga Gods”. I know you can actually contact John or other members of the Xanga team through their blogs, but compile a list of your likes and dislikes. Do you really like “Themes”? Do you have suggestions or criticisms of how the site works?

Dear Xanga, I know the bare minimum of what it is possible to achieve with html, so I don’t know if my desires are even possible, but I wish there was some way to format tables within a post. Maybe there is and I just don’t know about it. It’d be kind of neat if we could post a picture and then type over it partially, or overlap pictures like a collage.

I also wish I could track how long people stay on my site, so I’d know if my posts are grabbing their interest or if they are just clicking through after a glance.

I wish I could upload my favorite songs to Xanga. I don’t understand why I shouldn’t be able to since I paid for them and I’m not reselling them. You’d think music companies would be happy for the free advertising. In fact, I wish that if we posted a link to something we were “currently listening to,” it would automatically create a link which would play from that cd when someone clicks on the post. If we posted a book we were currently reading, there should be an excerpt or there should be a way for us to post whatever excerpt that we fancy. It’d be kind of nifty if we could post other things which we are currently doing…. eating (and post a recipe or link to the brand… hey! would that make revenue for Xanga? Bonus)… creating artwise and have links to things that inspired the creation or supplies used…. or currently looking to buy, sell, trade (and have more interaction with our fellow Xangans). It’d be great if we could start a bartering system here since I think there are a lot of “grassroots,” back-to-the-basics type people here at Xanga who would participate. I’d love to start a book/music swap.

It would be really cool if there was some kind of function which allowed us to search for pertinent links for our topics from the Weblog entry page, but that’s just the nerd in me talking. I usually just open up a separate google page and search from there. Still it would be convenient if mousing over a word would create a little popup with links on topics pertaining to the word. We could still use the “add link” button, but have the option of putting multiple links in there.

okay… I think I’m done lol

31.6:Politics: If you were running your country, what would you do to insure that things get better instead of worse?

I would ensure that everyone had a voice and that all things were subject to public vote, not to representative vote. Having representatives is all well and good, but they don’t necessarily vote the way the people who voted for them would like. They have their own ideas about what is good for people. I would have representatives who do what the people dictate, not what they want to do. We have the computational ability to collect and utilize votes from the general public at least on a weekly basis. As more people get personal computers, it becomes even easier for a true democracy. Our representational system is currently rather unweildy. Public vote would be so much faster and truer to our supposedly democratic system. For those afraid of people hacking to alter the popular vote, I’d have an entire department like the CIA or FBI to police the voting system.

As a rule, I would spend more money on education and healthcare than on the perpetuation of warfare. An educated populace is an informed populace, better able to think about and vote on the issues. It might make me unpopular, but I would alter how kids went to school. Children could start preschool and continue going through kindgarten parttime (morning or afternoon only) as some already do. Grades one through five would remain essentially unchanged, though I’d place greater emphasis on homework, kind of penalizing parents who didn’t make sure it got done by penalizing the kids. Starting in sixth grade though, I’d alter the schedules to be more like college semesters, without the long summer break, but with short breaks in between semesters, particularly during the holidays to make sure every religion got its due instead of just the Christians. Basically it would work out to the kids going to school about a month more than they do now, but the short breaks instead of the long one would ensure that the teachers were continuously employed and that the children forgot less between grades. Children would also have more supervision than they might normally if their parents work during the time the kids would normally be off during the summer and they would have at least one meal a day, which is another concern for low income families in the summer.

31.7: Financial Straights: I recently read that I’m not the only one whose income doesn’t cover his monthly bills. Talk about your personal financial picture. Do you have advice or fears about the future, the falling value of some currencies (like the American dollar), recessions, the downward spiraling housing market, the fluctuations of the stock market, etc. Are you able to do anything to make your life better or to maintain your lifestyle in these seeming perilous times?

Coming from a family which has always been lower middle class to poor, I’ve learned to stretch my dollars as far as they will go. I don’t buy new clothes aside from undergarments and shoes. If something is slightly damaged, I try to repare it or make do. I don’t have to have name brand anything, not clothes or food. Buying things dried or fresh is a lot cheaper than prepackaged, one-serving portions in the long run (and a lot healthier) if you’re willing to prepare the food and freeze it. I have one credit card and only ever have had one. If I get a new one with a lower credit rating, I cut up the old one and cancel it. I always pay a little extra on every bill (phone, car, insurance, credit card), even if it’s only to round it up to the nearest $10 bucks.

I also have a little charm that I use to keep me from worrying about money. I have a little metal box where I put all silver coins as I find them. I also keep little worry people in the box and keep the box closed so none of the worries escape. The worry people worry about my money for me. I was feeling anxious about my money a little while ago and when I checked the box, I discovered that the lid had come open at the corner somehow. Since I fixed it, my worries have faded. I worry still if things are getting tight, but I don’t worry needlessly.

31.8: Popular Xangans: I’ve been reading about how services like MySpace and YouTube are now being bombarded with “professionals”. Television stations, movie studios, stars, prominent writers all are establishing webpages on other services, and the established entertainment giants are getting lots of hits. I’ve even seen some “big stars” with blogs on  Xanga. I like the fact that “regular folks” can become extremely popular if they write or present something interesting and entertaining. Who are your “popular Xangans”. Whose blogs do you read because you want to read them, not just because you’re “exchanging comments?” If the commenting feature “disappeared” who would you still visit and read?

I prefer not to say. I don’t want the people I subscribe to, but visit less, to feel hurt. I read a lot of people from my subscriptions page, but I don’t always visit to comment if I have nothing pertinent to say.

January 13th

Frigg is honored today by her followers, the Freefolk from Frigefolc or “Frigg’s People.”

In Austria, the final Witchcraft laws were repealed in 1787.

NightlyDreams tagged me with this questionaire…

1.  3 things that scare me
the future, fanatics of any religion, people who think with their wallets not their hearts

2.  3 people who make me laugh
Um…. my nephew, Stephen Colbert, my subconscious?

3.  3 things i love
the world, literature, music

4.  3 things i hate
ignorance, selfishness, allergies

5.  3 things i don’t understand
I don’t understand why people can’t agree to disagree.
I don’t understand why some people don’t seem to even know that they are alive.
I don’t understand why people can’t love one another without expecting something in exchange.

6.  3 things on my desk (depends on what you consider my desk)
A little wooden fishy from my mother, an indian head penny from 1890 that I found, a glow in the dark star

7.  3 things i’m doing right now
trying to keep my toes warm because I’m too lazy to put on socks, trying to ignore my noisey neighbors with whom we share a wall, digesting some cherries?

8.  3 things i want to do before i die
become a well-known writer, meet the Dalai Lama, visit Ireland

9.  3 things i can do
reason, feel, grow

10.  3 things you should listen to
nothingness, the ocean, the wind (especially when it is blowing through the trees)

11.  3 things you should never listen to
words that make you feel that there is something wrong with you, the words of fanatics and politicians, doubts

12.  3 things i’d like to learn
how to play a musical instrument
Latin, Greek, or Sanskrit
how to take a compliment without feeling embarrassed or unworthy

13.  3 favorite foods
Pizza, butter almond ice cream, various exotic rices

14.  3 beverages i drink regularly
coca cola, water, I’m allergic to everything else, it’s just those two

Lessee….. I’m gonna tag BoureeMusique, FL_boi, NormallyInsane, TidBitz, sprolee, and wunderkind348.

January 12th

The Roman festival of Compitalia honors the Lares and Manes, household gods. The Compitalia and the Feralia are part of the Mania. Mania is the goddess referred to as the Mother or Grandmother of Ghosts. The Romans celebrate the Compitalia on the 12th of January and also the 6th of March. Loaves of bread are fashioned in the shape of men and called Maniae. Woolen effigies of men and women are dedicated to the goddess Mania and hung at the doors of all the houses in Rome in the hope that, in her rounds through the city, she will accept the effigies for the inmates of the house and so spare the living from death for another year.

Spontaneous recollection of past lives is not extremely rare, but one thing that triggers past life memories are traumatic experiences, especially if there is something about the experience which is similar to something that happened in a past life. For me, that was when I was “lynched” by my peers in junior high school.

Something similar happened to me in the Middle East. It is very hard for me to pinpoint exactly when this life occurred. I think that it occurred before my life as a bard by at least a thousand years, if not longer. My death in this life was at least as traumatic as my death as a bard… either I tend to get murdered at lot or they are just the most memorable lives and so rise to the surface more easily. Of the ten lives I recall, I was definitely murdered five times, two other times I may have been murdered but I’m not sure, and once I technically took my own life to escape my kidnappers. The remaining two lives I was a dolphin and a jaguar, and while my death in both are horrible memories, neither one was a murder.

Directly after I was attacked in junior high school, I started dreaming of a similar event, of being overwhelmed by a mob and being stoned into unconsciousness, but the dress of the people and the location was very primitive. This obviously wasn’t a memory of what happened at school, but it was too detailed not to be a real memory. They say that most people do not dream in color, but I always do, so that wasn’t really a good indicator. But they also say that when you dream, you don’t have the range of senses that you do when you’re awake. Whenever I have a dream of a past life, I have my full range of senses, and that is what led me to believe something more than dreaming was going on.

Aside from the circumstances of my death, there is not a lot I recall about this life. I was a woman. I was outspoken and stubborn, something people didn’t really like in women back then. I don’t know what provoked the people to form a mob and attack me. I don’t believe I broke any laws aside from speaking my mind, but I do think that I wasn’t a simple complainer, that I was trying to incite people to change their ways. They threw rocks at me until I was knocked unconscious, then dragged me to the city limits and set me on fire.

Some research that I have done has revealed some interesting historical facts that helped me pinpoint the culture and area. Apparently, back in the early days of Jerusalem, Gehenna referred to the Hinnom Valley to the south of the city where trash and criminals were disposed of by burning. The word Gehenna eventually joined the word Sheol as a word for an area of the afterlife, not a particularly pleasant one. It’s safe to say that this past life probably was somewhere in the Middle East, if not in Jerusalem itself, and possibly occurred sometime in the BC. It is also interesting to note that worship of Moloch and Baal is mentioned in conjunction with this valley and it seems likely to me (but not verified by any specific memories) that I may have been trying to get people to stop sacrificing their children in their temple fires or trying to save my own child. (I don’t remember having any children, but I get the sense that I could have been a mother.) Moloch and Baal are Canaanite gods whose worship was often adopted by the early Hebrew tribes mainly because of their interaction with the Canaanites. Ironically, the temple to Moloch in the valley of Hinnom is said to have been built by Solomon.

So, while this is the first life I recall, it actually falls somewhere in the middle, chronologically speaking. Beyond the research that I’ve done, there’s really no way to verify it. Historical research is the best way to verify a past life, but another suggested method is meditation. If you have any doubts about a past life, meditate on it to see if you can dredge up any more details than your dream or flash memory has revealed to you. This can also help you get more details for historical research.

January 11th

The Roman Carmentalia honors the Carmenae, prophetic nymphs identified with the nine muses. Their leader is Carmentis, a goddess of prophecy and protectress of women in childbirth. She is also honored with another Carmentalia on the 15th of January.

The 11th and 15th were among the most important festivals for Roman mothers. Roman matrons celebrated along with the flamen (a priest devoted to a particular god of the Roman pantheon) and pontifices (a council of nine, fifteen, or sixteen priests). Two Carmentes, called Porrima and Postverta were worshiped as her sisters and attendants. Near the Porta Carmentalis, which was named for her, was a Flamen Carmentalis. It was not lawful to defile her shrine with leather or any skin of slaughtered beasts.

Juturna, an old Italian goddess of fountains and prophetic waters, is honored with the Juturnalia on the anniversary of the day on which her temple was erected in the Campus Martius by Lutatius Cotulus. All aqueduct workmen and others in a similar field celebrate the Juturnalia.

As part of the New Year’s celebrations in Japan, the kagami-mochi, a two-tiered rice cake which was placed in the alcove of the living room or kitchen, is cut up and eaten today. This custom, called kagami biraki, originated with the samurai class.

On the 27th day of Mechir, a Feast of Sokar occurs.

Though much that is known of Geraint, the Blue Bard of Wales, is considered the invention of Iolo Morganwg, an infamous antiquarian author now known for his numerous forgeries, this day has been chosen to honor Geraint.

I am a firm believer in past lives, and I recall many, ten in fact, in addition to the current one. I was even a bard once upon a time. It’s not the first life I recall, or even the second, but it is one of my strongest past life memories. Not that I have any musical talent in this life, aside from being able to sing, but that may just be lack of opportunity since the only instrument my family encouraged me to learn was the trumpet, and that was only because we happened to have one. I hated that trumpet. Even now that I am in my 30s, I still consider learning an instrument every so often. I would really love to learn piano or flute or violin.

The life I recall as a bard was very… turbulent.  I can put my past life memories in a rough chronological order, and this was the seventh life. It is the first that I can pin the time period down to a specific century, the 1100s.  Unless I’m blocking something, between that life and the next were roughly 700 years, give or take a decade, where I was not alive in any form.  It would not be surprising if it did take me that long to reincarnate somewhere. My life as a bard was probably one of the most frustrating and disappointing lives I’ve had. I wasn’t a bad person, but I was pretty vain and dismissive of people I didn’t like. This ultimately proved to be my downfall.

I don’t remember any specific names of people or places, though I feel that geographically speaking, I was somewhere in northern England or southern Scotland.  I’d grown up with the lord of the area, and we were the best of friends, practically brothers. At this time however, the nobility was expected to be Christian and if you didn’t at least make a pretense at being one, you can believe your neighbors would use it as an excuse to attack you. So even though he had a Pagan Bard in his court, he also had this officious little weaselly Christian priest too, to keep his neighbors off his back.

I didn’t like the priest and he didn’t like me, and we didn’t really keep it a secret. He would always make not-so-subtle comments about Pagans and call attention to certain bad habits I had (like drinking) and whatnot in his sermons, without ever naming me specifically. I wasn’t so subtle in making a mockery of him to everyone though. In fact, he was a laughing stock because of me. No one took him seriously, and the only reason they tolerated him was because of the neighbors. Otherwise, they probably would have sent him packing years before my death.

For his part, he obviously felt like he deserved more respect from me and everyone else, but the thing about him was, he didn’t seem to feel a need to earn it. He liked to talk the talk, but not walk the walk, if you catch my drift. It wasn’t just my jokes that made him unpopular. So the situation must have been unbearably frustrating for him. So frustrating in fact that he waited till I was drunk off my gourd one night, followed me to my room, and stabbed me in the back. I pretty much bled to death in a dark hall.

Two major hang ups I’ve gained from this life…. I’m very wary of Christian clergy (though I’ve been working on this), and I won’t drink, not a drop. I’ve never even tried drugs. The only addiction I could be said to have is to caffeine, a habit I perennially try to kick. I also try not to make fun of people. I can be a pretty funny person, but I try to avoid being funny at the expense of others.

Of all my former lives, this is the life I miss the most. I wasn’t famous or rich, but I was important to people whose opinions and futures mattered to me. I can only guess what happened to them after I died. I doubt that it was a secret to anyone who my murderer was, and I worry that my lord would have had him executed. That could have given the neighboring lords an excuse to attack since everyone knows a Christian priest would never stoop to murder….

So, all in all, this was the life I cherished most, and the most frustrating because I don’t know what happened after I died. I feel like a failure because of the ignominy of my death and the fact that I wasn’t there to stand by my lord or advise him not to take revenge. This is the only life where I felt like I meant something to the people around me, that I was accepted, and that I belonged. I was respected for my knowledge and skills, and I could affect change in the world around me. I’ve never really felt like I belonged in my lives since. So I guess a need to prove myself worthy of admiration is another characteristic gleaned from my life as a bard. I got myself killed because I was an arrogant drunk. I find it hard to live down. No matter how many people express admiration for me in this life, I never feel comfortable with it. Considering how and why I died, I don’t think I’ve earned it.

January 10th

Securitas was commonly invoked by Romans when some imminent danger had been averted, but also annually on this day. She is depicted seated, relaxed, with a scepter in her right hand and a globe at her feet

(Sorry I didn’t post on the 9th. I had some kind of stomach virus/food poisoning thing going on. Only one little entry for yesterday  though, so you didn’t miss much. )

January 9th

The Dirge of Isis and Nephthys to call on the soul of Osiris is commemorated today.