Just made lamb (and beef, a little) stew, never made it before and I will definitely be making it again.

Threw about three pounds of lamb stew meat (as well as about half a pound of beef cubes...had it kicking around the freezer, had to do something with it) in a stock pot with about four quarts of water and two envelopes of onion soup/dip mix turned on the heat til the meat was mostly cooked, then pulled the meat off the bone and started adding other stuff- probably about a cup of chopped green onion, three or four stalks of chopped celery, about a cup and a half of brown rice, a big heaping spoonful of minced garlic and the rest, well...I couldn't tell you how much of anything else I used, but I definitely used black pepper, oregano, ginger, seasoning salt- the oregano I'm pretty sure was about a teaspoon worth- it was all that I have left (note to self- buy and dry more oregano!) but the other things...well, let's put it this way, the hollow of the palm of my hand is my most-used measuring tool, and I used several palm's worth of each of everything, so if you want to try this particular recipe, just use a bit of each thing at a time until you like it. And then there was, of course, flour, added about a teaspoon at a time and stirred well until the whole mess was of appropriate thickness.

I know I like it...and Gavin just finished a bowl, and I know that she likes it- if anyone else decides to try my little spontaneous recipe, let me know how you like it.

I would write up and publish my own cookbook- I swear, but that whole thing about not knowing how much of everything I use....

Been pretty quiet. Looks like I actually had some sort of flu the other week, same ick as Gavin. We're recovered now, with a bit of residual coughing on my part.

Have started to improve my job-searching efforts, got an interview tomorrow with an IT staffing firm.

Other things have come up that I need to deal with and fix. That's all that needs to be said for now.

Landlord came and got the window closed- had to use some serious force, not sure what caused the problem, he's going to check into it.

Seems that Gavin and I are now both afflicted with some sort of ick- she seems to have a cold, while I have...um, a cough and a miserably dry, sore, itchy throat- I feel like I'm breathing sandpaper...which is causing the cough, as well as sore muscles in my chest and a headache. I feel fine otherwise, which really pisses me off because it's like I'm not even legitimately sick and I feel like hell.

I don't want remedy suggestions- unless you can think of something that doesn't involve honey, lemon, tea, cough drops, throat drops, cough suppressants, tylenol or some combination thereof, I don't wanna hear it, I'm already doing it.

Okay folks, I have a bit of a problem.

I can't close one of my living room windows. It's stuck open, all the way. This causes two major concerns: one, cold air. It's pretty nice out right now, but it's supposed to drop down to like 45 tonight. Two: the cats. We have window screens, but they're the expandable/collapsible kind that you just pop in and out of the window when you open or shut it, and the window is stuck open a good four inches higher than the height of the screens.

These are those old sort of windows that are on chains. I *think* a chain is stuck or something, but I can't see anyhting wrong.

Got a call in to the landlord, but knowing our luck he's off on a business trip in the great white north.

If anyone knows what might be done, please let me know. Gavin isn't feeling well, so we're hanging out mostly in the bedroom at the moment, so I'm going to put my phone number in a locked post. If you're on my friends list and know what to do, give me a call. Otherwise, leave a comment and I'll just check email periodically.

Somehow managed to miss the monthly update on Jacqueline Carey's website for October until now. There's going to be a sequel to Santa Olivia...but not til 2011. And a novella on the story of Rolande and Anafiel as part of an anthology next year....not to mention her next Naamah book net year...woohoo!

I don't want to wait for next year.

I wish Kristen Britain would get another book out...or at least give some sort of update as to the progress on her website.

Bleh. Yesterday, I woke up and went to stumble forth from the bedroom. We have light-blocking blinds and black curtains, so even at high noon our room is pretty dark- you can imagine how it might look at 645 on a rainy morning- that's right, kids- pitch black.

We've taken to using our cell phones as flashlights (hell, the external screen on my phone is bright enough to keep me from accidentally killing myself) since the light switch is on the other side of the room from the bed, we keep forgetting to pick up a lamp, oh, and it's a lot less of a shock to the poor eyes that have been light-deprived for the last eight hours.

The main downside is that the backlight on a cell phone eventually goes off. I know some of them have timer control. Sadly mine doesn't, it only last a few seconds- I really should learn and just use my ipod, which has brightness control (your retinas don't want to be hit by that thing at 100% in a dark room) and can get up to six minutes at a shot. But I digress...

So I initially had light to see by and then it went out. Before I could hit a button for more light, I started to lose my balance. I put out a hand to grab the wall, but it turned out I was a bit farther from the wall than I thought I was...I eventually got the wall, but I ended up falling and landing on the air conditioner that I had pulled out of the window the other week, one cold rainy morning in order to be able to close off the air leaks, and put down next to the bed because I was really tired and didn't feel like carrying it elsewhere. Between the crashing and my screaming, I think I scared poor chironcentaur half to death, and straight out of her sleep.

Unfortunately, I ended up getting scraped up pretty good- I've got all these big, puffy scratches across my lower back, as well as a few on my left calf and a bit of a knot, plus I landed on my left wrist and it's still quite sore.

Words to the wise, kids...move your air conditioners!

Hey folks, I just received a text message on my phone claiming that for every person you forward it to, your wireless carrier (they list like six or seven companies) will donate a dollar to the Susan G Komen foundation.

If you get one of these, don't forward it, and tell the person that sent it to you to knock it the hell off- it's a hoax, like those email forwards that used to go around saying that for every person you sent it to, five cents would be donated to some little kid in Kansas who lost her teddy bear or something.

It's just utterly false. (Yes, for anyone who doesn't believe me, I checked with AT&T) Anyone who sends it to me will earn a swift dose of my ire, so just don't. It costs me to receive text messages- I don't use text messaging enough to justify adding it to my plan. It's written in textspeak, and it irritates the hell out of me to see text speak.

Oh, and I really can't stand the pink ribbon shade of pink. I'm sick of seeing it everywhere (raise money for the cause, educate people, whatever just get rid of the fucking pepto bismol coating that's on everything from vacuum cleaners to toilet plungers to cat food. Really. Oh, and remember every once in a while that there are other forms of cancer that need to be cured but when was the last time anyone heard anything about a fundraiser for brain cancer or pancreatic cancer or bone cancer? It's all breast cancer all the time, once in a while you see something for prostate cancer and there's the occasional commercial PSA telling people to get checked for colon cancer, and the obligatory summertime warnings about sunscreen and skin cancer. But that's it.)

/soapbox

Okay, all my friends in Baltimore, has this ever happened to you, or am I just a crazy magnet?

Yet again, I am a racist because I committed the crime against humanity that is asking someone not to scream into their cell phone less than a foot from my fucking ear. Am I doing something wrong? Are there some bigoted connotations to "Excuse me but could you please lower your voice, you're right next to my ear?" that I'm not aware of? If so, someone do, please, fill me in on all the details so that I can avoid being so insensitive in the future.

For serious people, I am fucking sick of getting my head bitten off when I ask someone not to scream when they're less than an arm's length from my eardrums. Why in the fucking hell is this so unreasonable??? Seriously, just lower your fucking voice a little, that's all I'm asking. I'm not talking about people being a little enthusiastic about their conversation, I'm talking full-out yelling.

But no, we can't do that in this city, we continue to make a spectacle and a headache of ourselves and accuse those who would rather not spend the day with ringing ears of hating black people. Dammit, do you really think I'd just sit there and smile if you were white???

I wonder what constitutes "racist" in this guy's little universe?

Bardwell did not return calls left on his answering machine Friday. He has said he always asks if a couple is interracial and, if they are, refers them to another justice of the peace.

"No one's ever complained about it before," Bardwell said Thursday. "I do it to protect the children. The kids are innocent and I worry about their futures."

Humphrey and McKay were eventually married by another justice of the peace, but are now looking into legal action against Bardwell.

Humphrey said she called Bardwell on Oct. 6 to ask about a marriage license. She said Bardwell's wife told her that Bardwell would not sign marriage licenses for interracial couples.

Uhhh...at least he refers them to another justice of the peace?

More here.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Silly me. Well, you sure have change my mind! Okay, you're not a racist...

And his reason?

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

"There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it."

Right. Because you're so not helping the cause of interracial children and acceptance as it is?

(I orginally read the story here http://blogs.lancasteronline.com/smartremarks/2009/10/16/black-and-white-and-denied-all-over/)

Who's gonna ship me boxes of Mocha Marble Crunch trail mix from Wegman's when I move to the west coast?

Quick, people...what building in Center City Philadelphia has giant replicas of pieces of Parker Brothers board game pieces scattered around its outside plaza?

Not particularly exciting, but it was quite good. I just made lamb chops in olive oil, asparagus with butter and garlic, brown rice with garlic, scallions and crumbled feta, and heated up the last little bit of couscous left over from dinner yesterday.

I like cooking. Being unemployed isn't the best situation, but it means I have plenty of time to cook good food (I made raspberry pancakes for breakfast this morning!) and what I get in unemployment is more than enough to keep us able to buy good food, so we're not stuck on ramen and mac and cheese (okay, so we eat mac and cheese once in a while...but it's the good kind.)

http://comicsnexus.com/2009/09/22/mike-oemings-god-complex-press-release/

GOD COMPLEX’s Apollo has hung up his superhero cape and now lives in hiding from his fellow gods as a mortal named Paul. Yet the Pantheon are so eager to get him back in their ranks they’ll do whatever it takes to win him back, even if it against his will. For Paul, life as a mortal has just gotten complex.

The cover image has got to be one of the single ugliest pieces of so-called art I've ever seen, nevermind what I assume to be a depiction of Apollo.

This just sounds stupid, but I'm masochistic enough that I'll probably go looking for a copy so I can read it and cry.

Has anyone else here ever tried Honeycrisp apples?

I think I first heard of them sometime last year, but only tried one a few weeks ago...Gavin and I have taken to eating a lot of apples, since they're generally inexpensive and taste good and good for you and all (well, except Red Delicious. Erg, I can't stand them. No flavor. Delicious my ass. And they make the blandest applesauce ever.)

We usually get McIntosh or Granny Smith but a couple of weeks ago, Wegman's had neither if you can believe that. The Produce guy suggested trying Honeycrisp and we decided to give them a shot.

It was mildly terrifying- we bought one apple that time. That single apple cost $2.50.

Why, you ask? Was it gold-plated?

No, it wasn't. This apple cost more than any apple has any business costing because it weighed almost a pound and a half. And that was one of the smaller ones in the bin.

We took it home and ate it. It was nearly a meal in and of itself. It was like biting into a glass of apple cider still in apple form.

And it was The Best Apple I Have Ever Tasted.

When we went back last week, we were going to get some more (they were less terrifyingly gigantic this time, but still quite impressive) and then we found out that the 3-pound organic bags were actually less expensive than picking them out of the bin, so we grabbed one of those instead. The organic ones were considerably smaller- even on the small side for apples in general, and the flavor is slightly less strong, but I will still say that they are the best apples I have ever had.

If things have gotta change,
well that's cool with me,
we'll just light the fuse and then get away,
hell yeah...

Things are just...happening lately. In addition to losing my job back in August, and being just a step ahead of the mass pagan exodus in the last week or so when I left the grove last month, I am now going to be leaving Neos Alexandria and Neokoroi, and my ADF membership, which runs out this month, will not be renewed.

After a whole lotta whathefuckery and some really appalling moments last week (if you know what I'm talking about, you don't need any more explanation. If you don't know what I'm talking about, trust me you're far better off that way.) I think things are calming down.

Also, I've pared my friends list way down. For the most part, people that I cut were either people who haven't posted in over a year, people who I haven't talked to in a ridiculously long time, and a few folks that I couldn't even remember who they were. I will probably eventually shave a few more off, but things stand as they are for the moment. If I've kept you around, it's either because we have a lot in common, you're otherwise interesting, or my own diabolical reasons (or some combination thereof).

I'm mildly surprised to find myself pretty much stress-free over all this at this point, aside from a lot of eye-rolling and restraining myself from giving a few people a piece of my mind. (Well, job search stuff aside, but even that could be a lot worse.)

This would be my cat, Ferarri. And her new stuffed walrus friend. (This friendship will be short lived.)

All right...trying to send out some resumé's here and I need some help.

I don't have MS Office, but y'know, people seem to like to have things sent to them as office docs. I created the document in Google docs, but when I try to download it and open in Wordpad, it only contains the first few lines.

I was, obviously, able to successfully email it to myself to try this, but now, when I try to email it to someone with Office to open it and check it out, it won't let me, says that to prevent spam, sending documents as attachments is limited.

I can't find anyhting in the help, besides two year old threads saying that you can't email documents at all, which is clearly not true any longer.

Does anyone know if there's some sort of time delay between sending, and being able to send again? How long is the time period?

*sigh*

Thanks for any help.

Edit: I think I have this figured out. Or, at the very least, I'm able to send documents. Woohoo and stuff?

And now to spam the world with resumés...bwahahaaaaaa.

I did just send one off to a rather vaguely-worded ad looking for a videoconferencing technician for Polycom equipment...though it's in DC. Not holding my breath but feel free to cross any available digits for me.

Like many others in the last week or so, I just scaled back on my various list subscriptions, though in my case, unlike a lot of other folks it seems, it was mostly lists that I never even read. At least now, I won't have to worry about cleaning them out of my inbox. I set one list to special notices only- I don't read the list, but the topic is still of interest, so I want to be able to check on their archives and stuff, and be able to post if I want/need to. I kept one Apollo list because once in a while, it sees a bit of conversation, and a couple others, though I don't think I'm done cutting email lists just yet, there are two more in line for a very likely trip to the chopping block.

I don't plan to remove myself from any message boards (I'm a member of several) some of them, I actually get something out of and those that I don't...well, they're empty entertainment. (Hey, some people read trash novels, I read silly pagan forums.) Yeah, empty entertainment is a time waster, but I allow myself a little indulgence, and have been spending a good bit less time on them lately as it is.

Slowly nudging my religious life back to where it needs to be, made some devotional jewelry in the last few days (posted to my blog)...will post more about the equinox later.

You can learn a lot about someone by the music they listen to. So here is the game! Hit shuffle on your ipod or mp3 player and write down the first 25 songs. No cheating or skipping songs that are shameful. That is the fun!

1- Mika- Happy Ending
2- ES Posthumus- Pompeii
3- Duncan Sheik- Genius
4- Sheryl Crow- The Na-Na Song
5- Tears For Fears- Advice for the Young at Heart
6- Sophie B Hawkins- I need Nothing Else
7- The Wallflowers- 6th Avenue Heartache
8- Robbie Fulks- Let's Kill Saturday night
9- Tchaikovsky- Chinese Dance
10- One Republic- Apologize
11- Shiny Toy Guns- Don't Cry Out
12- Jeremy Fisher- Goodbye Blue Monday
13- Lisa Loeb- Furious Rose
14- Archive- Londinium
15- Squad Five-O- Bye American
16- The Halo Benders- Your Asterisk
17- Juno Reactor- Hotaka
18- Kent- Velvet
19- Brother Sun, Sister Moon- Bangkok
20- Garrison Starr- Superhero
21- Pat Foosheen- Zion
22- Eric Carmen- Make Me Lose Control
23- The Grateful Dead- Uncle John's Band
24- Life of Agony- Heroin Dreams
25- Bran Van 3000- Carry On

And then there's the Life Movie Soundtrack Meme...

1. Open your library (iTunes, winamp, media player, iPod)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. New question– press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool


Opening Credits:
Massive Attack- Teardrop

I get to share an opening theme song with House. Hehe...I guess the movie is going to be mostly about me and Gavin minus the medical bit?

Waking Up:
Tears for Fears- Break it Down Again

Hmm...I guess this works. I never thought of it as a wake-up song, but it works.

First Day At School:
Sophie B Hawkins- 32 Lines

So wrong...

Falling in Love:
Robbie Fulks- Let's Kill Saturday Night

This would be a fun song for a falling in love scene!

Breaking Up:
Shelley West- José Cuervo

Ah...so I go out and drink a bunch of tequila and have a one-night stand with a cowboy to make myself feel better?

Prom:
Tom Waits- Waltzing Matilda

Take an already-sad Australian folk song and turn it into one of the most de-fucking-pressing things you've ever heard. Yes!

Life’s Okay:
Laura Brannigan- Spanish Eddie

This really works, if you don't think too much about the fact that it's about a guy dying. No, seriously. It does.

(Actually, I was waiting for Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport to come up next...)

Mental Breakdown:
Tanya Donelly- Edelweiss

My mental breakdown is caused by Captain Von Trapp?

Driving:
White Houses- Vanessa Carlton

Yeah, I guess I could drive to this song.

Flashback:
Baby Fox- Dum Dum Baby

Doesn't really work, but such is the nature of the random shuffle.

Getting Back Together:
Pete Yorn- Just Another

Getting back together...only to break up again soon after?

Wedding:
The Presidents of the United States of America- Video Killed the Radio Star

*giggle* Is this the walking down the aisle song or the first dance song?

Birth of a Child:
Dave Matthews Band- Don't Drink The Water

Damn. Something's wrong with that kid.

Final Battle:
Primitive Radio Gods- Motherfucker

Yes!

Death Scene:
Grand Street Cryers- Push Erase

(I suddenly can't remember how the song goes, don't feel like finding my headphones to listen to it and the lyrics don't appear to exist on the internet. Because, you know, who's ever heard of the Grand Street Cryers?)

Funeral Song:
Iggy Pop- Success

This is so not a funeral song. Gavin, make sure it gets played a my funeral, okay?

End Credits:
Deep Blue Something- Light The Fuse

I really like this one.

Still looking for a job, but spending plenty of quality time with chironcentaur :-) I have a list of places I'm going to send resumés to, probably a little later today.

Also been playing a good bit of Soul Calibur III in the last few days- I just beat Chronicles of the Sword yesterday and have gone back to play it a second time- it is, of course, going much faster the second time around, seeing as all of my characters are up to levels where they can wreak all kinds of mayhem with little more than the flick of a finger :-P Switching around some weapons and stuff. It's fun. Woohoo for brainless nonsense.

I'm also lamenting the fact that I'm not a better artist, because if I could, I would love to do paintings of my characters- yeah, I think they're just that awesome-looking. They also amuse me, especially Bruce, my incredibly-stereotypically-gay-sounding swordmaster with the pastel lavender and tan costume. And Jan, my overly-serious-sounding ninja who looks like he belongs with the Three Musketeers. The other three are just badass. Yes, I am far too easily amused with my first efforts at creating video game characters.

I actually had a dream last night that I was a character in the game, and I was creating myself, going to the shops and picking out costume bits and stuff...and I really wanted to kick the shit out of the shopkeepers because they're so annoying and kept repeating the same lines as they do in the game...but I couldn't because I hadn't gotten to the weapons shop yet. I was just about to get there when I woke up.

In yet other news I have decided to leave the grove. This has been a decision long in the making- I started to consider it back in February 2008 when I left ADF's clergy training program after barely getting started on it. This just isn't what I need to be doing. (For the record, this was not prompted by events of the last few days. Most of you will not know what I'm talking about- that's okay, you're not missing anyhting interesting. For the very few who do, the subject is not up for discussion here.)

Okay folks...for all of you more resumé-smart than me...

I'm trying to update my resumé, make it look all snazzy and make people want to throw money at me and stuff, but there's one thing that I'm really not sure how I should handle- that is, my technical support, experience, while I have a decent bit of it, to make it understandable requires color-coded graphs, flowcharts and probably a powerpoint presentation with a score orchestrated by John Williams.

This is because, along with my main job, I've also had several overlapping assignments in the last few years that lasted a few months at a time- including two separate instances of handling support for the same two companies, except that the first time was strictly phone support, the second time was strictly email support.

So basically, my timeline for the various assignments I've had looks like this (of course, this is not nearly as good as it would look on a resumé, I'm just trying to get the idea across.):

October 2006-March 2007
Phone/email support for 123 educational software

December 2006-March 2007
Phone support for ABC and XYZ games

March 2007-August 2009
Phone support and customer service for video and teleconferencing equipment, overnight support for same company's elite services

February 2008-June 2008
email support for 456 computer security software

Sometime in the last year (I'm going to have to drop an email to Rich and ask him for dates on this one)
email support for ABC and XYZ games

June 2009-August 2009
Phone billing support for The Worst Online Game Company in The World.

So the question is...how in the hell do I organize all of these things on a resumé? What I was thinking was to list the most recent major thing (the video and teleconferencing) and then the other minor things that came during that time in reverse chronological order, and then the second major thing (the educational software) and then the first instance of support for the ABC and XYZ games.

Um...does that make sense or would it be really stupid? Do I need to be looking for bootleg copies of Visio here?

Help?

Doing image searches on deviantArt both pisses me off and depresses me.

All I want is a few decent deity images and almost all I can find are anime/manga drawings- as if no other fucking artistic style exists, and they're all either so cutesy I wanna vomit or trying to look dark and spooky and just not really going anywhere. Then there's the occasional video-game-designer wannabe.

Oh, come on. I just want a few decent images of my gods that I like and can afford.

Why in the hell must I wade through 134,956 anime drawings ranging from unoriginal and terminally boring to pukingly cute to "ooooh look how spooky I can be" to just plain flat out mind-blowingly stupid to maybe find one or two decent pieces?

Google images isn't much better. But there, it's mostly just reiterations of the same couple of classical statues. Oh, and Battlestar Galactica. Because, you know, Apollo? Try doing a google search without certain words, and it frequently seems like "without" is translated to "please return ten times the number of images of the excluded keywords as before"

I give up. The stupid site won't let me view more than one page of any search right now, so it's even more a waste of time than usual.

I would make the images myself but I would never be able to paint or draw deity images that I would be willing to put on a shrine. Maybe someday if I ever get a computer that can handle heavy graphics programs....

It's another "I hate people" day. I really hate people. Especially parents with kids. And store employees who don't bother, oh I don't know, telling an entire fucking store full of parents with obnoxious kids to control their brats.

We went to Michael's today to pick up some crafty things. I got some brilliant shrine ideas in my head and wanted to grab the requisite supplies to get started.

I was there long enough to find a wall shelf like I wanted, and two little decorations for it...but I was far from done. However, the shopping had to be cut short because no matter where we went, there were screaming kids running everywhere.

I mean parent is on one side of the store, and kids are as far from parent as they can be without leaving the confines of the store's walls, yelling, screaming, causing massive annoyance and headaches. Kids ranging from three our four to eleven or twelve years old. Playing tag or whatever. I almost tripped on kids a few times because they were just running all over the place.

Do I ever see a single employee try to locate a parent and ask them to please control their rotten brats precious tykes or get them the fuck out of the store? Of course not.

Coming up to the cashier, I made it a point to let the clerk know that we would have stayed longer, and would have done a little more for the economy by purchasing more merchandise in their fine establishment, but could not stand to be there because of all the screaming kids running around with no parental supervision.

Her response? "Oh, yeah, but it's not as bad as it is some other times you know. Sometimes for hours on end."

So...let me get this straight...the company doesn't care about little kids running unsupervised on a store screaming and yelling while their parents go about their business half a football field away completely unawares?

They're clearly unafraid of losing revenue from people who can't stand to shop in such an environment, but you'd think if nothing else there would be some sort of liability concern if the damned brats were to do something stupid and get hurt?

Oh...but then two of the kids were suddenly seen walking more quietly around. So she says "It looks like they've quieted down now if you want to continue shopping" (nevermind that you could hear other kids yelling and running around elsewhere in the store.)

No. Fuck no. I'm not staying there. I make some sarcastic comment about needing to wait for my projects until school starts and do my shopping during school hours, and she seems to think I mean "Oh, no that's okay, I'll just put my projects on hold until the little dears are back in school and then I can shop without having to inconvenience their screaming and running around." and says something like "Oh, yes, you should come back then. It's quiet here then."

Why the fuck do I have to deal with this...everywhere in this city? I have never seen half such a problem elsewhere that I've been. Most recently New York City, where the only place I had a bitch about out of control kids was the Museum of Natural History, and that was mostly confined to the gem room, which is set up to resemble a little kiddie playground. (No, seriously. If you haven't been there...it does.)

If you can't or won't control your kids, leave them at home with a babysitter. Or, better yet, stay home and fucking teach them to behave a bit. Yeah, kids need to have fun...but running wild around a retail store is not the way to go, and you're letting them do so is just a manifestation of what an inconsiderate asshole you are.

Oh, and then there were the kids screaming and yelling and running around on the train on the way home.

How loud were they? Okay, let's put it this way...I had the iPod on. Loud enough that it was probably damaging my hearing- it actually caused me some pain from time to time. And I could still hear every scream and shriek.

Fucking irresponsible parents.

Today on the light rail, I overheard a phone conversation that had me very seriously considering following the idiot home to get her address and call a dog rescue or something.

Her end of the conversation basically went like this:

"So, yeah I really love Great Danes and I've always wanted one so my parents got me a purebred Great Dane puppy for my birthday, she has pedigree papers and everything! But you know, I'm still living in that tiny studio in Mt Vernon, so I barely have any space, and she keeps running around and knocking over my stuff and all. I guess I'm going to have to get less fragile stuff. And she keeps chasing the cat! But I love her, she's so cute and I want another one! I want to get a boy so they can grow up together and I can breed them. I want to get another one soon so I can breed them as soon as they're old enough! But you know, I'm not planning to move out of the apartment for a few years yet so I guess it's going to be a little cramped."

The whole monologue was punctuated by periodic empty-headed giggles.

Oh my fucking gods. First of all, her parents are complete asstards for even getting her a Great Fucking Dane when she lives in a studio to begin with.

Second of all, she's a moron for keeping one in such a tiny place.

Third of all...wants to get a SECOND one? With no plans to move to a larger place???

AND FUCKING BREED THEM?

Absofuckinglutely epic, this one.

Like I said, tempted to go and follow her home, get her address and report her to someone because that's just fucking cruel to do that to an animal.

I just don't understand how most people around here with larger dogs can keep them. I know that some places are much larger than others, and some people have the ability to make sure that their dogs get the exercise that they need but I know that a lot of places around here aren't that big, and a lot of people don't have that ability

(I know there are city-dwelling dog owners reading here on my friends list...I'm not talking about you, I don't know any of you to be practicing animal cruelty.)

And don't get me started on animal breeders. And many of the people who are all about purebreds Gah, I knew a girl in Texas whose parents had a dalmatian. Sweetest dog I've ever met, I swear. Her parents rescued the dog from a breeder who was going to put her to sleep.

Know why they were going to put her down?

She had blue eyes. Kid you not. No, she didn't have any medical problems or dangerous behavior issues. Just didn't have brown eyes, so she was "undesirable". For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what was so undesirable about the blue eyes on a dalmatian- they were so pretty!

But you know, people will put down a perfectly healthy dog for their eye color, but they'll breed all kinds of problems and mutations into them and charge thousands of dollars for them. Like the breathing problems that Persian cats often have because of the preferred smashed-in nose, or the fact that English Bulldogs often have to be delivered by c-section because they're bred to have enormous heads and the puppies heads are often too big to be born naturally for danger of causing serious injury to both the mother and the puppies. This is just one reason that I generally loathe "toy" and "teacup" dogs- poodles are not meant to be that small! (I don't hold it against the dogs, they didn't ask to be bred that way, though I can't stand them for other reasons...but it's generally the owners and breeders that get to me.)

Repeat after me people: Animals. Are. Not. Accessories. They are ANIMALS

This brings me to people who own those ridiculous little dogs, and think that just because their dog is little, they can bring it everywhere. Hello, stores and other public places have "no pets" rules for reasons...or have you never heard of health codes? Oh, wait, they don't apply to you because you spent hundreds or thousands of dollars for a nervous, shivering little accessory. And of course, no one ever says anything to these people.

I can, offhand, trace this stupid trend back to the fucking chihuahua in Legally Blonde. (God, I fucking hated that movie, and sadly, I've seen it multiple times because my sister thought it a great thing for Samantha to watch when she was three years old- because of the fucking chihuahua. And somehow, Samantha latched on.)

So...do I blame Reese Witherspoon? Is it her fault? Or did someone else do it prominently before that movie? (I know, Paris Hilton does it, but she came later, if memory serves correctly.)

Okay, I'm done. Time to let my blood pressure normalize.

Just updated my blog, added a page for all of my religious poetry, hymns, prayers and invocations.

For anyone interested who isn't already, you can follow my blog on LJ by adding painandlight to your friends list.

Insufficient

To look upon the face of a god,
that is the great mystery,
to fall into such a vision...
to be fixed by the immortal gaze...

Were it that I could paint as I wanted,
I could show you the god who wields
a bow of fire to rain down razor-arrows
from the heavens,
whose touch burns as it heals and whose
sight is second to none.

Whose voice is menacing silk
to the ears of his follower,
uttering terrible prophecy and tossing out
impossible riddles as casually as one
might mention the weather.

And I could show you a god who shines, blinding,
and smolders darkly at once:
The ancient face of youth, perfected and placed on a pedestal
Who grieves as though the world were to end
and meets petty insults with death.

I could show you the god of gold
who dwells in a temple of crystal
perched precariously on a mountain of ice
high above the world.
The wolf and the swan, both,
heed when he speaks- he is one of them
their forms are his forms too.

And there are his eyes, a color you cannot see to name,
whose gaze you cannot meet- or cannot remember meeting-
shadows behind the light,
in the eyes which cannot be met, here he holds all the secrets,
the answers to all questions never asked.

If I could paint as I want,
I could show you every flippant proclamation,
every blatant riddle,
each death, and life preserved,
each wound healed;
the blinding darkness, the obscured light,
the burning touch of his flame-covered hands.

But I cannot paint in blood or fire,
cannot draw with crystal or death.
No canvas vast enough exists
to contain such beauty and terror
and rage and grief, such feeling, as his.
So this will have to do.

I must apologize:
it will never suffice.

If you're going to make an off-topic post to a mailing list, just make it "off-topic" already. Off-topic posts marked as such don't often bother me unless they're in danger of dominating the list in question.

But for the love of Bob, mark them "off-topic" already. What's up with this "possibly off-topic" nonsense? I mean, if the post is borderline it's one thing. (Trying to think of a good example and failing.) but if the post is of a completely and utterly different topic than the list encompasses and you happen to be posting it because it might be of interest to a few people...just say so: "This is off-topic but I thought it might interest some of you" or something to that effect.

/rant

Tim Burton does Alice in Wonderland. Arg, it's not out til next March.

Apparently in this upcoming version, Alice is 19 years old and not quite fitting into Victorian society, she runs away form a party and finds herself following the white rabbit back down the rabbit hole...

Johnny Depp is the Mad Hatter. I've gotta see this. The trailer's on IMDB and looks like it could be really good.

It's a Disney production, but that's okay. The original Alice in Wonderland Disney movie from back in the 50's is one of the few Disney movies that I actually like, and I loved the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so it definitely looks like it has potential.

Hey folks, I'm in need of a little help here.

I've got this skirt that I really love, but there's a problem- It's too long. As in it's one of those tiered skirts, and the second-lowest tier ends around my ankles, it's got a another tier a good foot in width below it. It's hard to wear without tripping and nearly killing myself. (Kinda insane, considering how tall I am...all I can think of is that it must have been manufactured with giants in mind.)

Much as I'd rather not do this, I think the best thing to do to prevent self-injury or possibly damaging the skirt itself one of these days is to just take the last tier off and hem off the remaining edge. I'm hoping that I can find someone who might be able to do it. Unless there's something about rayon that I don't know, it should be a fairly easy job. Hell, I could get a seam-ripper and remove the bottom tier myself if someone were willing to hem the remaining edge (I would just want a really narrow hem, just enough to fold the edge over and sew it down so as to keep it from fraying.

If it matters, like I said, it's rayon but it's not the really slippery sort- it almost feels a bit more cotton-like, and the current bottom circumference is somewhere in the neighborhood of 180".

Anyone able to do this at some point in the not too distant future? Drop me a comment here and let me know what sort of compensation you would find reasonable (Like I said, I don't think it's a difficult or particularly time-consuming job, but I'm also not very knowledgeable about sewing sort of things.)

Earlier today, on the way up top Hunt Valley for some grocery shopping, I started writing a bit, and just now finished (I think)a short poem. I was thinking about depersonalization and the idea that I know it's all real if I touch something and it feels like I expect it to feel.

Well, today I came to the conclusion that the only of the commonly thought of five senses that can really, fairly concretely be trusted with this are touch and taste, because the others can much more easily be tricked or shut off, and they don't require direct contact (okay, so smell actually involves inhaling minute particles of whatever is producing a scent, but let's not get too sciencey here now :-P

So yeah....your eyes can trick you into seeing things that aren't there. Or you can see people on a movie or on TV- they're not really there. And you can close your eyes and turn it off. you don't put things against your eyeball to see them- that would be inconvenient. Similarly, you can hear, or you can think you hear something. You can listen to a recording- but what you're hearing isn't actually there. And you can stick your fingers in your ears to block it all out. And you can smell things, or you can think you smell things- how often do you stop and sniff around because you think you smelled something, only to realize you didn't? And you can turn it off by pinching your nose.

But you can't turn off your skin, and you can't turn off your tongue. They're much harder to trick, so they're a much better gauge of things being real.

And I wrote this:

I am one mind existing
as though inside another
unconvinced of my own reality.
I live, vicarious, through myself;
only touch and taste
as my fragile bridge
the only arguments
I've never been able to
shut down.
I'm here, half a step out of phase,
can't you see I'm fading out of the frame?
If you try to touch me,
you might only catch a handful of air.
Obviously I fake it really well
or you'd have noticed long ago
that I'm translucent.

Light The Fuse

We could still wait to see what happens
But judging by the state of things
Nowhere is peace in surplus, God knows.
“I don’t think that I can watch the news.”
Honey wait ‘Cops’ is on.
“This isn’t the world we ordered.”
I know, well Honey wait – I think that that’s our street.

CHORUS
If things have gotta change, well that’s cool with me
We’ll just light the fuse and then get away.
If things have gotta change, its cool with me.
Its cool with me.

She then extends a despondent hand
I fumble for the remote
I don’t really think it’s that bad.
“We’ll never know. It’s surprising murder’s
not a team sport.”
I think it’s on channel 9, but its not like they’ve made
A game show out of sex crimes.
“This is America, baby just give it time!”

REPEAT CHORUS

“Dear I’m feelin’ down. We gotta get out now.”
Bill won’t let us down. He’s gonna save us…
Somehow.

If things have gotta change, well that’s cool with me
We’ll just light the fuse and then get away.
If things have gotta change, its cool with me.
Its cool with me.

Just set it off.

-Deep Blue Something

Well, it took long enough, but I am finally in the possession of-er-illegal contraband weaponry again.

That is to say, I've finally replaced my confiscated Leatherman.

I now have a blue Juice SC2. Which is not actually the one I thought I was buying- which was a Cs4. This one is a retired model which apparently only had a limited production run and is harder to find. My mistake, I wasn't paying attention. But. It's got all the stuff I want and I got it pretty inexpensively, so I can't complain.

I can now wire-cut and corkscrew you to death again. And pick out splinters, and put stuff together and take stuff apart and cut stuff and....

So we get a lovely email today informing us that a Big Important Client is coming to visit tomorrow and everyone is supposed to clean their desks. They do that occasionally around here.

Once upon a time that meant "make sure things were nice and orderly and for gods sakes, throw away that science experiment that looks like it might once have been your lunch."

At some point a year or two ago, someone got the idea that it should mean that one should have no items that are not work-related on your desk. No pictures, no doo-dads, none of that. Honestly, I don't get it. All over the country, people put personal stuff on their desks. Yeah, it shouldn't be insane, but an item or two? Come on. I keep a tube of lip balm on my keyboard, a box or two of tea, a bottle of water and usually a packet of ibuprofin, a couple of alcohol wipes, and a couple of food delivery menus on my desk. Lately, I've had an unread copy of various plays of Euripides kicking around, some a packet or two of ketchup and a few pieces of paper with some work-related notes plus copious scribbles and doodles.

Add that to a couple of pens, a notepad or two, some training manuals and product-related documents, a few electronic devices issued to me by the company for my work, and a few other work things like some insurance papers (nothing personal, just a few information sheets).

My desk is relatively neat and clean for all that's on it- it's a decent-sized desk, there's room to spare.

No, this is too much. And it's not just me, it's everyone. We've been informed today that we are to remove everything from our desk except for a notepad and a pen. One pen. not two. One. Oh, and computer towers must be located to the right of computer monitors.

Seriously people. We don't want these Big Important Clients to come in and get the idea that we're the sort of company that lets people have such extravagances as a second pen on their desk, now do we. And towers to the left of your monitors? Now you're stepping into dangerous territory. If you give them that, they'll be putting all sorts of crazy things out for the world to see. Like Paper clips. And a stapler. And you know what paper clips and staplers lead to. Drunkenness in the parking lot! Debauchery on the board room table! And then look out, people will start wearing sneakers to work. And dying their hair blue. That'll lead to spiky neon orange mohawks and flip flops. Next thing you know, they'll think it's okay to call their bosses by their first name. Mayhem! Anarchy! What about the children? Oh please won't somebody think of the children?

I'm so tempted to put a second pen here, and maybe even throw in a pencil from the supply closet. And move my tower to the left side. Bet no one ever notices.

Seriously people, this is insane. Beyond ridiculous. I'm sure these people coming to visit understand just fine about having a second pen on your desk and a couple of paper clips. Maybe even a family photo or two. I understand telling the guy with the tower of Mountain Dew cans to throw them away- that's ridiculous, but to tell people to move EVERYTHING off their desks but a notepad and a single pen? Come on. People don't function like that and you can't tell me that you think for a second that these people buy it that our desks always look like this.

This was over on the tech support community. I laughed my ass off.

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistahardware/thread/720108ee-0a9c-4090-b62d-bbd5cb1a7605

(The answers are really good too.)

Okay...I've seen this article all over my friends list today with all kinds of outrage and whatnot.

I started to read it, first decided that I was too incredulous to get pissed off, then I started reading the comments on the site and did a bit more searching.

Apparently, the website http://www.thediscust.com is largely a parody site. From their about page:

The “news” on this site is not entirely real. If there is, in fact, actual news on this site, then it is likely marked as such, just so you can tell the difference. This site is news parody, but if you had to actually come to this page to figure that out then you might not catch that particular nuance even as it’s being explained to you so maybe you should just move along.

Actual people parodied/mocked on theDiscust are public figures (or dead) and therefore eligible for such treatment. Any resemblance in name or otherwise to any non-public/non-dead figure within the editorial content of this site is purely coincidental, unintentional, or you told us it would be ok. No public servants were harmed in the writing of this publication — that happened long before we came along.

theDiscust is for entertainment purposes only. Please do not source theDiscust in your news reports or thesis papers as you will likely regret it — though if you do, please send us a copy.

If you have any suggestions, comments, or large bags of money, please drop us a line at editor@theDiscust.com

Everyone can breathe now.

So...I went to Colorado back in November to take a class for CVE certification (Certified Videoconferencing Engineer) for work. I posted about it.

I took the test in February. I failed. I posted about it.

I took it again in April. I failed. I posted abput it.

I took it again last Monday. I failed. I'm posting about it now.

It goes without saying that I'm feeling beyond stupid for not passing the test by the third try. I would happily pay to take the test one last time if I knew what my problem was, but when I can pass stuff that I failed before and now fail stuff that I did really well on before...none of it makes sense, and I don't know what would happen next time, so I'm not willing to eat the $250 testing fee for such uncertainty.

Had to pass it by the third try or else. No one was entirely sure what "else" would be, but we were pretty sure it would be getting kicked off the contract, if not fired. Well, last week, Rich was on vacation, and Chuck went to Vegas to get married, so I had to wait til this week to find out what would happen to me.

This morning on my way out, I ran into Dave who apparently had the say on what to do with me. I am off the contract (as well as two others who didn't pass on three tries). I don't know if the others will get the same offer as me, but Dave sat me down in his office, told me flat out that the company has no plans to fire me and flat out told me I could go anywhere in the company (within technical support) that I wanted. Really, that's quite an offer. He started listing upcoming training classes for other departments, including one that I used to work for and got out of in six months (soul-sucking, that.) and one that I'd done some work for (gen pop, a whole conglomeration of clients either too small to have their own dedicated team, or not willing to pay or one.) and a few others.

Then he asked if I had any training experience but moved on when I said I didn't. I was curious so I asked about it, he said he asked because there was a need for an additional person to work on developing training materials for various clients. I said I would be interested in that, if there was any chance despite lack of experience, so we talked about it a bit more and hey, it looks like it is quite the possibility.

It's going to be at least a week or two before I move over, but it'll probably be starting out with about 60-70% technical support in gen pop while I start working on training stuff, and he said I'll probably be starting out with soft skills (in other words, basically how to talk to people who call into tech support- yes, it's a skill. And something that I'm good at. Disturbingly so at times. Many stupid myspace game customers excepted.) And it will go from there....until I don't live in Baltimore anymore at least.

I will have to go back to a regular Monday-Friday schedule, he asked what hours I wanted to work, I said 10-6 or 11-7, which is fine. I'll probably lose the extra dollar per hour that I get for working overnight.

Yes, for those of you who read Gavin's LJ, you've seen her mention this while not really going into the details of my stuff. We're speeding up our move to Oregon to...well, pretty much as quickly as we can get out of here. For this and various other reasons, things just aren't right here anymore and it's time to leave.

On top of all that, I ended up taking a night off work tonight...on the way home today, at the train stop I was walking and somehow managed to take a mis-step and tripped and fell onto the train track. I've got a bit of a knot on my left calf, and my right ankle twisted a bit...and I landed with my left ribs on the edge of the train platform...I probably bruised them, it hurts a good bit. On top of all that, I woke up this afternoon with a migraine starting, so it seemed like a good idea. The headache was mostly gone when I woke up again later this evening, but I am still largely rather sore.

On a slightly happier note, replacement of the confiscated Leatherman will take place this weekend. I found a site that pretty much only sells Leathermans (Leathermen?) and is having a huge sale right now. I could buy the model I had for about twenty dollars less than I expected I would have to pay. Or I could buy the next model up for still about ten dollars less than I expected to pay for the other one. Which I think I'm going to do. Hell, I could get the top one in the line for only a few dollars more than I expected to pay for the lower model that I used to have.

I think I'm going to go with the next one up from mine. I had the Leatherman Juice S2, I think I'm going to grab the CS4. It includes all the same stuff as I had...but it also has a saw, an awl and a corkscrew- it's the addition of the corkscrew that really made me decide on that one. The C2 also has a corkscrew, and costs the same as the S2, but it doesn't have the scissors.

Gaaaah I've been practically lost without the Leatherman. I use it for everything. I had to hunt down pliers the other night to try to re-bend my original nose ring because it's practically impossible for me to put it in once removed. And cutting an apple with a plastic knife like I end up having to do at work is such an unbelievable bitch.

Also, I think I finally need to replace my phone- said this how many times now? Yeeeeah. Now the sound is going bad. I think I'm going to go with the same phone I had...there's nothing better and it's a good phone, aside from having gotten stuck in the rain with it- and really, it's lasted a lot longer than I expected it would after it started to go downhill.

Beating my head against the wall for so many reasons right now...

*sigh* Time for sleep.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20090515/NEWS01/905150322/1002/NEWS01

Mount Hope Church has filed a federal lawsuit against a group of protesters who disrupted a Sunday morning service Nov. 9 with shouts, same-sex kissing, fliers and a banner that proclaimed: "It's okay to be gay."
Advertisement

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday morning and assigned to Judge Robert Holmes Bell in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.

Church staff directed questions to the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based nonprofit that filed the suit on the Delta Township church's behalf.

"They don't have the right to come in and terrorize the congregation," said Kevin Theriot, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. "This case would have never been filed if these folks had just stayed on the public sidewalk, held up their signs and didn't disrupt the service."

A militant gay rights group called Bash Back!, which has a Lansing chapter, claimed responsibility for the protest. Members of Bash Back! did not respond to phone calls and e-mails regarding the suit.

However, in a statement on its national news Web site, Bash Back! said the group would not be intimidated and that it will set up a defense fund to fight the lawsuit.

The Nov. 9 protest drew national media attention. and generated plenty of talk in the blogosphere.

Mount Hope Church, on Creyts Road, is affiliated with the Assemblies of God, and teaches that homosexuality is a sin.

The Nov. 9 protest took place during a Sunday morning service with about 700 people in attendance.

According to the lawsuit, about 10 protesters outside of the church were dressed in black with their faces covered by bandannas. They conducted a loud and "wildly offensive" demonstration and waved an upside-down cross and signs with satanic symbols and messages while shouting through a bullhorn.

When the church's security guards went to deal with the outside protesters, another set of protesters inside the church - dressed in their Sunday best to blend in with the crowd of about 700 worshippers - went into action. They threw about 1,000 fliers around the church, unfurled the banner, kissed, and pulled fire alarms on their way out of the building.

According to the suit, protesters blocked the driveway, prohibiting some church members access to the church and the service.

No criminal charges were filed against the protesters. Bash Back! has claimed responsibility for church protests in the Boston area and in the Seattle area as well.

Theriot said the Alliance Defense Fund, which offers training, funding and legal assistance in an effort to preserve religious freedom, got involved because its attorneys believe the protesters went a step too far by disrupting the service.

"There's a federal law that says you can't disrupt, by force or threat of force, a church service," he said. The lawsuit asks for an injunction to prevent future protests as well as nominal damages and costs related to bringing the suit.

Theriot said he expected it would be at least a year before the suit goes to court.

Fucking assholes. (Um, pun not intended.)

It's not right when Christians pull shit at GLBT functions, it;s not more right when the GLBTs do it to Christians.

I don't really feel sorry for the church, as it were. I don't blame them for suing, but I think it would have been a lot better if they had pressed charges for vandalism, trespassing and whatever else may have been applicable in their jurisdiction.

So glad that I don't associate with any of these groups. I think people tend to accept you- or at least leave you alone- when you're not out doing obnoxious things to disturb people.

I think my newest fear has become that of reading philosophy.

I'm afraid it'll turn me into a self-superior ass.

I want to say happy birthday to my girlfriend, chironcentaur! I love you so much!

I FINALLY decided that I'm going to go back and start working on ADF's initiate's program. Going to start with the trance segment...Gavin's got a copy here of one of the books on the list (Diana Paxson's Trance-Portation) and a group of folks over on The Cauldron forum are starting a discussion thread to work through it and discuss it, so it seems like a good place to start. I'll probably also start with some of the Bardic stuff since some of things I've written in the last year fall under that, as well as bits of mythology and divination.

I haven't posted much of substance lately- most of my LJ time is at work, and the site is partially-blocked by the firewall...it takes a billion years to load, and sometimes needs to be reloaded several time to be of any use...needless to say, I have reduced my LJ time at work. So if I'm not posting or commenting as much as I usually do...that's why.

Recently, I've been given some new work at the office- it's really simple, dumb stuff...I'm testing games! Woohoo! (Basically clicking a couple of links on a couple of text games on sites like Myspace...it's a grand total of an extra hour or two a week of work.) One of the good things is that, in order to get access to those sites, which are otherwise some of the few completely blocked sites in the office, they had to set up a computer outside the firewall. As long as I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, I'm allowed to use the computer for other sites too, and of course LJ loads with no issues...so I'll probably be a bit more active on LJ from work- at least while this project lasts- 3 more weeks so far, but they're talking about throwing more at us after this one ends.

Things have been pretty good lately, if uneventful. Went to the grove's Beltane ritual last week and it went pretty well...am now in the process of planning for the Summer Solstice, which I'm going to lead- looking at doing the ritual surrounding the story of Hermes stealing Apollo's cattle. Should be good.

Aside from that, I'm slowly working on formulating the story I was posting about earlier in the week, and will start posting to that filter when I have something of substance.

Beyond that, umm...well, I haven't bitten my nails in a few weeks again.

Ummm...I'm boring?

"Well, my in-laws are coming to town this summer from the west coast and I wanted to take them to New York City but they don't really like big cities very much and they want to visit small towns so I thought maybe Philadelphia or DC would be nice, they're not as big as New York."

*boggles*

Uh...yeah. And Saturn isn't as big as Jupiter so it's a small planet?

sannion is looking for submissions for Neos Alexandria's upcoming Hekate devotional- the deadline has just been extended to July 30th...here are the details- contact Sannion (info below) if you have any questions!

Em Hotep,

Although we’ve received some great contributions for the Hekate
devotional, we currently do not have enough for a full book. So we are
going to extend the deadline until July 30, 2009.

We can use essays, poetry, accounts of personal experiences, and other
forms of devotional writing. We would like this anthology to reflect
the diversity of ways that the goddess has been understood and
experienced both in antiquity and in contemporary times, so the more
contributions we receive the better!

As with all of our devotional anthologies we cannot provide payment or
contributor copies, since the proceeds will be used for charitable
donations and to help bring out further volumes in the Bibliotheca
Alexandrina line. For more information on our Guidelines and Policies,
please visit this page:

http://neosalexandria.org/BAguidelines.pdf

If you have any further questions, you may contact the editor at
sannion@gmail.com. This is also the address where submissions should
be sent.

Please feel free to distribute this announcement to other lists,
forums, and curious individuals. The more people who know about this
the better chance we’ll have of producing a truly awesome book worthy
of Hekate.

For anyone who's interested in reading a little bit of what will be on the filter I mentioned in the previous post...( here's the first page )

Please note, this is very rough. Comments welcome but not looking for real, serious criticism just yet. And really, I'm just posting it here right now for anyone who wants a peek before getting themselves on my filter.

...having nothing to do with religion.

Basically, for anyone who remembers (and it doesn't reflect badly on you if you don't) I've been threatening for a while now to start writing some fiction, most specifically a novella that I posted a few paragraphs of a beginning to maybe a year or so ago.

I created the filter for anyone who's interested in reading along as I write it and whatever other fiction comes after it so as not to inflict it upon anyone uninterested, and also because, if it works out as I'd like it to, I will probably try to publish it.

The general idea is that it's going to be about a remote town that's essentially cut off from the rest of the world. In this town, when people die, their ghosts continue to live and interact with the town- basically, their lives continue, just without physical bodies. The problem is that the ghosts of these people are disappearing inexplicably when they've never disappeared before (except under very specific, pre-planned circumstances)

It's not going to be particularly exciting or action-packed...for anyone who's read any Gabriel Garcia Marquez, that sort of tone is what I'm after- the interest coming from odd little supernatural/magical details in an otherwise mostly realistic story.

I'm pretty sure that I have the ending worked out, and I'll warn you, it's not going to be some big, exciting "surprise" ending...I wouldn't at all be surprised if many people figured out what happened before the end (and honestly, it's probably not super-duper original), the point isn't so much getting to the ending but the telling of the story itself.

So...if you're interested, comment here and I'll add you to the filter.

It's been a year now, that Gavin and I are together (officially anyway. We've been together since we first met, it just took a while to realize it.)

It's been crazy. A lot has been so unexpected and surprising. And scary sometimes. I never wanted to be this close to anyone- and here I am. I never thought I could want to have someone with me so constantly.

I just never saw myself as being able to fall in love like this.

Happy anniversary, love!

On Tuesday evening, I was walking to the train to go to work. From where I was to the nearest train stop was about a twenty-minute walk. When I had last glanced out a window before leaving where I was, the sky was clear with jsut a few clouds. In the twenty minutes or so from that point until I got outside, the sky had suddenly become heavy with very dark, ominous clouds- large patches of a very green tint to many of them suggested strong tornado potential- though that didn't bother me too much, since it is a fairly rare thing for tornadoes to touch down within large cities. The clouds though were pretty impressive. I tried to take some pictures with my cell phone camera but they didn't come out very well. There was this one large swirl of clouds that curved across the sky like an immense, sweeping arm- that and another cloud formation that I can't really easily describe also looked like strong indicators of tornado potential.

But beyond that...well, I've never really gotten a sense of Zeus before, and I had this sudden "knowing" that he was behind all this- it didn't feel anything like what I feel in the presence of the gods that are more familar to me, like Apollo, Hermes or Dionysus- I can only really describe it as feeling as if there was a distant, over-arching sentience to the sky, and one of the thoughts I had was that the long, sweeping arm of clouds that I saw was one of Zeus's arms.

The last stretch of my walk to the train stop took me down a long, winding hill which was rather busy with traffic at the time, and rain was starting to fall and I didn't have an umbrella on me, and REALLY didn't want to be stuck out in the sort of rain that was on the way. So I did the best thing I could think of- I had a drink in my backpack side pocket, pulled that out, and poured a bit out, asking him to let me get to the train stop- or at the very least to the bridge before it (the walk to that train stop takes me under a raised section of Interstate 83 and over a stream it's pretty cool, so that's either six or eight lanes of highway there, can't remember exactly- provides considerable shelter. I was about a hundred feet from there when the rain started to get heavier and just made it as it really started pouring. Thankfully, l I only had to wait a few minutes before it let up and I could continue to the train stop, another fifty yards away or so. Thunder, lightning and the occasional splatter of rain continued and trains going in my direction were rather heavily delayed for reasons unknown to me, but only for a brief few minutes did I have to duck under an overhang again, and for a decent chunk of the time, I was able to talk to Gavin on the phone. Unfortunately, while I was sitting at the train stop, most of this had left my head on all but a very basic intellectual level and in the midst of training a new guy at work and being ridiculously tired for a few days, I forgot about all this until I was on my way back to work this gorgeous, sunny afternoon, and I wrote this:


Hail Zeus, Labrandeus, whose furious storms race across the sky!
Hail Zeus, Skotitos, whose swirling clouds gather and darken the sky!
Hail Zeus, Keraunios whose crashing thunder echoes through the sky!
Hail Zeus, Astrapaios whose flash of lightning tears the sky!
Hail Zeus, Ombrios whose falling rain pours down from the sky!
Hail Zeus, Euenemos whose fair winds come again to clear the sky!