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December 1st, 2009
10:06 am - Money, Music, Shirts, and Joss Whedon
It has been some time since I have posted. I apologize for the delay.
1. After years of checking my credit card balance monthly (and several months earlier this year of checking it almost daily as I was paying it off), I find that I feel odd if I don't check my account balance. . . though it is nice to open it up and find that the balance is still $0.
2. On a related note, I've gone through three rather rough months with money, but I've been fortunate that none dropped me below the $0 mark in my bank account (though I did once hit the $3.47 mark. . . the Friday of Thanksgiving). This past month, one of my cats couldn't urinate (to quote the vet, "You don't know how great it is you can pee until you can't, huh?"), so that pretty well drained my cash at the beginning of November, and I subsisted off a dangerously low account until the end of the month. It's caused me to re-think this whole "Oh, I don't need a credit card" notion that I had back in August when I finally hit a $0 balance on the credit card. I need to build some capital before I can actually get rid of my cards, it seems. I'm glad that I've kept my card open, and have no intention of closing it out, but it is nice to not have that thing weighing me down.
3. It appears that my music collection ceased to expand in the late '90's, and that the collection really should be encased in a flannel. Sure, I own a few recent albums, some that don't have Jimmy Buffett's name on them, but by-and-large, music appears to have died for me somewhere around New Miserable Experience or Garbage, to say nothing of my deep-seated curiosity that often asks, "Where the hell did the Seattle Sound go?" I don't consider myself any sort of music connoisseur, but when I was exposed to that weird grunge-punk fusion that hit the airwaves in the early '90's, I ws hooked. But at ComFest this year, I finally heard a band that peaked my interest: Miss Molly. They're pretty new, local, only have one album, and that album is only available at shows at this point, but I'm excited about the concert at the Thirsty Ear on Dec. 18th, where I'll finally get ahold of the album. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) seamus_mcnasty and I will be there. . . anyone else want to join us?
4. I am enamoured with today's Shirt.Woot shirt. Also, one from a couple of days ago.
5. I have now watched the entire 7-season run of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the 5-season run of Angel, and have come to the conclusion that while Firefly was pretty damn awesome (seriously, go watch it: it's a Western. . . in space!) and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was also cool, Joss Whedon can really write some crap shows when he sets his mind to it. I had always been unimpressed with Buffy (and the only episode I had ever actually watched, the "Dracula" episode, really lowered the bar in terms of expectations), but having now seen the entire series, I can say that my initial thoughts on the program were clearly incorrect: it was worse than I had feared. Angel, the spin-off, is clearly a temper tantrum about not being allowed to work with a Batman franchise, particularly in the beginning, though it becomes less-so in about Season 5. I will admit to enjoying Spike as a character, but I don't think that his scenes were necessarily enough to make me enjoy such a predictable, simple set of artless story arcs. I prefer Dollhouse, which isn't that good, either.
6. I am currently engaged in an interesting conflict, where I am as stressed as hell about a number of work-related items, but astoundingly happy and joyful about my homelife, and deeply in love. I'm pleased with the way many things are going, wish I had more time for so many other things, and find myself hoping that one of these days, it'll all work out, just like this. . . You know, forever. . .
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) pleased
Current Music: "The Coast of Marseilles", -JB
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June 30th, 2009
09:20 am - Debt-Free¹
Today, I come to you from a wonderful place: completely debt-free. I dug myself out of the minor hole that I was in in just under six months as a result of a promotion, keeping naked cats in my attic for nearly a year, and being absolutely, downright miserly over the past year.
My dad would be so proud of the way I've handled money and opportunity recently. Actually, I know he is.
No matter what the debt is, it has a way of looking like it's way, way too big to overcome, especially when you're sitting under what looks like a mountain of it. I know the statistics, and I know that I wasn't anywhere close to the "average" debt people carry on their credit cards alone (the mean credit card debt was around $9,000 last I heard, with the median being closer to $2,000; it's probably higher now), but even the small sum I had seemed insurmountable less than a year ago.
Heck, there were times when I thought it was hopeless while I was in the middle of paying the damn thing down. . . even as recently as last month, I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to meet the expectations I had set for myself, that I would be unable to make it to the end of the month, and that I would end up spending even more time in debt than I had originally planned.
I found myself religiously checking my bank balances, my credit card statements, and adding up every penny I spent. I didn't buy anything I didn't need unless I was positive that I could manage to meet the expectations I had of myself, and I went without a lot of things in order to ensure that I was staying within budget.
I'd originally gone into light debt when I bought the house in 2002: there, I was making enough, but didn't have enough cash on hand for repairs, improvements, and painting. It's said that the average home-buyer pours an additional $5,000 into a house in the first year of ownership, and I probably did about that. Then my car finally died, and I had a car payment that was completely unexpected on top of my new mortgage.
There was a time when I figured it up, and I was spending a few dollars more each month than I was actually making at the time.
So things ballooned a bit, no matter how careful I tried to be. Soon, I was finding that even my modest debt was looking entirely uncontrollable. I didn't see any light at the end of the tunnel, and I didn't know that I would ever be able to pay it off. I quickly understood (and understand even better in hindsight) just how frightening debt can be, and how amazingly stupid it can make you feel. I now understand how people carry such balances for so long: there comes a point where you accept debt, and where you feel you will always live with it; and it comes fast and out of nowhere.
It wasn't until the car payments were complete this past December that I was able to start paying the debt down in a significant way. Then I picked up my promotion. Then I scrimped and saved and put everything I had into getting out of debt, buckling down at work and making things happen. And here, with planning and work, I stand now: debt free and finally really proud of myself.
Now I just need to make it to the end of the month without a relapse, and my next paycheck will become a cushion, not a "make ends meet" sort of thing. Given that I'm in better shape this month than I was last month (and have been seeing that trend since January), I think a relapse is very unlikely.
There's a light at the end of the debt tunnel: I'm living proof. While my debt wasn't grossly enormous, it also wasn't actually manageable. I carried it for nearly six years until the cards fell right. I'm not one to say that "anyone can do this if they just work harder. . ." I know, because I did work harder, and sometimes that's not enough. But I am one to say that it can be done, with a little luck, a little faith in yourself, and a lot of work and discipline over a long haul.
To all those who helped me out when I needed it, thank you. I promise to pay it forward.
¹ - except, of course, for the house. But the elimination of other debt makes my mortgage entirely affordable.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: jubilant
Current Music: "Spending Money", -JB
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February 15th, 2009
07:30 pm - Well, crap. Pun not intended.
Hey, look! It's another one of those days where I seem to have done everything wrong!
The crowning achievement today? The toilet started to leak, so (after many trips to Lowes: I may have spent more on gas than on parts) I replaced nearly every part of the damn thing.
Now, I have a tiny drip-drip-drip sort of leak that, while much smaller (maybe a tablespoon in a half-hour), doesn't make me feel any better about my situation. Home improvement is apparently not my forté this weekend, because it's not the only project that didn't go well.
I need a vacation from everything.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/angry.gif) frustrated
Current Music: "Tryin' to Reason with Hurricane Season", - JB
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January 20th, 2009
11:00 am - If only life were just the highlight reel. . .
Here is a quick run-down of the past week or so of my life, in chart form:
| Fri Jan 09 | Job interview (went swimmingly); DSL crashed and burned; went to mischevousblend's birthday party | | Sat Jan 10 | Worked on DSL almost all day; helped prepare Tina for her move. | | Sun Jan 11 | Spent a lot of time waiting for AT&T to call; helped Tina pack. | | Mon Jan 12 | Witches' meetup; helped Tina pack | | Tues Jan 13 | Received a cryptic call re: the job, got my hopes up; received final confirmation of Tina's flight | | Wed Jan 14 | Surprise! Second interview without warning! Shook with terror for 1.5 hour "chat" with my last interviewer's boss; received verbal indication of forthcoming verbal offer; felt useless all night while Tina packed. | | Thu Jan 15 | Dropped Tina off at CMH airport; came home from work to hear a message from American Airlines that one leg of her flight had been canceled (after she'd taken off); cursed for nearly an hour at the phone; DP study meeting | | Fri Jan 16 | Verbal offer arrived on the job (I got the job I've been doing for nearly a year); spent the evening trying to clean house and organize | | Sat Jan 17 | Moved the last of Tina's stuff out; saw Maggie for the first time in a week; moved the first half of Maggie's stuff in; Maggie now lives with me. | | Sun Jan 18 | Cooked breakfast for Maggie; finished moving Maggie in (thanks, tesinth) | | Mon Jan 19 | Cleaned; repaired the back fence (sorta); got my DSL fixed | | Tue Jan 20 | Freakin' out over new job responsibilities and whether I can do them | | Mon Jan 26 | Should be my first day on this job I've been doing for a year. |
Hope that helps explain what's been goin' on since you last heard from me.
The dawn I saw two weeks ago, after
Usas gave way to Surya.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Today's Message", -JB
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January 27th, 2008
09:51 am - Adventures in Linux (or, Saving Six Study Program Documents from Certain Doom)
Not long ago, I actually got "real" internet access at home. This consists of the cheapest possible DSL connection that I could possibly obtain: $15/month, which I split down the center with Tina. Since it's on my phone bill, it's not an extra bill, just more like an extra feature.
I also received red_sput's computer from my parents at about the same time. He had run into the classic confusing issue of "Windows just shuts down before fully booting," which indicated that there was some sort of issue with his WinXP installation. I offered to look at it, but he bought a new computer back in November, so it wasn't really urgent.
When I pressed the power button, the computer sprang to life, and I watched in amusement as the entire thing booted and popped into Windows with no problems at all. "I have it working," I told my father, who had seen it not work before. "What did you do?" he asked. "I turned it on." "Huh, nothing else?" "No," I said, "nothing else. There's a magical aura that tech support people have that makes it impossible to replicate an issue once the computer is in their hands. I have that aura."
It turns out that the issue was a combination of spyware, viruses, and (as I soon found out) a faulty hard drive.
Since then, I've been playing around with the machine (and am currently typing on it). I've used it for all sorts of things, from gaming to updating the Three Cranes site. But two days ago, I heard that ominous clicking on boot.
The hard drive had gone. Gone, daddy, gone.
While there was nothing of actual importance on this machine, I did have some ADF Clergy Training Program work saved on this machine and it was not yet backed up. While I can always re-write some of this stuff, I was kicking myself for falling victim to something I've told many, many Dedicants over the years: back your work up!
As a result, I went back to a solution I used last time a hard drive died: Linux.
( Geeky stuff ahead, but interesting )
In short, I think that the older versions of Knoppix are what I recommend and will probably stick with if I actually have to do anything in the future.
For the really short term, though, I'm just going to get a new hard drive for this bad boy and use my flash drive to back everything up until this one finally craps out. While it's on its last legs, I did manage to get back into Windows and boot from the hard drive. I noticed yesterday that the hard drive had appeared in Knoppix, meaning that it's working temporarily. So for now, the machine is intact. Sorta.
Did I mention there's also a c-clamp holding the monitor together?
I love computer repair and support. It can be so. . . ghetto.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Mac the Knife", -JB with Frank Sinatra
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January 26th, 2008
05:33 pm - A game of cat and mouse
Infinity has fallen asleep staring into the aquarium. There, finally awake and moving, is the mouse she caught this morning. Since our incident with the Chocolate Mouse (hereinafter referred to as "Godiva"), we have been dealing with the second generation. Yes, that's right: Godiva had some pups. Between myself and three cats, we have caught a total of six mice since January 10th.
There are two generations of mice that we're aware of. The first was Godiva and her mate (who we later discovered ate only Ramen Noodles: he is herinafter referred to as "SpicePack"). The second was their kids.
Godiva and SpicePack had at least five kids: I'm currently listening at the walls to ensure that there aren't any more skulking between the drywall. I found one dead (played with and slobbered on to death) in the living room, and watched Alexander kill another one (they're still small enough to be bite-sized). I caught two more live, and spent about a week and a half listening to the mice still left as they continued nesting.
I caught another mouse a couple of days ago: another of the pups. Then, after a few days of tracking and catching glimpses of SpicePack, I was sitting in the basement trying to fix my computer (separate entry for that), and I heard a meow and a couple of squeaks.
Infinity had a mouse. It was SpicePack.
She didn't want to let SpicePack go, but after chasing her through the house (and then chasing the mouse through the house once I got her to let go and she dropped him), I had him in a jar and was checking him to see if I needed to kill him myself or not.
It was hard to tell: he was very wet, playing dead, and barely breathing. After a careful examination, though, I determined that his injuries were remarkably light, and put him in the aquarium with one of his pups, pending a nice day to let them both go.
I have thought we were out of mice before, and been wrong. With six mice caught in the past two weeks, I'm hoping we're back down to zero. Despite that, I'm unsure.
We shall wait and see.
For those wondering, Hudson is almost 2 years old. She'll be 2 on May 1.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Frank and Lola", -JB
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January 2nd, 2008
04:17 pm - A random entry of joy, football, and mice
I ended 2007 being remarkably happy, in all honesty. For the past three months, I have been driving home from work with a satisfied smile on my face, and can occasionally be seen grinning from ear-to-ear and pleasantly surprised with how good my life is.
I look forward to a 2008 that is just as lovely and wonderful.
I could go on about the new year, but honestly, my new year happened sometime last November, and the secular one doesn't do much for me (I ended up sleeping through this one, as I have the previous 28 I've been around for).
I spent last night with the Georgia-Hawaii game on mute (the Sugar Bowl wasn't what the Hawaiians expected, and poor Georgia had to make lemonade out of them), writing up one of my Divination 2 requirements (the last one left).
Also, the Chocolate Mouse is caught (actually, she was caught before Christmas). Indeed, double chocolate praline is actually useful for something after all. Who would have thought? She goes out on her ear at the first sign of a warm snap (after a little over a week of keeping her in the warm house, I can tell she's simply not going to be happy as a pet mouse. . . She's damn cute, though).
But really, I cannot begin to describe how happy I am and have been, even if it may not come though my writing recently. . . I've been too busy to do a lot of writing, and I only post about serious¹ stuff when I get busy.
--
¹ - If by "serious" we mean "ACLU-destroying amulets for Christians." And of course we do. . .
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Off to See the Lizard", -JB
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December 12th, 2007
10:01 am - Mice that don't eat peanut butter, and the best Yule gift ever. . .
This entry will contain what some of you consider to be sacrilege. And some of you will think it hilarious.
Let me begin at the beginning with a quick recap of how we got to the past two weeks:
- There is a hole in my house
- Mice had been entering through said hole
- We have caught most of the mice
- There is one mouse left
Yesterday, I spent my lunch hour beneath my deck doing the final sealing the window as best I could in the rain and mud. I will need to do more work to fully seal the hole, but I believe that the mice, at least for now, no longer have access to the innards of the house.
It is this one mouse, then, that is left. We were catching mice at a rate of 1.2 each day in late October, and until today, we could not determine *why* we could not catch this last mouse.
We know this mouse is a female, because she's nesting. We can hear her. In the walls. Nesting.
Boy mice are lazy-ass sons-of-bitches. They don't nest. And girl mice tend to nest when they get pregnant, which leads us to many deeper issues that I'm sure you can all guess.
We cannot poison the mouse: we have cats, and a rat-poisoned mouse, if found by the cats, will poison the cats. The mouse has not been caught by the cats, because I can't let the cats roam free in the house throughout the day due to Tina's plants and the presence of Tina's birds. Thus, our strongest weapon in the game of cat-and-mouse (i.e. the freakin' cats) is unavailable during most of our turns.
Tina won't let me use an inhumane trap, which is fine by me: the PETA traps Tina purchased are actually *amazingly* effective when it comes to most mice. (I do own a couple of "Lucifer" mousetraps, though, thanks to viedansante's sense of humour).
This morning, Tina discovered exactly why our traps, baited with peanut butter and a dog biscut, had been ineffective on this particular mouse up to this point: this mouse eats only fine, dark chocolate.
I should have known when I found her doing the backstroke in Tina's Mexican hot chocolate mix, now that I look back on it. I also should have caught her then, when she was frozen and staring at me through the plastic baggie the chocolate was in. I thought, wrongly, that I couldn't catch her at that point, that a simple grab wouldn't do it. Instead, I watched to see how she'd gotten to where she was. I haven't had a chance to get her since.
This morning, though, I was informed that somehow, she had gotten up three shelves in the pantry and gotten into Tina's dark chocolate bars from Trader Joe's, possibly by climbing, but more likely by either an acrobatic jump of approximately two feet, or by gnawing patiently through a wall and then through the back of the cabinet. Apparently, the girl has some fine, fine taste. And she'll go to many insane lengths to satisfy that craving.
I now have a plan. A dastardly, evil plan, if I do say so myself.
On Dec. 1, I received a box of fancy chocolates from druidkirk for Yule. I've eaten a couple, but the plan was to bring the majority of them in to work and let others have whatever Maggie didn't want.
Now, though, the plan has changed. If no mouse has been caught this evening, the bait in the trap is getting a serious upgrade. I know what the mouse likes: dark chocolate. I know where the mouse is nesting: next to the heating ducts. I know where the mouse can and will get: all over the basement and in the cupboards.
Really, it all combines into the chocolate being the perfect Yule gift, in my little twisted mind, should this work. There's nothing I'd like more than to be rid of this mouse with a taste for expensive chocolate.
(My thank-you note to druidkirk for the chocolate, which was going to go in today's mail, has had to be altered a tad as a result of this new, exciting development.)
I know this is a mouse after some of your own hearts. When I catch her (and I will catch her, trust me), is there anyone who would like to keep her? If not, well, at least she'll have a very fulfilling last indoor meal of very fine chocolate.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "On a Slow Boat to China", -JB
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November 1st, 2007
09:09 am - Transcription Project
Something I've always wanted to do but never really had the time for is to get all the omens from all our rites posted so that folk could see them, which would help with their DP writeups.
I think that, if I can find the time this weekend, I'd like to get on that, and start transcribing the Book of Three Cranes over onto a page on our site. I'm not sure if I'd just make the omens public, or if I'd make the writeups public, or if I'd just make the whole thing "members-only" on the site.
But I've realized that each Grove Dedicant needs this information, anyway (as does anyone doing the DP who might attend our rituals), so why not make it available? I get enough questions (usually about one per ritual) within a week of the rite to know that it's something we need.
Plus, given our history with losing sign-in books (and then subsequently finding them after we've changed to a new book), it wouldn't be a bad idea to actively keep another copy.
So, that's my weekend project. Well, aside from continuing to fill in the 1 ft. x 1 ft. hole in my house. And watching the Buckeyes with tesinth. And maybe getting a bit of sleep.
Heck, I haven't even had time to do my own Samhain rite yet. I'll be working off of last year's ritual, but I want to take the time to sit down and modify it, too.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Carnival World", -JB
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July 13th, 2007
08:42 am - Adventures in Currency Conversion
I have previously admitted to being low on cash. How low, one might ask? Well, on Monday morning, I was $24 short of having enough cash to pay my mortgage, which is due on Saturday.
Step one was to sell off all the books I knew I'd never look at or read again. This gathered me about $5 (or approximately a quarter per book). "Okay," I thought, "you're 20% of the way there."
The next thing I thought about was selling sets of rune dice. I've been making these with some industry for a while now, and I have a few sets made up.
( They look like this )
The central issue with that is that it doesn't solve my immediate need (as orders need filling and cash needs transferred and yada/yada/yada and I only have until Saturday to deposit this cash). So I started thinking about other things I could do.
After a lot of thought and a lot of false starts on things (such as selling Discordian Futhark runes on apples ( that look like this ) I decided that I would take the 30 Euros I had down to the currency exchange and get me some real American Dollars!
( In which hilarity ensues, things work out alright, my mortgage is paid, and I get back to work in a reasonable amount of time and even eat lunch )
And all it took was asking the airport to shove a Boeing 757 up my ass.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Carnival World", -JB
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May 18th, 2007
09:03 am - Thinkin' about "stuff"
- Asking people to think before they speak is apparently "asking people to pretend to be something they're not."
- I was never self-conscious of my finances until I got an email about how privileged I obviously am yesterday, and was, in fact, quite proud of how I've been handling them. I'm back to being proud, though.
- When I started a Grove, I didn't realize how much homework I would end up assigning myself. I just don't know enough right now to write this rite. And that's a lot of homophones.
- At some point, I would like to take a road trip to Springfield, IL. There's a mural on the wall of the Illinois Supreme Court that I want to see (you know, since Eris is on it . . . Well, Discord to be exact, but it's close enough for government work, and it is a government building). The more I think about it, the more obvious it is that I need to do this. Of course, I'll probably combine it with a very long overdue trip to Kansas to see the family, and maybe stop by the Protogroves in Urbana-Champaign and Kansas City for a rite or something. I hear there's also a Grove near East St. Louis now, too.
- My carport is clean, my back yard is shaping up, and the front yard is next to be tackled. And, it looks like I've kept my promise of clear skies tonight, at least so far.
- This morning, I remembered the feeling I used to have every day when I was in college, where your body feels healthy and ready to go, strong and awake. It's a wonderful feeling, and one that I sorely missed.
- Wellspring isn't exciting me at the moment, for various reasons. Part of this has to do with a feeling of "missing out" on last year's Wellspring and being "left behind", part is a feeling that I'm going to have people demand that I "explain myself" on things (though I don't believe that I've done anything wrong to deserve that), and part is just that I have the traditional Han Solo "bad feeling about this."
- I really, really miss some of my best friends.
- Today's Buffett Oracle:
203. What works for me might work for you.
Thanks, Jimmy. I have some ideas of how I want to spend an evening this weekend.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Buttermilk Grove", -JB
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December 11th, 2006
03:00 pm - Fencing, and got some things done for a change. . .
advance, lunge with parry five. riposte. recover retreat retreat parry three. riposte. counter-riposte. point-in-line disengage. parry four. advance advance advance false prepare retreat. attack in prep. touch. I have been paying attention to the memories of my body recently, the way the muscle memory retains itself even after a full five years almost of not donning a fencing mask. The above is what my body wants to do. Right now. It is a total body memory, but it is not something remembered, but something felt. My body feels that right now, that is the correct action to take.
My muscles twitch and pull at my mind. I shouldn't be sitting at my desk: I should be standing with my right side forward, my hand holding the sabre, protected by the guard on my three and twitching the tip of the blade in a circle should four or five be threatened.
I'm looking for the attack parry riposte counter-parry counter-riposte action. My body wants that more than anything right now.
Over the weekend I managed to complete a few things, particularly these:
- I have blanks with which to make a set of runes specifically for the Grove.
- I have made the blanks romandruid requested for her divination set (bring 'em by on Saturday?)
- My kitchen floor is less cluttered, as is my kitchen counter.
- I went to the zoo on Saturday night.
- I watched movies with creaturetamer and tesinth for most of Sunday on the 100 inch projection screen currently in my basement.
- I cleaned the mouse cages and took care of Tina's menagerie.
I'm interested in seeing the movie Redhead, which is currently playing at Studio 35 all week. It's playing at 11 PM, though, which is feckin' late for me.
It's odd that I managed to finish anything this weekend; I so rarely do.
I'm expecting some mail in the near future, which will then allow me to set a date for me to start working on something new. Part of me is afraid of new things: I always have been, on many levels. But a deeper part of me has always managed to push through that fear, to not be cowed by those who want to shove me back down to where I was.
At work, the guy four levels above me is leaving, which means potential reorganization where I work. I don't know what that means, except that I'm hoping my distance is far enough that should restructuring take place, I'm not structured right out of a job.
I'm pretty sure I need another vacation. Fortunately, one comes up very soon: barely two weeks.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/wink.gif) quixotic
Current Music: "Sail On Sailor", -JB
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December 4th, 2006
09:00 am - The Feast of St. Barbara
 Tonight, December 4, 2006, at 8 PM, you are cordially invited to my house for a feast.
Yesterday, I went up to Toledo with tesinth, who needed someone to drive up with him but hadn't heard back from anyone who had expressed interest, so I became his last resort. :) On our way back down, we stopped at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation and raided their gift shop.
During our raid, we discovered that Catholic school girls are really just like every other kind of girl: they talk about boys and who is dating who (two of them were working the checkout line in the gift shop). Apparently, one spent time during checkout checking me out, or so tesinth says. I'm not sure how I feel about a sixteen year old girl checking me out, but hey, at least I wasn't checking her out.
Also at the shop, I picked up a few items related to St. Barbara: two more medals and a card with a devotional prayer on it. The card also had a feast date for St. Barbara on it: Dec. 4.
"Hey, her feast is tomorrow!" I said, as a bright light shone down from heaven and lit up the world around me.
Okay, so that last paragraph didn't quite happen like that.
But because she is one of my two patron saints (the other being St. Gulik), I feel it appropriate to honour her in some way today (especially since her feast day was, apparently, removed in 1969). And since I don't know what exactly goes on during a Catholic Saint's Feast Day (having never been Catholic), I'm going to make it up as I go along.
So tonight, join me for a dinner that will probably be generally Italian, Greek, or Turkish in food (she's from Asia Minor and is a Roman Catholic saint, so I'm a bit unsure what to cook), some prayers to a Catholic saint, and we might just blow something up.
RSVP (with number attending) is three methods:
- Reply to this journal entry.
- E-mail me or use the form on my website
- Call me and let me know you'll be there.
All RSVP's need to be received by 4 PM today so I can make sure that I have enough food on hand and enough time to mail out directions to those who need it.
If you have my cell phone number, you can call me after 4 PM to RSVP, but not too late, as I may have to regretfully decline your presence if I've already bought food for a certain number of people.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Music: "Creola", -JB
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November 23rd, 2006
07:03 pm - Everyone else having family time. . . rocks!
So here I am, all alone on a major holiday people are supposed to spend with family. I was invited to Toledo to see my parents at my cousin's, but honestly, I can neither afford to buy gas to get there nor to do enough maintenance on my car to drive three hours there and back. "Besides," I reasoned with myself this morning, "people keep asking you to be there for them. Be there for yourself for once. No one ever asks you to do that except mazisexton."
This has been one of the best days ever.
I'm still in my jammies and actually wore my glasses all day for the first time in perhaps two or three years.
This morning I started out by cleaning. Then I moved onto writing part of my book. Then I scanned in the book ceolnamara bought me in Paris last year ("Le Pilier Des Nautes Retrouvé: Histoire d'Une Métamorphose") so that I could possibly send it to a couple of people. My laundry room is getting a cleaning for the first time since I moved in, and my work bench is being completely reorganized and tools are migrating back to it. I put together a CD last night of songs that get me dancing. . . Here's the song list:
- Country Girl - Primal Scream
- White Collar Boy - Belle & Sebastian
- Bohemian Like Me - Dandy Warhols
- We Used to be Friends - Dandy Warhols
- California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys
- Little Ghost - The White Stripes
- Denial Twist - The White Stripes
- Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
- Clint Eastwood - The Gorillaz
- New Age Girl - Dead Eye Dick
- Timebomb - Rancid
- Can't Be Myself - Watershed
- Birdhouse In Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
- Istanbul - They Might Be Giants
- The Night Chicago Died - Paper Lace
- Flagpole Sitta - Harvey Danger
- Banditos - The Refreshments
- Code Monkey - Anyone know?
- Take the Skinheads Bowling - Camper Von Beethoven
- Pina Colada in a Pint Glass - Gaelic Storm
- 1952 Vincent Black Lightning - Richard Thompson
- Wasted and Ready - Ben Kweller
And I danced most of the day today.
No one else was around. Tina was out with one of her friends (she did leave me some food, and I've had a little of it, but for the most part I've not eaten much). The people who demand most of my attention are all out of town. I can focus on what I want to focus on for a change.
I watched Spiderman 2, which I've had for two years (since the day the DVD came out, I think) but never watched. I had to fight a bit with the packaging.
I worked on writing courses for ADF, abandoned a project for ADF at the request of someone else, started putting together some clergy resources, and right now, I feel really good.
Today, I am thankful to be alone. If your Thanksgiving is half as cool as mine is, well, you're a lucky devil.
Hang on, Turning Around just came on. I'm off to dance!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Turning Around", -JB
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October 30th, 2006
10:41 am - FireFox, a ritual, and plumbing!
The FireFox conversion has gone excrutiatingly poorly so far. While I solved the issue of getting my bookmarks to work, FireFox has failed one huge test: I cannot log into one of the main sites I need in order to do my work (for those co-workers scoring at home: the Name Change Tracker). I'm still working on this one, and I imagine that if I can't figure it out, someone downstairs can, but I'd like a browser that magically worked right the first time.
Last night's ritual went amazingly well. I'm going to need to tap singingwren for more of these things. She's better at it than I am.
As I was going through stuff for the ritual yesterday morning, though, I found my grandfather's pocketknife, one that I had been despairing over losing for nearly a year. To find that just before a ritual celebrating the ancestors may have had something to do with the way the rite went for me.
Though high on the list of amusements in that rite was when the ranger asked about road_trip_judi. He looked rather disappointed when tanrinia informed him that she wouldn't be there.
The plumbing in the house is, well, bad news. In my attempt to fix it, I may have made things slightly worse. At least, though, water is now flowing down the drains, rather than down into the basement bathroom. For the most part. On good days.
But the center of the problem seems to be a backwards bit of piping. tesinth pointed this out to me the first time we had issues, and I haven't had the time, money, or ability to replace it. Now, it's become urgent, so no matter what, it's getting replaced.
The backwards pipe
I spent part of my morning taking pictures of the piece that needs to be fixed so that I can make sure I have the right parts. I made it worse last night by possibly cracking it open with the auger (yes, I am brilliant, though in my defense it may already have been cracked), so that backwards T-Y needs to get replaced pronto. So far as I can tell, all the way down the line from there it's clear.
So here's to hoping that I can manage this one :)
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "This Hotel Room", -JB
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June 21st, 2006
01:36 pm - My foot, and a morning devotional.
Well, It's official: my foot (and sock, and part of the inside of my boot) is ( not appropriate for squeemish audiences, I imagine. Not really that graphic, but fair warning. )
( How it happened )
It still hurts, but isn't nearly as tender to the touch as it was this morning, so I'm walking generally without my cane right now.
Of course, I've decided that I need to learn how to walk with a cane. My shoulder is killing me because I've put all my weight on it all morning, and I did a lot of moving around this morning before making it in to work.
The ritual this morning was all right, but I was distracted far too much by my foot to really get into it. I imagine I probably didn't seem like the nicest person this morning, but then again, I got in my fill of ritual before anyone else showed up, surprisingly enough.
I got there early (I'd planned enough lee-way to get woken up and moving this morning that the incident with my foot didn't really slow me down. . . It actually probably woke me up faster) and sat in the labyrinth for a while, alone.
I'd been reading MacDonnell's Vedic Mythology the night before, which is what made me decide to go into the ritual the next morning in the first place. Particularly, I was reading about Usas, where I came across the line: "She is besought to arouse only the devout ... worshipper, leaving the ungodly ... to sleep on."
And I could not help but feel spoken to.
So this morning, I raced her as the daughters of heaven, the shining mothers of order, changed colour and showed the sun his path.
And as I saw the sun come up entirely, I found myself asking, "When does Usas give way to Surya?"
So I wrote to Usas, for Usas. I find that I absolutely must get a copy of the Rgveda so I can study the meter and speak well to this particular goddess. What I wrote, I would be embarassed to show her.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Happy Christmas (War is Over)", -JB
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December 25th, 2005
06:29 pm - Sailor's Christmas
( Read more... )
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: "Fins", -JB
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December 24th, 2005
07:59 pm - Such a silent night. . . Or it would be, if I weren't jammin'
I love this time of year. Nowhere to be, nothing to do, ne responsibilities for four whole days. I'm currently listening to a mixture of Guns n' Roses, Phish, Pink Floyd, and (of course) Jimmy Buffett. Strange how good such a mixture can make you feel.
I've spent my Christmas break alone at home for . . . geez, at least four years now. Ever since I graduated college, for sure.
There's nothing quite like it. So far today, I've fixed four or five things around the house, ripped into a wall and fixed it, crashed The Sims twice on my computer by tinkering with the code, watched parts of two football games, learned about spyplanes, and spent some time going over the Sacrifice of Five Oblations from the Rigveda Brahmanas. (ferrelux, I'll have some questions for you about that, I imagine.)
I did, though, fall all over again this year. It never ceases to amaze me how indestructable my body really is. Falling, I think, is now a holiday tradition. This year's bruise is about as pretty as last year's, though it'll be a few days before we actually find out for sure which was nicer.
There's a fine way to look at it, though: It's part that there's no one I want to call or spend this holiday with, and it is, perhaps, part that there's no one I can call or spend the cold days with. I'm not sure which takes precedent, or which follows from the other.
Am I alone because I am in that circumstance, or am I in that circumstance because I'm alone? Such thoughts amuse me quite a bit.
Aw, crap. Who knocks on someone's door at 8 PM on Christmas Eve?
That's. . . eerily prophetic. . .
She'd better be cute. . .
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "The Wino and I Know", -JB
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November 7th, 2005
October 31st, 2005
08:33 am - Tentacles, rituals, and hot, naked home improvement
Yesterday, well, it was a day.
It started out Sunday morning with a rather tentacly dream.
And here I thought I might be done with those.
( Cut for tentacles )
So after an amusing conversation about how I did not dream of tentacles (is it so hard to believe?), I woke up fully and started some breakfast and reading the paper. I enjoyed a nice recap of Saturday's Ohio State game, realized that I was supposed to set my clocks back, and then started putting together Grove stuff for the Samhain rite that night.
( In which I find out that home improvement requires clothing )
My first stop, K-Mart, saw me walking out with two very nice silver earrings that look a hell of a lot like torcs, once you pull the earring-bits off them. I'll never know why people don't make offering-sized torcs that *aren't* earrings. The best part, though? They were on sale. 50% off. I loved it.
My second stop, Meijer, saw me getting everything else I needed. It was nice to just make two stops on my way to a rite.
While in Meijer, though, I had a sudden thought, one that bothered me throughout the rest of the day. It was a question:
Is it harder to love clergy, or to be clergy in love?
That's a question I'm not sure I'll ever answer. But it came from some issues that I suddenly came face-to-face with yesterday that I admit I wasn't expecting. Well, they're questions and issues that have been bubbling up for a long time, but that suddenly stood out clearly against the bright blue sky that graced that Sunday.
There are, I noticed, issues that clergy have to deal with that I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with. There are power relationships, trust issues, priority issues, etc., all of which I have dealt with before, but all of which suddenly made me sit up and take notice today. Is it possible for me to give any woman the time and place she deserves? If I act as clergy to an SO, what sort of trust issues come up? If I become the SO of someone a Grove member is interested in, can that Grove member ever trust me again? What if someone just wants to "date the collar", and is it honest to do that? If all I want is to have fun and cuddle, is even that as innocent as it used to be?
I'm eligible for Dedicant Priest status as of last Tuesday. I have not applied. I may very well not. The more I look at it, the more it scares me, and the more I question it. Yes, I'm on a path that will lead me there eventually (even if it has to drag me kicking and screaming), but certain things are making me seriously question whether it's something I can do today. I could have handled it very well in early August. I almost did.
I can't handle it well today.
But, after Meijer, I got to Blacklick Woods and set up next to where we had Summer Soulstice. I was actually just looking for a sunny place to eat some cheese, and didn't realize where I was for a time.
( Talking to myself )
Just before the ritual, a doe walked out into the ritual area, grazing on the grass. She stayed there until perlgirlju tried to park on top of her, at which point she wisely decided to look for greener pastures. But I took the presence of a deer at a rite that would honour Cernunnos to be a very good omen.
( Samhain )
And, finally, I got home and started getting ready for bed when I realized I hadn't managed to put the wall back together. So I grabbed my drill (something I needed to finish the project, I realized) and went to town wearing just my boxers and a pair of socks.
Well, I now have a beautiful red gash on my thigh from an exposed screw that ripped down my leg as I as trying to get out of the crawlspace the damn access was in. It's really a beautiful shade of red, I admit, bright and vibrant. But it wouldn't be there if I'd been wearing pants.
And with that, I realized it was time for bed. Well past time. Which is why, for some stupid reason, I'm finishing up this entry while stinking of campfire and hoping that the blood stops dripping at 12:15 PM last night so I can post it in the morning, because Gods know, tomorrow is going to be a doozy at work, and I won't have time to write anything.
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "The Wind Cries Mary", -JB
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