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October 12th, 2009
02:06 pm - A series of oaths, a series of changes
You know, in many ways, the initiation I went through changed the game I was playing, deepening it and setting new rules. I like to talk about Huizinga's notion of Homo Ludens as vastly superior to Eliade's Homo Religiosis, but I find myself encountering Huizinga's theories on a very real and intimate level in my life.
The rules have changed for me a few times since I started in ADF: my Patron Oath, Dedicant Oath, Consecration Oath, and now my Initiation Oath have all changed the rules ever so slightly, but also so significantly.
My Patron Oath brought me into deeper relationship with Esus and Eris, and it has led to many great things while keeping me grounded and flexible all at once. New rules included building commitment while also deepening understanding in exploration and boundary-pushing.
My Dedicant Oath led me to a place where I was committed in a new way to Our Druidry, where my world was re-framed and brought into sharp focus. There, a new cosmovision sprang forth, and my life has since been filled with spirits and allies I never dreamed would be available to me before. This was pivotal in how I viewed the world.
My Consecration Oath turned a corner I did not expect, and brought me to a place of deeper piety and unfathomable commitment to the rites and rituals of Our Druidry. It also provided me with a commitment to "pay forward" that which I had learned, to bring that training to others and help others through it.
My Initiation Oath took me through deep passages in the earth and high corridors of stars in the heavens, and provided me with new tools and new focus, both in terms of the practical work I had done to get to that point, and in terms of the lessons learned from initiation. It is as if I am seeing the cosmos for the first time, and I understand fully my place within it.
My next oath will be an oath at Ordination, I suspect. I don't know what it will bring, but I can only tell you that it will likely redefine this cosmos yet again, and I am likely to see the world through new eyes, and to have new training and lessons with which to focus them, yet again.
I am excited to see where this leads, and to learn what I can do to help lead others through the mists whose paths become known. In all cases, though, any change that may come requires me to accept the new rules. This is not as simple as saying "yes, I agree to these rules." It is a complicated process of discovering the new rules, agreeing to abide by them, and then acting in accordance with them: recognition, agreement, and action. These are the three steps my oaths have taken and will take.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Travelin' Clean", -JB
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April 28th, 2009
07:15 pm - *speechless*
Holy crap. I just located a copy of an article by Anne Ross called "Esus Et Les Trios <<Grues>>" in Études Celtique 1960. . . Yes, that's "Esus and the Three Cranes." Not only does it contain a photo of the other side of the Esus relief at Trier, but it also includes another set of reliefs and pieces that she thinks are relevant.
Of course, I will have to translate the French before I can figure out what the hell she's talking about, but holy crap. . .
And I was just trying (and failing) to locate a suggested article from ![[info]](http://www.chronarchy.com/images/userinfo.gif) Ceisiwr Serith when I stumbled on this!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) shocked
Current Music: "Southern Cross", -JB
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August 8th, 2008
05:04 pm - Is your god on The List?
There is something odd about this List of Entities that I stumbled upon. Perhaps it is the inclusion of Harpo Marx, Discordian Saint Second Class, as an entity. Usually, this would be good, except that I can't really stand lists like this, nor can I abide the great Saint Harpo being listed with (and I quote):
Gurid - an angel of the summer equinox angel. I mean, really?
Look up your favourite god and/or goddess and see what they say about him or her!
Other gems?
- Amon - Egyptian ram-headed god of life and reproduction. Later fused with sun god Ra becoming known as Apollo - God of healing poetry and music.
- She - One of the Forgotten Ones. Invoked by the vultures atop the Pillars of the Abyss.
- Nike - Greek goddess of victory. Bewinged, she was also a messenger goddess. She also has an overprinced brand of running shoes named after her.
Okay, so I can agree to that last one. . .
Deity lists are crazy popular online, part of the general buffet-style religion that's always been popular (as many in ADF like to say, there's nothing more Indo-European than stealing someone else's gods and saying you found them first). You'll find a lot of repeats and some consistently bad stuff (a personal favourite, about Esus was just found. . . "Esus, God of war, who may have been a tree god Celtic.")
I first stumbled onto this phenomenon when I came across David Owens' dictionary of gods and goddesses, which he allowed to be electronically duplicated online, called The Gods of Man: A Small Dictionary of Pagan Gods and Goddesses. when I initially ran across it, I was pretty freaked out. I mean, it's just so. . . superficial. (I've had the pleasure of chatting with him briefly online, and he's a good guy, and the list is pretty astounding, actually.)
I suppose there's about as much wrong with a superficial interest in the deities you worship as there is in a superficial interest in cheese (which is to say, not much, especially if you're lactose intolerant), but every time I run across these lists (almost always accidentally), I wonder who actually uses them.
And then I remember: I did. My superficial list was just written by D.J. Conway. Plus, it was David Owens' book that turned me onto Esus (due to its woefully bad description, but still).
So they serve their purposes, I guess. They get people interested. They build those first steps and get 'em out the door and into the bright light of Paganism.
So, in that spirit, I think I'll go invoke Lu Dong Bin, Nexhagus, and Freddie Krueger. Hey, they're on the list, man!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Duke's on Sunday", -JB
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July 23rd, 2007
10:42 am - Three Cranes, Esus, and Tarvos
I've been working on further developing my connection with our Grove's namesake, Trigaranus (aka "Three Cranes", who we usually refer to in the singular as "Garanus" or "Crane"), within my own mind. If these 6th night rituals work out for the Grove, we'll talk about developing this a tad further as a Grove, too.
I started thinking about what names I could refer to each of the cranes as, and I started thinking about the Grove and what the Grove's strongest traits are.
I admit, my conception of Trigaranus is inextricably tied to my conception of the Grove.
As I was thinking about the Grove, though, I began to think about us in terms of the Nine Virtues of ADF, and I started thinking, "Which three virtues do we most exhibit?"
ADF's Nine Virtues are: Wisdom, Piety, Vision, Integrity, Perseverance, Courage, Moderation, Hospitality, and Fertility
Recent events were certainly on my mind, and I began to think about how our Grove is perceived inside and out. The virtue that stuck out most in my mind was Hospitality: we've seen a surge in growth recently, and we're becoming fairly well-known for providing hospitality (the joke has become that we are "Three Cranes Grove Home for Wayward Druids", which is great in our general opinion).
I thought about other virtues, and Integrity was the next to come to mind: not only in our words and actions, but relating back to the previous point of hospitality. We have a way of "integrating" folks into the whole here, and I'd like to see that continue and grow.
Vision was another obvious choice: I speak constantly about the Crane with "one foot on the land, one foot in the waters, and an eye constantly raised to the sky." I do that primarily to emphasize his tripartite nature as a creature of land, sea, and sky, but his eye to the sky could easily be interpreted as "looking into the future" while firmly "grounded in the present and past", if one wished to make a complicated explanation about it all (and this is religion: all explanations are complicated).
I then noticed that I had three functions with three cranes, and I was interested to see what I could do with the rest of the Nine Virtues (having six left over).
I started thinking about the parts of the myth that get no air play in our Grove: Esus and the Bull, Tarvos. I wanted to include them, as well, and so I set about giving them their own attributes from the Nine Virtues.
I ended up choosing the ones I did because I see Esus as a sort of "caretaker" to the tree: pruning it instead of cutting it down. This takes moderation, perseverance, and wisdom. I primarily see the bull, Tarvos, as a sacrificial bull, and thus connected it with religious action (piety), the continuance of cycles (fertility) and the courage bulls are renowned for.
It ended up looking something like this:
Esus, Tarvos Trigaranus, and ADF's Nine Virtues
| Trigaranus |
Hospitality
Integrity
Vision |
| Esus |
Moderation
Perseverance
Wisdom |
| Tarvos |
Fertility
Courage
Piety |
It's interesting to me to start, in earnest, taking the religion of the Gauls and really doing interpretive work off of it. It's also a bit scary, as I often don't quite know "how far is too far" yet, and the last thing I want to do is jump off the deep end and into fluff. The best I can do is avoid pretending that this stuff is "really the way it was" and say, "Well, if I were practicing Gaulish religion today, what on earth would I be doing?"
It's very interesting to re-imagine the cosmos. Very, very interesting.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: creative
Current Music: "Rancho Deluxe", -JB
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July 9th, 2007
02:47 pm - And On the Sixth Night, the Druids Harvested the All-Heal
 So, I spent last night working on this ritual.
The Grove requested that we do more rituals at our last business meeting. I am, of course, happy to oblige them, and so I started doing research.
One of the specific requests was that we start doing rituals based on the cycles of the moon. Somehow, I had the brilliant idea of doing a sixth night of the new moon ritual.
Of course, this meant digging through sources, since I was suddenly of the idea that maybe I should try and have some real grounding in what happened in Gaul on said night.
So a problem arose: the original rite, according to Pliny, involves a golden sickle and sacrificing two bulls. As I can't afford a golden sickle and blood sacrifice just really isn't my cup 'o meat (especially a holocaust sacrifice, as it appears was done), I've had to find a way to take the spirit of the rite and translate it into a more modern ritual.
Fortunately for me, I'm feeling inspired recently.
( A bit on the process )
So as I worked on the ritual, I decided that the purpose would be two-fold:
- It would be our welcoming ceremony for new Grove members
- It would also do more inner work (trance and potentially ecstatic work) and help create a stronger Grove identity
I also decided that I would work outside the usual ADF Core Order of Ritual. Because this isn't a High Day ritual, I'm under no constraints, and while I have the COoR to work with for general ideas of structure, I'm completely free to exit it and abuse it (as, I feel, is proper for a list of items).
The rite itself will involve four key things: 1) Gaulish names for months (and variations on themes for them, such as Cantlos [song month] in September/October; this is an adaption from Kondratiev); 2) A more central role for Garanus, the Crane, in our Grove's hearth religion; 3) mistletoe, and actually giving it a strong functionality within our Grove; and 4) an actual mystery that simply can't be described (partially because I am not sure if I'm able to do it yet, though it's all worked out in my head).
I'm doing this whole "welcome to the Grove" thing without any oaths or real ritual terror; I'm not as interested as some folk (and traditions) are in hazing new members, no matter how much in fun it might be to the guy with the knife. Really, I just want us to affirm, ritually, our identity as Grove members, and to give some tangible benefit to those who join.
I'll have to find someone, at some point, to go over this liturgy with me and discuss it. I find, though, that I can't bounce ideas off people in my Grove, because if I'm going to try and work mystery and mysticism into a ritual, the element of surprise is crucial. It interests me how much I truly rely on their feedback in our usual rites, and how much I notice when I don't have it available.
At the next Liturgy Meeting (this Thursday), I'll get more verbose about my plans when I speak to the Grove. But, as a taste, I want all our current members to go through this as a "Grove welcoming", too, so that we obtain that shared experience.
Now, I just need one thing: a source for sprigs of mistletoe. Part of the issue is that I need them before August, when we will do our first of these rites: that's well before the holiday season (where you can sometimes get ahold of it).
Does anyone have a source for sprigs of mistletoe?
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: productive
Current Music: "Frank and Lola", -JB
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July 5th, 2007
10:12 am - Esus and Three Cranes
Last night, while listening to some drumming CD's, I started free-writing about Esus and the Three Cranes. I came up with the following random bit of sketching:
Three Cranes
Garanus
Trigaranus
| Esus
Furious One
Passionate One¹
| The Bull
Tarvos
The Willow
The Bill-Hook
The Pruning
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¹ - From Chris Gwinn's derivation from PIE *eis-, which I like, though I think it's a bit fanciful.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/confused.gif) curious
Current Music: "Kick It In Second Wind", -JB
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June 13th, 2007
02:33 pm - A distinct lack of poetic talent is my meter. . .
So there's this poem I've been working on. Its initial lines were typed in on Dec. 11, 2001, though it may be a few months older. It very much follows a certain. . . shall we say. . . lack of meter?
I've never actually lost interest in this poem. It's four pages long, and I just added three stanzas to make it just over that, but I don't often work on it. The title is "Teachings of a Woodcutter", and it's sort of modeled after the Havamal thematically.
It's an outgrowth of my first work as an ADF Dedicant, as I tried to understand the Nine Virtues. Each virtue (listed, even that early, as "three times three") receives an introductory stanza and three explanatory stanzas, with seven stanzas to introduce the entire poem. Each stanza is four lines long, with the number of feet per line being. . . well, "arbitrary" is an understatement.
After this week's experiments with "Kubla Khan" and the month-long experiment with Lugus and Rosemerta, I'm looking at this particular work as "in desperate need of fixing". This is rather amusing, given that it's not even finished yet.
So, tonight, I'm likely to keep working on this particular poem. I'm so far behind on "stuff" at this point that it isn't funny, but I've gotten some things done. I'd grumble about money, but, ya know, grumbling doesn't pay bills, so I'm off to find new ways to make cash instead.
Something's gotta give, and it ain't gonna be me.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/sad.gif) exhausted
Current Music: "Off to See the Lizard", -JB
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June 4th, 2007
04:04 pm - Well, that's interesting. . .
Apparently, someone searched for the following string and came to my website:
"lucan rites pagan lucan esus teutates dressed as women"
Man, I wish I actually had a single article that would fit that description!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Waiting for the Next Explosion", -JB
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October 30th, 2006
05:36 pm - There it is.
There's the change I need to make. I can see it clearly.
I've been having trouble with something in particular recently, regarding this paradigm shift I've been working out (details are forthcoming, really).
And today, I saw that I'm afraid of the shift in some ways. In others, I'm not at all. I see its utility and its necessity, and I see the way the shift could go without it, and that's also attractive in its own right.
Esus, guide me to cut the right branches, to cut them the right length, and to cut them with the knowledge that I have to. This shift isn't chaos magic. It's a reunderstanding of myself, a deeper hope, a stronger dream. It is acceptance and strong movement at once. It is like standing in the middle of a violent storm, and seeing all the ways things can go, and knowing you have to choose, that the storm won't stop until you give it direction, that it will continue to consume you.
What makes us happy is not always what is best for us.
What is best for us doesn't always make us happy.
The doors that open match the doors that close, and things move to make sense in ways you never expected.
I know, I'll get some crap for being vague.
But I find it clear. I really do.
And that, alone, is scary. But I've learned nothing in my relationship with Esus if I haven't learned that sometimes, the scary is what you really need to do, because it's the best thing.
The trick is doing the scary stuff right.
That couldn't be me in the gorilla disguise. . .
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "This Hotel Room", -JB
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August 16th, 2006
01:34 pm - Esus in Algeria (fighting the French, I'm sure)
Ladies and gentlemen:
I mentioned that I found an inscription relating to Esus recently. Well, PICTURES!
They're on my "About Esus" page that I've built (Quick Link to the spot on the page).
If you just want to look at the pictures I found, and don't care about what I think about them, then they're here:
Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
What really catches my eye? That sand-dollar-looking-thing on the first pic. And the birds hanging out around those trees with the anchors around 'em on the other two pics.
Is it just me, or is this damn cool?
(![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tlachtga, I'll give you a copy of both articles from this site at Summerland.)
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: "The Hangout Gang", -JB
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July 11th, 2006
08:48 am - A quick review of the last 168 hours or so.
- Saw Pirates twice, despite not being so happy with it the first time.
- Received a picture from a very hot girl with "chronarchy" written across her chest (I think I finally made it big in the Internet world).
- Found and transcribed two commentaries on Lucan's Pharsalia.
- Found (but didn't transcribe yet) the Adnotationes super Lucanum.
- Began translations and putting said commentaries online as a public service (and because it's nice to have 'em handy).
- Had a conversation with Eris that hasn't been transcribed yet.
- Made a joke about cornering the market on paisley socks.
- Had my cell phone refuse to dial, drop connections, and generally act like a bitch about 30% of the time.
- Emailed an author about a corrected citation.
- Slept in a bed that was not my own (twice).
- Slept in my own bed (twice).
- Slept on various couches (every other night).
- Sang in the shower.
As an FYI, no the post yesterday wasn't directed specifically. I just. . . figured I needed to say something about my dropping off the face of the earth on occasion.
And my newest goal with LJ? Get all the information into all the fields on the update screen before the words "Autosaved draft" appear on the page. I almost had it this time.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Happy Christmas (War is Over)", -JB
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July 7th, 2006
10:45 am - Esus in my heart, and apparently on my feet?
I totally, totally need a pair of Esus shoes.
Like, now.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Coconut Telegraph", -JB
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July 3rd, 2006
09:53 am - Deforestation and Erysichthon
I was startled, when reading an article called "Lucan's Caesar and the Sacred Grove: Deforestation and Enlightenment in Antiquity" that describes the episode of desecration of the sacred grove by Caesar and what it means. Kinda cool article, and some copies will likely be made for a few people. What startled me, though, was that it referenced me to a passage in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book VIII, lines 738-884, the story of Erysichthon, who cuts down a sacred tree.
Get this: Erysichthon cuts into the sacred tree, and blood flows out "like a fountain from the neck of a great bull, who falls before the altars of the gods."
If there were cranes involved, too, I'd die. Literally, I'd be dead and gone of shock. But there are no cranes, so I'm guessing it's just an interesting, poetic coincidence.
But for a moment, I wondered.
(I think I'm going to suggest this passage for the "piety" and "nature awareness" requirements in the DP. . .)
Before anyone says anything anti-Roman, there's no actual evidence that Caesar destroyed any groves. Just an FYI, because we have a popular tradition in Neo-Paganism saying he did.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Train to Dixieland", -JB
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09:35 am - More on the Commentaries
I know you've all been waiting and waiting and waiting for this.
Commenta Bernensia and the commentary of Arnulfus Aurelianensis on Lucan's Pharsalia
I'll be spending my lunch hour analyzing the text and comparing to ensure that no typos were made (I've already caught a couple).
The Adnotationum will take a bit more time. I have to do some descipherment before I can post them, but they'll be on the same page, as they're apparently part of the Commenta Bernensia. Also, I have found part of an unpublished manuscript by Hugutio called Magnae Derivationes that I have a selection from to read through.
I'm working through the translations, but they're not easy for me.
I'm also going to write a short biography of Arnulf when I get a few minutes, as I think it really sheds some light on these texts.
Yeah, I'm really, really getting into this stuff. Sorry: I gotta have something to obsess over for the next week, until . . . Well, until something else happens. . .
*laughs*
Yes, and that's all you get: one obsession at a time.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Someone I Used to Love", -JB
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June 30th, 2006
01:36 pm - An update on yesterday's find.
Here is the entire source:
934) P. 123, n° 154; photo, fig. 9. Fragment de stèle de marbre blanc, brisée de tous côtés, sauf à g. : 28 x 20 x 5,5 cm. Le fronton triangulaire était orné de trois rosaces et soutenu par deux colonnes. Ch. ép. sur le bandeau supérieur : 4 x 12 cm. Provient de la nécropole occidentale. Peregrinus [---] | quod Esus iuben[s---].
Peregrinus est un nom très courant. Plus surprenante est l'intervention du dieu gaulois Esus.
I managed to find it when the curator of the Center of Epigraphy here contacted me back. We went back and forth via email, and eventually she found the source for me and I went over and picked it up after lunch.
You'll note that a picture is mentioned. The picture is located in the Bulletin d'Archéologie algérienne, in one of the following two articles:
J. MARTIN, Extrait du catalogue des inscriptions latines du bassin de l'Isser et de l'oued Sebaou, BAA, t. VII, 1, 1977-1979, p. 69-86.
Or Ph. LEVEAU, Nouvelles inscriptions de Cherchel, BAA, t. VII, 1, 1977-1979, p. 111-192 My money is on it being in the second one, personally. I've asked for both, though. The curator is looking into getting the second article for me (we already have the first, but I haven't put my hands on it yet).
I am also excited, though, because I may possibly have found a facsimile copy of the original Berne Commentaries (aka the Berne Scholia) in our local library. I'll be headed over there today to pick it up. There's another promising book, printed 1728, in the rare books section, but that section is closed until July.
I had meant to grab a couple of books that refer to the Berne Commentaries to see what source they cite, but I forgot when I was home at lunch. So now, instead, I'll just sort of wing it and hope that I have, indeed, found the source that they all cite.
After all, I'm not entirely sure that the people citing the Commentaries have actually read them. . . Much like Bober's work on Cernunnos: it's constantly cited, but no one seems to have read it.
Research is exciting. Perhaps I am a geek, but there's nothing cooler than finding something like this.
Thank you to all those who looked around for the article in question. I'm very happy to say that that one was found.
There are a few more citations I need to track down, including inscriptions in Florence, Italy; Pfalsbourg, Germany; and I hear tell that there's one more, but I don't have a location on it yet. Those citations, though, will have to wait until I find the commentaries and study up on the Chercel, Algeria, inscription.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: excited
Current Music: "Everybody's Got a Cousin in Miami", -JB
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June 29th, 2006
08:43 am - Esus, gettin' down with the Africans
Does anyone have access to the publication: L'Année épigraphique
I need the following source:
AE 1985, 00934
Province: Mauretania Caesariensis
Location: Cherchell / Caesarea
And I need it badly.
There appears to be an inscription to Esus in Mauretania Caesariensis.
That's Algeria, baby. We're talking about an inscription for a Gaulish deity in North Africa.
So please, those of you who go to college and/or work in academic circles: check your library's journal section.
This is vitally important. Thank you for your time. :)
Edit:I have it! More once I go through it.
But this is very, very promising.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ecstatic
Current Music: "Distantly in Love", -JB
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February 9th, 2006
12:34 pm - Esus=Jesus=Caesar=WTFOMGLOL!!!1111!
So, apparently Jesus was actually Julius Caesar, Esus is Jesus is Caesar, the Jesus myth has nothing to do with the Jews (or even the Middle East) and I'm the insane one.
(Yes, I am fully aware that this entry seems to be an amusing flip-flop from my previous entry. Maybe I meant it that way? I dunno. The implication that I think about anything is perhaps thinking too much on my thinking.)
Over the past three weeks or more, I've been engaged in a discussion (rather, a series of discussions) about how Esus is related to Jesus. It is, on the one hand, entertaining. And honestly, I'm willing to look at it objectively. But I admit that I think it's bunk right now. But I'm hoping that I'm at least looking at each piece carefully before holding up the big "REJECTED" sign.
The central argument comes from Francesco Carotta's new book, Jesus Was Caesar: On the Julian Origin of Christianity: An Investigative Report. I've had some very light dealings back and forth with Carotta himself (who runs a forum on his website), though they haven't been very in depth. He did, though, personally moderate me and reject a posting for suggesting that the theory that Jesus was of European origin, not of Semitic origin, worried me and made me afraid that the theory was potentially anti-Semitic. I feel special.
The book is, at present, too expensive for me to purchase, but I understand that it's being used by at least one history professor as an example of "bad" history, which amuses me a lot. If you ever feel like getting me an expensive gag gift, though, that's the thing to get.
Anyway, the point of the whole thing is that I have taken the time to re-think and re-work some of the information I have on Esus and Tarvos Trigaranus. It's also given me the kick to put up a page responding to some of the arguments I've received (over and over again, I might add) about Jesus being Esus and possibly Caesar. And now I've got the start of a page on the Nautes Pillar up, and I'll have more on that page in the near future.
Yeah, just what I needed: a new project in the middle of my current heavy workload. But this is one that is very valid to me. And it's definitely time that I started looking again at those Esus pages on my website. They hadn't been updated in nearly two years when I looked at them last, and one of the discussions I had showed me that I didn't really agree with everything. So things are expanded, and on their way toward becoming more expanded. It feels good to be back to this line of discussion and thought again. I missed it.
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Up On the Housetop", -JB
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December 1st, 2005
09:57 am - Esus!
Look at me!
And, of course, for those of you who are really interested:
You could always look at the 360° video I took! (3.2 Mb .avi file)
I gotta figure out how to get that video right side up, but I've never done any video editing.
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: "He Went to Paris", -JB
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November 30th, 2005
08:54 am - It's been ten days? Not long enough.
Since Monday, Nov. 20, in no particular order I:
- saw the nautes pillar
- did a monkey dance
- saw a Roman archeological dig
- saw Notre Dame and decided it wasn't worth it to go in
- kissed a girl in Paris
- caught a shooting star with someone who had never seen one
- found a new favourite air carrier (four words: "green skirts, golden apples")
- was closely watched by the Illuminati
- had impure thoughts in a church
- realized I needed more work on my Latin
- realized I recalled more French than my 7th grade teacher would believe in a million years
- realized German, no matter how often I heard it, is simply impossible for me
- had really good chocolate (the jury is still out on whether I believe in really good chocolate)
- kissed a girl in the Vienna Christmas market
- saw more famous dead people (Falco!) than I had any right to
- lost three people in Vienna, and found two of them
- lost a bottle of tequila to pressure in the cargo hold, and soaked some poor sot's bag with it, I'm sure
- slept with three women and one other man . . . in one bed
- spent an hour and a half with a shower buddy struggling to remove gold body paint
- finally got between Mazi's legs
- lost all chance I had with a girl to a three year old
- had french fries that could only be described as "exquisite"
- saw signs for "Men with hats cross here", "Men with hats go down stairs here", and "Men with hats steal children here"
- had a crisis of conscience that would have been terribly funny from my persepective, but not so much from yours
- discovered that the sun does not shine in France, and especially does not shine at Charles De Gaulle (CDG) airport
- Became stranded at CDG on the way home and discovered the previous assertation is untrue, though we also discovered that CDG is designed after Charles De Gaulle's nose: large, unsightly, and ugly
- learned that a hat, properly worn, can move you to the front of any line
- proposed to a girl in Vienna
- found Europe to be exactly like the US, just with a few new languages and monopoly money
- discovered the French are much nicer when you're in a wheelchair, and customs are much simpler
- went fishing in shark-infested trashcans
- had a one hour layover turn into a 23 hour layover
- encountered the Great Mystery of the Missing Cheese Stick
- am now the proud owner of an Air France t-shirt
- managed to get my bags checked all the way through to Columbus, but not my travel partner's
- will never fly Air France, into CDG, or go to Paris ever again.
It's now almost nine AM, and I am not at work. There is a very good reason for this.
Walking With Fire is/was/has been the best festival I ever attended. I am not sure that the experience ever could be or ever will be beaten.
Pictures are forthcoming, as is a longer review.
For now, though, I'm just too tired.
Entries from this trip:
Entry 1 | Entry 2 | Entry 3 | Entry 4 | Entry 5 | Entry 6
A quick overview of the entire trip
Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: "Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season", -JB
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November 20th, 2005
12:20 pm - Europe. . . ready or not. . .
Tomorrow, at this time, I hope to be staring at Cernunnos, Esus, and a certain bull with three cranes.
I'll see you kids when I get back. Please don't be prolific posters! I gotta read all that when I get back!
-MJD out.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/energetic.gif) energetic
Current Music: "Today's Message", -JB
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