A few nights ago, while waiting for sleep to catch, I found myself thinking about what I want as far as my writing goes. It's hard after all this time to stay positive. I know it's a tough industry. I know the competition is fierce. But I still get that nagging doubt - wouldn't something have sold by now if I was any good?
On the other hand, I really love the creative side of myself. My day job is all about managing numbers and employees and clients. I enjoy that, too. But writing brings out my fun side, my experimental side. So for as long as I love doing it, I'll keep in the game. I'll get there, I know I will. One day I'll have a work in print. I think the secret to maintaining the joy in writing is to forget about the brass ring and to stay in love with the creative side. To see each completed manuscript as a success in itself rather than each rejection letter as yet another failure.
George’s little brothers are constantly in his stuff, in his face and in his hair. Enough is enough! He needs to go somewhere that the little pests can’t bother him.
The cardboard box from the new washing machine is exactly what he needs to make that happen. With scissors, paint and a dash of imagination, George is off on an amazing adventure to . . . the amazing Nowhere.
There's only one way to find out. I remember being in this very same boat with my little brother. Sometimes even pesky brothers (or sisters!) are better than sailing solo.
A delightful story about a curious boy who discovers some struggling plants growing along the abandoned railroad tracks.
Under his tender care, the little garden flourishes and spreads until the drab city and its dwellers are transformed.
I love that he sings to the plants. And that the garden takes on a life of its own, wanting to explore the rest of the city.
1944, Durham, North Carolina: players from Duke University Medical School basketball team stole across town to play against Coach John McLendon’s team from NC College of Negroes.
Why all the secrecy? This was a time of racism and segregation, a time when such a gathering was illegal and dangerous.
I can't wait to get started! I've managed to reserve picture books from the library for Day 1 - Day 3 so far, but will have to find out what the check out limit is because we are going to be reading a LOT of PBs. This is my first year participating. If you'd like to find out more about Read For Revision Month, click on this link http://www.carriecharleybrown.com/what-is-reforemo.html
The story of Moletown unfolds in stunningly illustrated almost wordless pages. A fascinating look into an imaginary world as one mole sets up home under a meadow. Before long, other moles join him and so the settlement grows.
Thought provoking and visually enticing with detailed and amazing artwork worth poring over – I found new things to smile at or ponder over in each subsequent reading. We are invited to consider the price of unchecked progress, to evaluate the quality of life saturated in technology, and to strive for balance.
It’s the day before the parade to honor Clarksville’s own Olympic gold medalist Wilma Rudolph. Everyone knows that Alta is the quickest kid in Clarksville, Tennessee, apart from the sashaying, hands-on-her-hip Charmaine, that is. Well, Alta isn’t about to stand for that, but on parade day when Alta is struggling with her banner to honor Wilma Rudolph, will she accept help from Charmaine to get it there in time?
From the very start, the text and illustrations have characters’ personalities popping right off the page in this delightful story about competition and cooperation, community and friendship.
The author’s note at the back of the book includes the inspirational story of sprinter Wilma Rudolph who won three gold medals in the 1960 Olympic Games.
When I was researching the eight-pointed Star for my RWS symbol study of the day the other day, I learned a couple of new cool facts. I had heard this star referred to as Ishtar/Venus and the Star of Bethlehem. In my research, I wanted to check out what A.E. Waite had intended for the eight-pointed star to point to…
1. According to A.E. Waite, the eight-pointed star in The Star Tarot card is the Masonic Blazing Star (l’étoile flamboyante in French). In the Pictorial Key to the Tarot he describes this symbol as ‘confused’ in Masonic circles. He goes on to say:
That which the figure communicates to the living scene is the substance of the heavens and the elements. It has been said truly that the mottoes of this card are “Waters of Life freely” and “Gifts of the Spirit.”
Strangely while trying to find out more about the Blazing Star, the articles such as this all mention a five-pointed star… If anyone can enlighten me to a good source that mentions the eight-pointed star as the Blazing Star in a Masonic context, I would be very grateful! Waite was a freemason himself, and highly revered as such, so I’m fairly sure he had good reason to equate the eight-pointed star with the Masonic Blazing Star.
2. The Star is usually equated with wishes coming true. It represents peace restored after our Tower moment. It is a card of hope and renewed faith. Many people struggle to read this card in a ‘negative’ sense but if you look at the symbolism of pouring water from both jugs into a body of water, it can indicate a lack of discernment and a tendency toward overgiving without taking time for oneself to replenish. It can also indicate giving from the separate self for selfish motives rather than functioning as a channel for divine grace for the Highest Good of All.
3. The nudity in the Star Tarot card is not gratuitous. It is symbolic of complete transparency, truth and purity of intent.
4. The highest spiritual potential of the Star card lies in unselfishly allowing ourselves to become conduits for God’s grace in all areas of our lives, holding nothing back. For this to happen, most of us need a Tower moment or two to crack open and allow grace to enter.
5. When the The Star shows up as the challenge, some questions for self-examination might be… ‘How can I facilitate an outcome that is for the Highest Good of All?,’ ‘How can I become a channel for Divine grace on Earth?,’ ‘How am I holding myself back from using my Spiritual gifts here and now?,’ ‘Where do I need to be more transparent?,’ ‘How can I be a calming influence?’ and ‘How can I renew hope/help inspire hope in others?’
6. The Zodiac correspondence for the Star Tarot card is Aquarius. Aquarius is ruled by Saturn in classic/ancient Astrology and Uranus in modern Psychology. Uranus as the ruler gives us a connection with technology, innovation and the Internet. The Angelic ruler of Uranus is Archangel Uriel. The Aquarian energy of this card gives us a focus on humanitarian pursuits which is also a good fit with the pure and gentle intent depicted in the card.
What a coincidence. I was just journaling about my hidden factor card, which is the star. I just closed my journal and looked up and your blog came through my email about the Star Card. It re-affirms what I wrote down. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
“Tabby you can walk to the other side of the appartment, I am really busy with something else at the moment.”
“Tabby, you are annoying me. I was sitting comfortably at my computer and now I had to open the window. Just a moment, where are you going?”
“But you just begged to come in. I opened the window, you leapt into the room and now you are going out again.”
“Mrs. Human, I am not a canine (sorry Dusty), “beg” does not exist in meow. It was a command, which you obeyed due to my training programme for human beginners. You have now got top marks for window operations. Now I am outside again, so you can again open the window.”
“I know Mrs. Human, you have not yet reached that level. You remain in the slave status. You should be happy, that is promotion.”
“Of course, that was the serf level. Remember I used to give you a scratch and a hiss when giving orders. That is no longer necessary, you are making progress. Just a little more attention when I am leaving my realm and entering my outside territory would be appreciated.”
“Good. You may now close the window. I have decided to take a walk to the other side of my home through my outside territory. Just be ready in case you will have to open the window.”
“Mrs. Human, it is all a matter of training and the walk to the other side keeps you fit. See how I look after your health.”
I hope you include a sprig of parsley with the tuna. We wouldn’t want Tabby to get too spoiled, now would we 🙂
Actually he prefers a pinch of tarragon and a side dish of catnip. You cannot spoil Tabby, she takes it as the usual service.
Dear Tabby, I went to the vet today to get shots and a checkup. The shots didn’t hurt, the vet’s assistant scratched my ears the whole time, and the vet was very nice to me. They got a new feline at the vet — a small black feline — my human said, “Dusty T. Cat”. I wanted to meet it but it ran away. The vet looked at my teeth and said they were good for an old dog like me. I won’t have to go back for a long time now which makes me happy, even though I don’t mind them. They are nice to me and give me treats. That’s my news. As for canines begging, some do. None of us do. We have arrived at a perfect balance with our human and we know when we get treats. For a while my “little” sister, Bear, thought she could get more treats by asking to go out when she didn’t need to, but she’s given that up. It doesn’t work, apparently. Yours forever and ever, Dusty T. Dog
As a member of the superior feline race, we never give in to the vet. It begins when the cage appears. I then dive under the nearest bed and my humans try all sorts of tricks to entice me from my safe place. It is when a broom is pushed under the bed, I am forced to flee. If I am caught the try to put me into the cage. I then spread all four legs to make it more difficult. After some time i am forced into the cage and the lid is closed. They have won, but not without a fight to the bitter end. That is the way to put the humans in their place.
I recieved my revision notes for 103, 104 and 107 yesterday, and spent this evening sorting them into folders (which I did last time, and it seemed to work), stapling bits together (which hopefully will stop the sprawl of paper if and when I start doing questions) and putting in file deviders (which will hopefully enable me to find the papers in the first place). I have mixed feelings about them. It just seems a little soon after the end of the last exams to even be thinking about the next lot. Before I get the results even, not that that's too surprising given the eight week (ten for later exams). That said, it might just be the course I went on on Tuesday and Wednesday making me feel a bit droozy. Or the lack of sleep, which I sure I'm doing wonders for staying up and typing this entry.
I'm not sure how I feel about the crash that happened today. It was the Cambridge Cruiser, the train that I usually take when I go to Cambridge. There but for the grace of god, etc. The train's still safer than the roads, admittedly, but at least there it's up close and personal. I don't know of anybody I know being on the train, so fingers crossed - not that that helps those that were less fortunate, I suppose.
My room remains in a god-awful state. I suspect that I'll get sufficient energy to tidy it up tomorrow, and to do the washing on Sunday, before I return to the rat race. On the other hand, I'm planning on restarting study days next week, which will break it up a little, and may result in next weekend actually having something useful done in it. I also vaguely plan to do the initial Librarian updates to allow multiline editing (i.e. enable it in the current interface and fix what breaks) in prepartion to the planned move to full address book style editing.
My birthday passed pretty much unnoticed, give or take a couple of cards and L. apologising for being too absorbed by her current addiction to arrange anything. My birthday itself was just an ordinary day, except for my thoughts about how short a distance I'd moved since my last birthday. I got myself a gameboy by way of retail therapy, and spent the evening messing about with the games. My trip to Cambridge last weekend was also overshadowed by this, and the fact that I hadn't prearranged where I was staying and who I was seeing sufficiently well, with the result that ended up irritating people turning up unannounced, which was another damper.
It’s something to stand still with for a moment as the world of hollywood has lost someone with a great personality.
Now I want to take this oportunity to focus on something that’s been on the back of mind for a good while now. It’s not that I want to be unsensitive to people who care about Williams, but now is the time.
It takes me back to the death of Dimebag Darrel. I was at the time a verry big fan, way into Pantera and Damageplan. This was right before dean guitars made it a hype. Heh, I even had a washburn stealth, loved that guitar. And I still am a fan, sometimes nothing beats some good old ‘nterra!
It was the first time something like this had hapened to me, a childhood hero died…and how. I turned on the tv and there it was scrolling across the screen “Rockstar Dimebag Darrel murdered” as the reporter was explaining the situation. I froze. And it took me a while, at school me and some other guitarists talked about it. No cracking jokes, no trying to outguitar ego eachother…this was a moment for silence. And so it went on for a while…it honestly did something to me, I really looked up to the guy. I even named a pet bunny after him.
Until a certain point, as I mentioned before, dean guitars had aqcuired the rights to his new guitar designs and started milking it bigtime. With that came the hordes of fanboys that kept on hyping and bullshitting about every little fact they could find. And something clicked in me. The sudden realisation that this was a person I didn’t know personally. The realistation that, if I were to stand before him in the afterlife or something then and there, he’d probably go like “euhm could you move aside please? I’d rather see my wife!”.
I saw people up close in my personal life hurting over it. I just didn’t care. And I still don’t. The guy made fantastic music and…that’s about it. Yes there was also some really freaky stuff in the news about him…but that’s about it. But everybody just made it way bigger then it was suposed to be.
And what did christianity do at the time? A lot of them just jumped on the bandwagon blindly. Some heard he got saved right before he died, some had a visions he was in Hell, some had visions that he was still alive and claimed that must be it, others knew for sure he was a muslim, some actually claimed to have seen him (next to tupac and Elvis I bet) and the wild theories, speculations and just downright embarrasments just kept popping up.
And in all of this, this media orgy of drama mongering over some famous person who died. Nobody seemed to stand still with the fact that, almost nobody really knew this guy.
First: keep your emotions and feelings for those who are actually part of your personal life. It’s not natural to have such intense feelings about pieces of media that are suposed to represent people. Don’t get me wrong here, love art, but give it an appropriate place in your heart. Hey if another one of my guitar heros dies soon who knows I might be bummed out too for a while, but lets try. Good ol famely values right?
Second, and this one is for the Christians mostly: Sometimes you just don’t know and you aught to embrace that. You don’t know what was in this persons heart, soul and spirit by just looking at his artistic output. You don’t know if this person is in heaven or hell because “you had the vision”. You don’t know what hapened and is going on because of your half-assed deductive reasoning. Be a respectfull person and just say “I don’t know”. Christians tend to have a bad image in this area, lets try and change that. Beeing humble by admitting that you don’t know, is not a defeat ok? In fact you’ll find it to be quite a charming aspect of your personality that will open doors.
And I haven’t even posted this for 10 minutes and already it’s there, the smartass Christian remarks “Humour is good, God is better”…I don’t even have words for such ignorant arrogance…
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Arrogance, Celebrity, Christians, death, Dimebag Darrel, Famous, Ignorance, Mass hysteria, Media, Micheal Jackson, Robin Williams on August 12, 2014 by angryfishrants.	
A while aggo I was talking to people about not attending church anymore, friends, people that were concerned and the likes. And this response came up from time to time “oh but you shouldn’t, because it will cause division”.
And while I can see their point that trying to live side by side with people from diffirent worldviews is a noble thing. I also find it a bit…moot?
Look at it this way, for most people church is a weekend activity that fits in right next to a fulltime job and for a part of those also kids. In other words it occupies your already limited leasure time. The last thing you need in that timeframe is more stress, more misunderstanding, more arguing. You need your off-days otherwise you’ll end up with a burnout. Need biblical proof? Fine God rested on sunday, there now shut up!
Which is another thing, if sunday is suposed to be a day of rest…why do you christians get all riled up in hyper activity on sunday? Please just sleep in and spent time with your loved ones, get recharged, you know you need it.
Anyway back to division. Yes it’s true christianity is plenty sliced n diced as it is today. To most people there’s just the catholic church, and then those protestants or whatever you call them. But truth be told it’s a bees nest of denominations and abominations. (or would I say DEMONisations? oooh silly fishrants, your stupid puns are deathworthy)
Yes introducing the latest and greatest in semi-intellectualistic technology I proudly present to you “AGNOSPIRIENTALIST CHRISTIANITY”. I’ve been growing this one in my backyard for a while now :p
Agno: from agnostic, hey lets be honest here, christianity doesn’t have enough of this “Hey sometimes I just don’t know”. And it’s true sometimes you don’t know, you don’t know for 100% sure there is a God at times, you don’t know what exactly every single thing was intented to mean in the bible…sometimes you just don’t know and that’s okay. Notice I said sometimes! this doesn’t make it full agnostisism.
spirientalist: it says spiri so it must mean something spiritual right? Nah, it’s derived from expierience. I’ve found that many christians are verry rejecting and dissaproving of their “previous life” refering to their own lives before they got reborn christians/baptised whatever you wanna call it. And with that mindset you lose a lot of your personality (I’ve been there, it’s not pretty) a God given personality. In my walk with God I’ve learned to embrace my past and everything in it. No more trying to pray away all those ex girlfriends, no more trying to pray away the bad things I’ve done…hey it’s part of the ride I’ve had, lets celebrate that! I’ve lived and loved and theres plenty more where that came from, that’s great! I feel sorry that I got talked into viewing the past as a bad thing. So there you have it, in balance of trying to be all spiritual, let the expierience of life overcome you…you’ll find a lot more freedom in God then when you try to force yourself into holiness over and over again. (seriously are we ever going to accept Jesus his offer or just keep on trying?)
So there you have it, agnospirientalism…has an unchristian sound to it huh doesn’t it? Yeah I like it too. In all seriousness I don’t give two turds about denominations anymore in a sense that I don’t want to be part of any.
It’s ridiculous and it turns what is suposed to be a relationship/expierience based faith into an ugly rule driven religion again.