Month: February 2009

  • It’s shaping up to be a nice birthday

    Yesterday my mom gave me an early birthday present, a Snuggy. It sure is. lol The only criticism I would make is that it needs a belt or something to cinch it shut or hold it on if you happen to get up while wearing it. I can probably make one though.

    Today I got a new chair for my desk. It is much better than the old chair… faux leather with lumbar support and armrests. It really is comfortable and it’s helping my back and posture immensely.

    Between my snuggy and my new chair, I am no longer uncomfortable and freezing when I’m at the computer. lol

    Of course, I don’t know what to expect on my birthday on Tuesday. The chair was the only thing I asked for. We’ll be going out to eat, but my sister is moving into a huge place, so she doesn’t have money to go out to eat, let alone get me something.




    February 28th

    Kalevala Day is celebrated in Finland. It marks the publication of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic.


    Merriddyn Dydd, the Day of Merriddyn, begins at sundown.


    Buddha’s Conception is celebrated today in Tibet.



  • WCFQ 37e/c: Time and Tribulations

    Does time heal all wounds?
    awish4you

    To this question, I would have to say yes and no. Time will not heal anything in and of itself, but if you allow it, it will give you perspective which will help you in the healing process. Take my crappy childhood for instance… it could have been worse. Looking back on it now from the perspective of an adult (yes, I kid… I’ll never really be an adult), I can examine things that happened twenty or so years ago and say what painful events were actually formative… which events actually made me the person I am today.

    And while I wouldn’t wish those events on anyone, since I like who I am, I have to look on those events constructively. Take them out of the equation, and I am not the me you have all come to know and love.

    Whether we’re talking about when I was lynched by the about 30 or so kids in junior high school or the time I was thrown by a horse and my father told me to “walk it off” or the time I fell down the stairs and nearly swallowed my tongue or every rotten job I’ve ever had or the time I tried to hug my mom because she was crying and she pushed me away (she insists this never happened) or any number of uncomfortable and downright miserable things… they have only healed with time and perspective. I can look at them as object lessons. Be wary in crowds. Don’t trust people just because they are “older and wiser.” Don’t run down bare wood stairs in your stocking feet. Don’t assume people want to be comforted just because they’re sad. Don’t assume any job is going to be great, but hope it will be better than the last one.
    What single event in your life
    has had the most profound effect on you and why?
    mo_chic_for_jesus

    The single most influential event in my life never happened to me. It didn’t even happen in my lifetime. It happened before I was born. When my mother was 14 she had a boyfriend that she really cared about. She demanded one night that he return a necklace to her that she had forgotten at his home. As he rode his bike to her house, he was struck and killed by a car. A year later, my mother met my father (several years her senior), got pregnant with me, and the rest is history. I sometimes think that if her boyfriend had never died, she might not have fallen in with a bad crowd, started taking drugs, or had a child at sixteen. I might not even exist. She might have eventually broken up with the boyfriend who died, or married him, and maybe they would have had children, but none of them would have been me. In essence, I owe my life to someone else’s death. That’s really…. messed up, I know. Things like this make me start thinking about predestination and how events before I was born, and after, conspired to create me as I am. How much of who I am is because I choose to be this way, and how much is because of things over which I have no control at all? 

    Some people familiar with the concept of predestination may feel the need to point out that it is a Christian concept, but I’ll answer right back that the Norse gods also lived according to the fates that were handed down by the Norns. So how much of my life is really my own? How much wiggle room have I got? Was that kid my mother loved at fourteen destined to die so I could be born or did his death to set into motion events I don’t even know about? How did his death affect his family or the person who hit him? Am I just a side effect of someone else’s fate?

    Maybe the reason I haven’t made it big yet is because I’m an insignificant side effect of someone else’s event horizon.(…. that last part sounds like it should be in a song.) If I’m merely an extra that’s become lost in the scene changes, does that mean I’m operating on borrowed time? It’s a good thing I’m asexual, because I don’t think extras qualify for leading men to sweep them off their feet. lol
    February 26

    This is Hygeia’s Day in North Africa.

    This the 13th day of Parmutit, an Egyptian holy day honoring Mut and Nut.



  • WQFQ 37+1: Tag; Five Xangans

    1) Pick five Xangans that you feel the need to read everyday
    2) Write a description of why YOU read and their blog and how it has helped you or entertained you or anything else it has done for you
    3) Tag ten of your friends to do this and I am sure this will allow other fellow Xangans to actually hear and read other blogs they don’t generally read
    NightlyDreams

    This list is in no particular order and not all of these folks post every day. I just wish they did.

    Pyronide has some really interesting philosophical ideas and
    rants. I really wish he posted more often. I get the sense
    that he’s often frustrated by people and the way the world
    works, and I’m right there with him. I think we share the
    same darkling muse.

    heidenkind teaches art. I love learning new things about
    artists and types of art I never heard of before reading
    her blog. Heck, I just like learning new things, period. I love
    it when she posts what amounts to a college essay. Some
    surfers of the interwebs may prefer blog-lite, but I prefer
    blogs with some content and Heidenkind delivers.

    Broom_Service writes mostly about her life, her hopes, her
    experiences. We’re a lot alike. She’s “living the dream” out
    in the middle of the wilderness and wants to open her own
    online store just like me! Plus she encouraged me to start our
    horror discussion group on Ning and we’re having lots of fun.

    Jemstone05 is an artist with a lot of talent. I just wish she
    saw it more! I love when she posts some new collage or a page
    from her art journal. I think she has what it takes to be a
    professional artist.

    hatcherbee is a crafty mommy. The things she makes for her
    kids are adorable and very thrifty. She can stretch a penny like
    taffy. Her posts have been few and far between lately and I
    miss it. I think she has a lot to offer people who are looking to
    put a curb on spending in today’s economy. She’s also a big
    fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and has an irreverent sense
    of humor.




    February 25th

    Today is sacred to Nut, an Egyptian sky goddess.



  • A Dream of Family I Never Knew

    I had the strangest dream this morning. I dreamed that my Nana (my great grandmother on my father’s side) had a brother. Whether or not this is true I have no idea. My Nana and everyone on my father’s side of the family is dead. I can’t ask anyone. But in my dream, I somehow found out I had a great uncle who was my Nana’s brother and after asking my mother, she verified that this was true. She didn’t give an adequate reason as to why she never told me I had a great uncle before, but that’s dreams for you…

    In my dream, I sought him out. He lived in Reading, which is not that far away and is actually where my great grandmother on my mother’s side lived until she died. He was quite old, had to be in his 80s or 90s. My Nana died relatively young, in her 60s, when I was 11. I went and visited him. Somehow he was famous, and there were several landmarks in the town with plaques devoted to him where he had run a business or something. He had been a geologist and a teacher and a businessman and run a bar… all kinds of things. It was really amazing. But he was very old, and when I found him, bedridden with cancer. It was really very sad.

    Strangely enough, in reality my Nana came out of New York, not Reading. It was my mother’s side of the family that came out of Reading. So far as I know, my Nana had no siblings, but she died when I was so young and my grandfather and her husband had been dead for many, many years before I was born. She actually raised my father because his father died and his mother abandoned them when he was still a baby. She lived with a man who we all called Uncle Freddie who was her boyfriend and had been since my father was a child. He went by the name Fred Clark, but that was my Nana’s maiden name, not his real name. My mother has always speculated that he was in hiding from the Mob or some other organized crime in New York where he was from. He did actually die of cancer. I’ve never really been sure what my Nana died from. My father, the chronic liar, made it sound like she went mad and the doctors killed her.

    This was a very frustrating dream because I have absolutely no one I can ask about family history on that side of the family. I wonder if I had the dream because I am considering selling the bracelet I inherited from her. I am really loathe to do it, but it doesn’t fit and even if it did, I wouldn’t be able to wear it because of my weird metal allergy.
    February 24th

    The Shivaratri, Shiva’s Night, is a Hindu celebration honoring the god of destruction and renewal. A day of total fasting is followed by an all night vigil at the shrines of Shiva where the celebrants watch the flames of small oil lamps.



    On this day in the year 1582, our calendar was reformed yet again, moving New Year’s Day from March 25th to January 1st.



  • Writer’s Choice Weekly Questions Week 37

    five questions for this week +1

    unfeatured questions stolen from the featured question chatboard, dated from October of 2007
    What makes you want to learn about something?
    AvenueToTheReal

    What do you think makes you different from everyone else?
    stone_in_peace

    What single event in your life has had the most profound effect on you and why?
    mo_chic_for_jesus

    Do you fear death?
    ehnvied

    Does time heal all wounds?
    awish4you

    +1

    1) Pick five Xangans that you feel the need to read everyday
    2) Write a description of why YOU read and their blog and how it has helped you or entertained you or anything else it has done for you
    3) Tag ten of your friends to do this and I am sure this will allow other fellow Xangans to actually hear and read other blogs they don’t generally read
    NightlyDreams     (tagged me, so I’m passing it along to you! )

    Answer any one or all of these questions in the coming week. I try to mix the whimsical with the serious here, so hopefully there is at least one question here for everyone.




    February 23rd

    Terminalia was the last festival of the Roman year. Honoring Terminus, the god of boundaries and frontiers, neighbors would meet where their fields adjoined to bedeck the stone boundary markers, termini, with garlands and make offerings of corn, honey, and wine. Anyone who accidentally or intentionally moved these stones was accursed.



  • Tattoo
    the webnovel so far…

    Chapter 1: Blood is Thicker
    Chapter 1.1 in which Glory is not mindful of the store
    Chapter 1.2 in which Glory is made to do something she would really rather not
    Chapter 1.3 in which Glory thinks she might be sick
    Chapter 1.4 in which Aaron makes a mistake
    Chapter 1.5 in which Glory is made to see the error of her ways
    Chapter 1.6 in which the circle remains unbroken

    Chapter 2: A Farewell to Arms
    Chapter 2.1 in which Aaron makes another mistake
    Chapter 2.2 in which Glory reflects on her path
    Chapter 2.3 in which we learn Aaron is not really a nice boy
    Chapter 2.4 in which Glory speculates on the holiness of salt
    Chapter 2.5 in which Glory learns of the necessity for upper body strength, but makes do with  what she has
    Chapter 2.6 in which Aaron tries to make amends, but is still pretty much an ass

    Chapter 3: Small Sacrifices
    Chapter 3.1 in which Glory is spat on, twice
    Chapter 3.2 in which a cop is threatened
    Chapter 3.3 in which someone is crying
    Chapter 3.4  in which there’s more to the moon than meets the eye
    Chapter 3.5  in which Glory comes face to face with an loony environmentalist
    Chapter 3.6 in which Glory gets turned around
    Chapter 3.7 in which Glory is threatened
    Chapter 4: The Shape of Things to Come
    Chapter 4.1 in which a doctor makes his rounds
    Chapter 4.2 in which Glory is asked some awkward questions
    Chapter 4.3 in which Glory adopts a pet
    Chapter 4.4     in which Glory gets a surprise, but decides she should not have been surprised at all
    Chapter 4.5 in which Glory explains why there are no debts where duty is concerned
    Chapter 4.6 in which a shapeshifter is an enemy to no man
    Chapter 4.7 in which Glory defends Toby’s right to make a phone call
    Chapter 4.8 in which the nose knows
    Chapter 4.9 in which good pizza is wasted on a possum
    Chapter 4.10 in which the ruse is discovered and much blood is shed
    Chapter 4.11     in which names are dropped and there is much frustration

    Chapter 5: Of Mice and Men and Other Things
    Chapter 5.1 in which money can’t buy happiness
    Chapter 5.2 in which Glory makes herself at home
    Chapter 5.3 in which Glory indulges her passion
    Chapter 5.4 in which Gozala speaks of things stolen
    Chapter 5.5 in which there is a fungus among us
    Chapter 5.6 in which an artifact is examined
    Chapter 5.7 in which the good professor is knocked off his high horse
    February 22nd

    The Roman festival of Charista, Caristia, or Cara Cognatio (from the word cara ‘dear’ kinsfolk) is a feast of favor and good will in honor of the goddess Concordia. Disputes between family and friends are settled today and presents were given with the intent of reconciling friends and relations. Near relations come to honor the familial deities, the Lares, with offerings of incense and food. This holiday also serves to strengthen family bonds. After so many days of honoring the dead, the celebrants rejoice in the living.



    Sybil Leek (1923-1983) was born today. Sybil Leek was an English Witch, a gifted psychic, astrologer, and prolific author who wrote more than 60 books on such subjects as Astrology, Numerology and Reincarnation. She was born with a witch’s mark and claimed to be a hereditary witch of Irish and Russian descent. Her entire family was involved in astrology and some of the guests who visited her childhood home included H.G. Wells, Lawrence of Arabia and Aleister Crowley.



  • Protected Post

    It’s rare that I do one, but I just made a protected post. If you should feel the urge, all my friends are privy to my latest tribulation at work.
    February 21st

    Some sources say Feralia lasted for one day only, which is variously stated as the 17th and 21st. Others extend it over a period of 11 days, from the night of the 8th to the day of the 18th. Instituted by Numa Pompilius, this is the last day of Mania and Parentalia. Family reunions are held and the Lares, the ancestral spirits guarding homes, are honored. This is the Roman All Souls’ Day, during which each household makes offerings at the graves of its dead. The spirits of the dead are abroad in the world and hover over their graves. Food and goods are left to appease them. Mania takes part in the festivals of the Compitalia and the Feralia.
     


    This is the birthday of Patricia Telesco.



    The 8th day of Parmutit is the Day of counting the partos of the eye of Horus.



  • WCFQ 36e: Abstinence and self-awareness

    Do you think teaching abstinence is outdated?
    lovepeacecalm
    I don’t, but then I’m an asexual. I’m not inclined to have sex just for the sake of having it in the first place. The thing is, most people equate sex with pleasure, but it’s true purpose is procreation. People can argue that as a pleasurable activity sex is meant to be enjoyed and shared, but since the end result can be pregnancy, I think that it’s biological function is more significant than any pleasure that comes from it.

    One of the problems I see with how sex is presented in media and society is that it is glamorized. The fact that it can get you pregnant is downplayed or dramatized to “work out.” The fact that it can give you diseases, outside of health class, is ignored or mocked. Sex is idealized. The physical results of sex are more or less ignored.

    Then we have a whole group of people who object to any kind of sexual education in schools, but neglect to educate their children themselves. So the only education “children” receive is from television… which glamorizes and mocks sexual activity. Is it any wonder no one really thinks about abstinence outside of a few people who ascribe to it thanks to their religious affiliations. There is also the old double standard… sex is okay and macho for a man, but any self-respecting girl had better think twice. If a man has sex, he’s masculine. If a woman has sex, she’s a slut. A man is just as responsible as a woman for being self-indulgent and a man (boy) who pressures a woman (girl) to have sex “if she really loves him” is no kind of adult. If people are not willing to teach kids about sex in a respectable and healthy way (physically and psychologically), then there’s really no point to teaching them anything at all. Might as well just leave things as they are…. with children having babies. 

    Sex should be taught in schools, with the emphasis on abstinence but without neglecting safety issues. Because kids watch television and see people in sexual attitudes on a nearly daily basis, sex is a part of their lives no matter what their Bible thumping parents think. If they’re not educated by their parents or by school, kids will experiment on their own. I’m not suggesting that they be scared into abstinence by stressing the consequences of sex, but that they be taught responsible behavior as a part of sexual thought. Abstinence is obviously the safest conclusion, but prophylactics and barriers against disease are also important vectors in teaching children about sex. They should all be taught together.

    Abstinence is not outdated. It is mostly ignored. That doesn’t make it an invalid choice. It is a reasonable alternative to sexual activity. If children were actually made aware of the full scope of consequences associated with sexual activity instead of its entertainment value, abstinence might be the more popular choice. Personally, I think sex ed. should be taught in biology, not as a separate class. That way it could be revisited in future classes. I also think that if emotional attachment were emphasized over physical consummation on television, children might learn to build relationships instead of scratch an itch. When all’s said and done, children and adults need a better education concerning when and where sex is a valid choice. I’ve no objection to how people entertain themselves, but I have a very specific loathing for people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions and I lay that responsibility as much on the people who object to sex being taught in schools as I do on the “children” who indulge in sexual activity without considering the consequences.
    February 20th

    This is the eighth day of Parentalia.


    The Society for Psychical Research was founded in London in 1882.


    On the 7th day of Parmutit, Min Goes Forth in festivity.



  • WCFQ 36b: The moldy old mold

    Is today’s society designed to oppress people
    and cause them to want to fit
    into a “mold” of what they “should be?”
    i_heart_concussions

    Society by its nature forces people to fit into a mold. Without some cohesion on the part of its populace, a society could not exist for long. But without some flexibility, a society cannot function. Society does expect its constituents to conform to some extent, but a society which rules through a tyrannical need to control every action and thought of its people is doomed to failure. Or maybe I’ve just been brainwashed as a freethinking American. When America was formed, the governments of Europe said that we were doomed to failure because no society could even function with so little structure. We sure showed them. Now we’ve got structure out the yin yang. (You know… that particular phrase has always sounded rather painful.)

    By the time we reach adulthood, we’ve gone through so much subliminal training in what is expected of us by our parents, by our schools and peers, and by the ever changing media of television, that it’s only a rare few who manage to resist the mold we are forced into blind. A-HA! But we have books. We have access to literature dating back hundreds of years. Despite the best efforts of abusive and neglectful society (and often parents, sad to say) if you can read, you can custom design the mold into which you are pressed. If you read about justice and chivalry, honor and integrity, great turmoil of the soul and inequity of experience, you will grow up to be exactly the kind of person that sets society on its ear. But hey, they made the books available, so in addition to the boring old sheeple who do as they are told and never question the status quo, in their secret hearts they must also want someone around who can shake *bleep* up. You may feel oppressed by the vast majority, but if you allow them to snip and trim away your wings, that’s all on you. Obviously if you choose to stand up against “normalcy” and be your own person, you’re going to get some funny looks. But on the other hand, if you keep your head down, you’ll never get to see the stars. What you should be is yourself and they can only oppress you if you allow it. There is no mold but the one you choose.

    So congratulations! If you are reading this and nodding, they broke the mold after making you. Now get out there and show them how to live!
    February 19th

    This is the seventh day of Parentalia.



  • WCFQ 36b: When Conformity isn’t

    Is choosing not to conform conforming also?
    Omelettes

    Conformity is not often a conscious thing. We seldom realize we’re conforming unless it’s brought to our attention. Labels exist due to the number of a people who belong to a specific archetype and if you can label yourself with an archetype, you are conforming even if it is not your intent. Jock, nerd, outcast, princess, criminal, etc… even if you don’t consciously belong to a groups, if you asked someone, I’m sure that they could come up with at least one label for you. Even choosing not to conform, you fall into the categories of anarchist or rebel. In effect, you can choose not to conform to one stereotype with the understanding that you will immediately fall into company with other stereotypes. Stereotypes exist because you fit into or are made to fit into a group. The only choice you have is whether you take comfort in the association or not. Me, I love being a nerd and to some extent I’ve been labeled a Goth. I’m something of a book and music snob. I’m a Pagan, witch, and environmentalist. I’m a vegetarian socialist. These are groups that I self-identify with. They are more or less in a similar vein, that is… liberal.

    I don’t have to consciously conform to them in order to be a part of them. Some people might not approve of the categories I find myself identifying with, but I’m not asking them to conform to my ideals. I’m not choosing to conform or not to conform. Either one, I think takes effort. Conformity, or lack there of, is an illusion. Even as you are labeled one thing, you might still fit into half a dozen other categories, some of them contradictory. The only time conformity is a dirty word is when you go against your own nature to belong to or distance your self from a group. Then you are not so much conforming as you are denying who you are. If on the other hand, you don’t like who you are or who people say you are, you’re not really choosing to conform. It’s being thrust upon you. Choosing not to conform then becomes a quest to find yourself rather than an attempt to conform to a different standard than what you are already perceived to be.

    Look at it this way. As soon as you agree with something, you’re conforming. If you choose not to agree, you’re not conforming. Choosing not to conform remains a lack of conformity, until you find something with which you can agree. Until you find that group that upholds the counter argument as their standard, you remain a nonconformist. 




    February 18th

    The Zoroastrian festival of Spenta Armaiti Spandarmat, the Festival of Cultivators or Festival of Women, is a Persian festival.


     Copernicus (b.1473) was called a fool for his claims that the earth revolved around the sun.


    On the sixth day of the Parentalia and beginning of Feralia, offerings are left at the tombs. The souls of the dead are appeased with small gifts brought to the extinguished pyres. The dead value piety more than any costly gift. Such gifts might include a tile wreathed with votive garlands, a sprinkling of corn, a few grains of salt, bread soaked in wine, or some loose violets. These offerings are set on a potsherd in the middle of the road, and prayers and the appropriate words are said at hearths set up for the purpose.

    From this time until the 21st, Tacita, the silent Goddess (Dea Muta) is honored. She is also called Lara, mother of the Lares. She is asked to bind hostile speech and unfriendly words.