In today’s post was a lovely surprise — the 2010 Herbal Almanac and 2010 Witch’s Companion! The Herbal Almanac has two articles from me, and I have one in the other.
yippee!
2010 Llewellyn Annuals!
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Legal Fail
Relatively recently, FAIL Blog ™ posted a screenshot from the Guinness World Records website: “Most Individuals Killed in a Terrorist Act.” Which is a pretty inappropriate record to keep track of. What lifted it to the level of obscenely hilarious (and why FAILBlog shared it with the world) was the button one could click to indicate “Break this record.”
It’s about 8:30am . . .
. . . and I’ve been at work for 2 hours already. As of this minute, I’m at 40 hours for the week. I’m looking at (easily) a 56-hour week.
Who is salaried? I am salaried.
I’m tired. I’m doing a really good job. I’m remaining cheerful and low stress (high stress was last week as I felt like I had to give people a big NUDGE to get their parts done, so that I wouldn’t be quite so burdened this week). I am a team member and we’re all in this together.
Next week will likely look that same (although slower in the early part of the week).
Thank you for reading my whine. 🙂
Back to work.
Independence Day
The word patriotic has taken on uncomfortable connotations for those of us on the fringe, partly because of the Bush Administration’s deliberate creation of polarity instead of continuum. Patriotism is the love of or devotion to one’s country, but when you have poor laws like the Patriot Act (HR 3162) that do nothing but violate the fundamental law of the country (i.e., the Consitution) the meaning gets twisted.
Companion Animals
I’m going to say this quietly.
I’m going to whisper this softly.
Companion animals feel pain, feel hunger, feel cold, feel heat.
They depend on us.
Our companion animals may be descended from creatures that do fairly well in the wild, but cities and suburbs are not the wild and our pets do not have automatic ‘instincts’ that will ensure their survival if we fail them.
They depend on us.
Support low-cost spay/neuter programs. Support your local shelter. Support legislature that will curtail or close down ‘puppy mills’, dog-fighting, and other such horrible crimes.
They depend on us.
I’m going to say this quietly.
I’m going to whisper this softly.
Because if I don’t I will rage until the world burns down.
ASPCA — http://aspca.org/
WSPA — http://www.wspa-international.org/
The Humane Society — http://www.hsus.org/
One Year Ends . . .
. . . and we are in a breathing space before the next begins. I’m talking about my year-long Art of Ritual class. We start the year on July 1st and end it on the last Friday in June.
Our three students are outstanding. They are funny, intelligent, and generous people who clearly *grew* over the course of their year with us. I am very very proud of them and what they’ve accomplished. Moreover, two of them will be joining JaguarMoon as Dedicants; thereby continuing the cycle of student to mentor. (The third may join our daughter coven, Southern Cross, as she is in Australia and the timing of rituals and such is so much more complicated for her.)
Each year is so different, even though the overall structure of the lessons remains constant. Since I first created this lesson plan in 1998 my life has followed its rhythms, with a couple of exceptions (that is, the year I took a semi-sabbatical and the year we closed the class in mid year).
Six months ago I didn’t think we’d have a class to teach. Now we have five students, two of which are the rare breed: males, and one is a returnee from a previous year. With four people mentoring, my HP (Daystar) and I don’t have to mentor as well as lead. That means we can start to develop a more advanced curriculum, and get deeper into the Mysteries.
I may occasionally dream of a tradition that spans the globe and encompasses thousands of practitioners, but I am truly pleased that we remain small and focused on our mission of teaching in service to the Lord and Lady, teaching Wicca to those who are unable to find teachers elsewhere, and expanding/deepening our spirituality.
The Wheel turns, and a new cycle begins.
Why I Won’t be Seeing Transformers 2
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments. One of these involves a dog-like robot humping the leg of the heroine. Such are the meager joys. If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.
Thank you Mr. Ebert.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090623/REVIEWS/906239997
Update Delay at Facing North
My car accident the other day has produced definite injuries — mostly having to do with sitting at the computer for more than an hour or two at a time. As a result, my usual Facing North update will be delayed a week.
Ow.
On the way home, having turned into our complex, we were hit by another vehicle. My neck hurts. The hood of our car is bent up on one side. No damage to the other vehicle.
A big Nissan Armada had stopped on the of an intersection, so we stopped (prudently on *this* side of the intersection). We waited a bit (was she waiting for the garage to open to pull in? looking at directions?) and then the Armada turned its reverse lights on and began to back up. I figured they were reversing into a side street to turn around.
Half way through the intersection I realized she was rolling all the way back and hit the horn with one long loud burst. She kept coming and before i could take my hand off the horn and get the car (remember, fully stopped on this side of the intersection) into reverse — BAM. Right into us.
This has not been a good day.
Wallpaper meme
from elsewhere on the web:
1. Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper.
2. Explain in five sentences why you’re using that wallpaper!
3. Don’t change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!
1. It’s called Brilliant Sunset.
5 reasons: I love the colors. It takes me to a very good ‘place.’ It has a lot of movement. I feel like I’m at the beach. When I look at it I feel like I can go forever.