I'm not sure how many bracelets and bangles and necklaces you need, regardless of what they're made of or who they are made for, or why having that latest TV season of that show with that guy on DVD will make everything all right when there are people who need the pledges and donations to keep doing the work they are doing. Last time I checked, it didn't matter what you owned, because the last time I saw a DVD help out an abused child or saw a bangle or pair of earrings comfort a woman with no where else to turn was precisely never.
Those of you who follow my LiveJournal know that this is something I do every year and every year it's the same story. "I don't have the cash," or "I can't spare it," or "I'm totally tapped, dude," are the same things I hear year after year after year, and the song never changes. The same excuses, and the same "Hey, look at what I picked up off such-and-such an Etsy site, guys! isn't it cool?" year after year...
Thanks for letting me bend your ear, folks. Take it easy.
- What:
crappy
Hello, everyone!
It's that time of year again, where I strap on the pads and punish myself on the lacrosse floor for two very good causes. For those of you that don't know, every year for the past four (4) years, and now entering our 5th year, I play in a marathon lacrosse game to benefit some national (Canadian) charities. Our game this year will be 18 hours long, played under Masters rules and watched over by The Guinness Book of World Records, as in years past. This year, also as in years past, we are playing for the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness (http://www.abusehurts.com) and Spirit of the Stick (http://www.spiritofthestick.com/) and our game will be played from 7PM on Friday June 8, 2011 to 8AM on Saturday June 9, 2011 in Aurora, Ontario, Canada.
I put this appeal out, as I do every year, in the hopes that I can raise some money to put towards these two worthwhile charities, and I urge you strongly to check out LaxDOVE’s website for more information (http://www.laxdove.ca).
This is also the part where I ask you to open your wallets, if you can, and give a little cash towards these good causes.
Without funding from you gentle readers, the public, The CCAA and Spirit of the Stick could not exist, and it’s from the wallets of folk that care and folk that want to make a difference that these charities are able to carry out their work. I realize that the majority of you readers are in other parts of the world, but please at least consider contributing to these worthwhile causes because without your support, they would not exist. That, and if I raise enough money I get shinies…but that’s beside the point. If you do feel motivated to contribute, please send your pledges via PayPal to awetitu@gmail.com
I’ll be logging my floor-time and Tweeting from the event as it happens, you can follow me on Twitter - @Awetitu, as well as snapping a butt-load of pictures for updating to my Facebook. PM me for details if you don’t have me added as a Friend already and we’ll go from there.
Thanks for taking the time to read my wall of text, and I hope you can help!
Good? Bad? Indifferent?
I’m thinking I don’t need it. Don’t need the games, the crap, all the “obligations” and notifications that come along with it. Has it made my life easier? No, not really. What it has done is made me realize how shallow a person I really am. Yes, it’s great for communicating with friends out of province and country, but I just don’t know if it’s really worth keeping that crap anymore.
I mean, sure, it’s nice to keep up with friends, but the sheer amount of unadulterated crap that’s posted there…isn’t that what tumblr is for? And useless pics…isn’t that what Instagram’s for? And what about the status updates? Oh, the status updates…that’s Twitter…I mean I suppose it’s nice that everything is amalgamated in one place, like the horrific mating of a moose, vampire squid and woodpecker, but, man…sometimes it just gets to be too much.
Sadly, nothing is ever gone forever. Even were I to delete my Facebook account, they’d still have gajillions of pics of mine and pics of me up there that won’t go away. Sad but true.
Weigh in, let me know what you think!
Hypocrisy? Guilty!
Yup, I am. I’ll admit to it, I do it almost every day. I’m a compulsive hypocricist. Meaning I look at other people’s behavior and then do EXACTLY the same thing after decrying it and poo-pooing it. We all do, no matter how we try to delude ourselves into thinking we don’t. How often has someone come to our message boards (for example) and been torn a new one for expressing an opinion contrary to the majority? How often has someone expressed themselves, albeit badly, and been savaged for it and pilloried in the court of public opinion? How many times has someone questioned authority and been shunned or ignored by the larger populace? We are not immune, and yet we expect others to do as we say, not as we do.
Don’t rock the boat. Don’t make waves. Keep your head down. Don’t post that there. This sort of thing belongs here, not here. How could you say that? What are you thinking? It’s not your faith, you aren’t the leader. All of these responses I have seen somewhere at some point or another by posters who have then gone on to say and do exactly the opposite.
And how rabid are we in defense of our Faith? Seriously, how fast have you seen your Faith mobilize to shut down a perceived offender, or someone who asks “too many of the wrong questions” or “too many questions”? There’s an ever growing tide of intolerance in the world and we have no need to look anywhere else for its source than ourselves. We poo-poo other Faith’s ideals and rules as being archaic and heap derision upon their actions when they defend themselves against “attacks” and , yet as soon as someone ridicules our Faith we do exactly the same thing as the groups that we deride. It is a vicious cycle.
The MSM doesn’t help either. Headlines like “Bill Nye Booed in Texas For Claiming Moon Reflects Sunlight” doesn’t give you the whole picture.
It stems from an address Bill Nye gave in Waco, TX in April 2009 where, according to The Inquisitor (http://www.inquisitr.com/22800/christi
According to Think Atheist, several people in the audience stormed out in fury, with one woman screaming “We believe in God!” as she left with her three children.”
Granted, this is an extreme example, but if the woman in question takes the bible at face value, then saying “the lesser light” isn’t actually a light but is instead a cold dead reflective rock can be perceived as a direct attack on her Faith and she is within her rights as a God-fearing individual to express her opinion and leave. I was told on Facebook later that day that any attempt that I made to justify in any way the woman’s reaction to a perceived attack on her Faith was moot because the rebuttal stating religious Faith in direct contravention to Science was stupid, and as it was written by an Athiest who didn’t believe in the same things I did, my ideas on why a woman could possibly be justified for the above described actions were pointless. Pot, kettle, black. Thanks for playing, you’ve proved my point!
Many of my readers will be shaking their heads and saying: but we never do anything like that! We’ve never been that vocal about our Faith or shouted anyone down, or even taken after one of our own because they expressed a view we didn’t agree with. Never! And of course we would never divide ourselves along gender lines, that’s not something we do. It’s not a men vs. women thing, really, we all get along just peachy! Not my Faith!
Take a good hard look at yourselves in the mirror and tell me you haven’t read something in the news about another Faith and thought “Silly (faithies), they’re so silly in their (faithiness)! How can they believe some of the stuff that their (faithbook) says?”
Now look at your own Faith. Imagine trying to explain your Faith’s origin or creation myths, or even some of the legends of the Faith to someone who is most definitely not of your Faith. Does it seem logical that the ruling family was born in a conch shell after 9 years gestation? Alien spirits imprisoned in a mountain and vaporized with Hydrogen Bombs? How about the Gods racing down a river, one in a canoe made out of a mountain top? Or the one about the parting of a Sea? Or the Gods who engaged in almost prison like activities in an attempt to be King of the Hill? Almost all of your Faith’s creation stories and legends will sound ludicrous to someone else not of your Faith. Remember that. Also: Don’t take everything literally. Really…I mean if the Gods in my Faith did half the shit that we read about for real, my mind would be totally blown. That would truly be awesome.
More later. Or not.
I am NOT aiming this post at ANYONE.
The tone that I use and the directives that I appear to give are reminders TO ME AND ME ALONE.
You can interpret this writing any way that you choose, but unless I name SOMEONE specifically, I’m not talking about them, I’m talking about me, and only me.
The greeting is my way of inviting you to read my private thoughts.
I do not speak for the House of Netjer, I speak for me.
I do not speak for the Clergy or Hemet (AUS) or the Netjeru or Netjeri, I speak for me and what my Fathers ask of me and me alone.
I do not command anyone to behave a certain way, I write based on my learnings and readings and my interpretation of what I have been taught.
Long frakking disclaimer, but after the “controversy” started by my last one called “Taking Stock” I figured I would try to clear the air as much as possible before starting in. Hopefully I have done that more successfully this time. Hopefully.
Em hotep, brothers and sisters.
The last time I did this was September 21, 2011 and as a result of some of the responses I received, I have shied away from posting in general for the last 6 months, the majority of my posts being non-committal and as inoffensive as I could make them.
I went into seclusion and have been keeping to myself, for the most part, for the past six months, and I have not darkened the message boards with my cynical, self-serving, irascible, accusatory and mean-spirited rants. Mainly because I have not felt like I have had anything to say that is either a) worth-while, 2)advancing any discussions here and d)worthy of your time and attention. I came down with, much to my chagrin, a severe case of “Don’t Rock The boat-it is”. Be that as it may, it is time for me to clear out my closets and get on with it. I know it is not fun for some of you to read, and I know that for some it seems like a monumental waste of time, but clearing the decks, swamping out the stables and ditching some of that ridiculous 90s wardrobe is always a good thing, no?
I crave, as I always do, your indulgence, while I get some stuff off my chest. It is never pleasant, never fun, at least not for me, and guaranteed to ruffle feathers. There is a lot that has been going on in my life and I am sure a lot that has been going on in yours, if the sheer number of posts is any indication, and good, bad, happy, sad, it is all out there for our followers to see. There will always be detractors that will seek to goad and inflame me, and I welcome their thoughts on this very obviously self-serving and self-centered rant. It is a pity party for me out in public and I am inviting everyone to grab a stick and take a swing at the piñata.
With that out of the way, let us begin, shall we?
For those that do not know me, because I post that infrequently and there have been a LOT of new members which is, let me just say, absolutely awesome, let me re-introduce myself.
I am Awetitu (pronounced Ah-wet-ee-too or Ahwet-ee-too), Sa Sobek her Set, meryt Heru-Wer sa Sekhmet-Hethert. My name, literally translated, means “Two Fathers, One (Long) Blade” and is shortened to Awi (pronounced Owie, as in “I bring the pain”). I am a Son of Sobek and of Set, and my Beloveds are Heru-Wer and Sekhmet-Hethert. I am a LOT of claws and teeth and fur and feathers and scale.
Since I joined the House of Netjer and was divined (July 26, 2007) and then Named (August 2, 2007) there is a LOT that has gone on in the House. Priests have come and gone, our King, Hemet (AUS) has moved, members have come and gone and returned, there has been personal heartbreak and sadness, also personal joy and discovery (Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and he loves EVERYONE). The House has gone through some changes and for the most part come through relatively whole. There was a purge, some nastiness, a lot of fellowship and a renewed sense of purpose, at least for some. I went from Remetj to Shemsu to Shemsu-Ankh, went through the ordeal of Weshem-Ib, made many new friends and have probably lost just as many without knowing it.
Getting to the House of Netjer was not a straight road by any means. I was baptized and raised Anglican, but lapsed. I tried several other faiths before being aimed at the house by YinepuWaret as a place where I might find the same spiritual fulfillment that she had, and lo and behold, after my Beginners Course, I found that the House and I seemed like a very compatible fit indeed. I have seen changes in the House, some good, some bad, some indifferent. I have met a wide range of people, from young to old to somewhere in between. I have fallen in and out of love with House Members, and I am sure there are those that have fallen in and out of love with me at various times. I will be the first to admit, I share a lot of personality traits with my Fathers Sobek and Set. Some good, some indifferent, and some, many would argue, and perhaps with good reason, very bad indeed.
Be that as it may, I have decided to try to rededicate myself to the House and its members, to make myself into a better Shemsu-Ankh, and most importantly, to try to make me proud of me again. Far too long have I been eating my own heart, beating myself up for perceived (and, more than likely, real) short-comings both on my part and on my perceiving my own shortcomings in others. Being suspicious of the motives of various House members as a result of being suspicious of my own motives in doing some of the things I have done in my personal life and in my House life. Far too often we attribute the worst in ourselves to others and so in perceiving what I believe to be the darkness in others I can shine a light on my own darkness and tear it out by the roots.
Spring time of the Gregorian calendar, not the Kemetic New Year, has always been the time of most dramatic upheaval for me. Not the Inundation brought on by my Father, Set, but rather the (almost) closing of the year. This year brought the death of my Grandfather, Wing-Sum Mui and the death of Olive Este, grandmother to a good friend. The deaths, while not unexpected (Wing-Sum was 89, Olive was 108), are still not something you are ever prepared to deal with, no matter how you may think that you are. That my biological mother no longer had a father was a tough blow for her, and I have offered her as much support as I can, but it never feels like it is enough. Though we think we are doing as much as we can, in the final summation it never seems like enough. There is always that question of “Could I have done more?” to which, almost invariably, the answer is “Yes”. I have thought that the answer would be “No” more often than it has, but I would be lying to myself and that is not the point of this semi-yearly exercise.
I need to remember that as available as Hemet (AUS) is, she is not just a friend, she is also my King. With that comes a certain measure of in-borne respect. Respect that should automatically be given. It’s something that I sometimes forget when talking with Her and I need to remind myself that within the confines of the House of Netjer, she is my spiritual leader as well as my friend.
I need to remember that the House is not there to serve my every whim, I am there to serve it, through my donations and through my contributions to the temple life on-line, which I have been sorely slack at doing, to the worship I do for my Fathers and Beloveds.
I need to remember that the standards that my Fathers set for me are my standards and mine alone, and while some of them may seem ridiculous, I should be doing everything in my power to live up to them. My Fathers would not deliberately set goals for me that I cannot reach. Nor would they ever deprive me of the means to get there.
I need to remember that lip service is the cheapest and the most costly way to do some things. Reaching out, even if there is no reply, is infinitely better than empty words on a page. Those empty words, more often than not, can cause more harm than good if not meant sincerely and just posted out of habit.
That’s all for now. More later. Maybe.
I do this every few months and always catch a LOT of flak for it, so bear with me.
I like to pride myself on being a keen observer of human behavior, and not just individual but group behavior. As some have said, I see the web behind things and the cosmic workings, not just the individual interactions of humans.
That being said, it’s about the time I take stock of where I am in the Faith, how I feel about the Faith and remind myself publicly of a few things that I seem to have forgotten. It’s usually best for me to work through all this in a public forum because often I’m not suffering alone.
Important things to remember about any Faith and about life (in no specific order):
1. The Faith is not there to serve you. You are there to serve the Faith.
2. The Priesthood is human, they have limitations.
3. The Faith is not your personal research tool.
4. There are requirements for the positions you take on.
5. There are things that are expected of you.
6. You are asked to be clean and pure in shrine or temple spaces.
7. Just because a Faith doesn’t do something your way, and doesn’t reference your library or translations or interpretations does not mean that the Faith is wrong.
8. You must treat everyone with respect and kindness and tolerance, no matter how shabbily they have been treated or how shabbily they treat you.
9. You can’t keep all of your friends, sometimes you have to cut some loose and move on.
10. Live by three tenets: Say what you mean, do what you say and be on time.
Expansions and clarifications I believe are necessary:
1. The Faith is not there to serve you. You are there to serve the Faith.
This is important to remember. My Faith is a relatively new one in the modern landscape (not so young on the other end, but that’s another story) and still relatively small (76 new Beginners! W00t!) but continually growing. At this point, 20+ years on, the Faith needs my service more than I need the help of the Faith, and that’s how it should be. The Gods don’t serve us, WE serve THEM.
4. There are requirements for the position you take on.
From Remetj to Divined Remetj to Shemsu to Shemsu-Ankh to W’ab to Imakhu to Kai-Imakhu to Nisut (AUS) and all the gradations in between we ALL have requirements and responsibilities to ourselves and the rest of the members of our Faith. Yes, you took the Beginner’s class and you swore the Shemsu oath, but are you really doing as the oath requires? If there’s some doubt as to whether or not you’re living up to your requirements, re-examine the oath, re-examine your priorites and go from there.
6. You are asked to be clean and pure in shrine or temple spaces.
This means no dirt, disease, illness, blood, impurities, etc. of any kind. This can be a contentious point. This is my interpretation.
No caffeine or chocolate in the blood, no endorphens from sex, no chemicals that can change your body’s natural state of being. Especially no blood…I don’t really care if it’s from a cut, your nose or menstrual. Blood in any form is nasty, nasty, nasty stuff. It contains pathogens, cellular waste, and while an excellent lubricant at times, should not be near anything you are trying to keep pure.
“But menstrual blood is a source of female power, why can’t I be on my period and sit in shrine?”
Oh, really? It’s the source of your power as a woman? Tell you what: if menstrual blood is so awesome you should put it back into your body and take back your feminine power. Why don’t you make a smoothie out of it? Is your answer “Ick”? In that case it’s not so great, is it? If YOU don’t want it re-introduced into your body, what makes you think it’s acceptable to bring it before your Names?
10. Live by three tenets: Say what you mean, do what you say and be on time.
This is, for most people, the hardest thing to do. We live behind so many walls and defensive mechanisms and subterfuge that it's almost impossible for some of us to do anything like that...especially the last one. Try it sometime. Try saying what you mean and see how that feels. Try doing what you say you will, and see how that feels. Lastly, be on time for something, or even early, and see how THAT feels.
I’m not a leading authority on anything except being a jackass (and even Steve-O does a better job at that than me) and these are just my thoughts, so feel free to reply, ignore, block, adopt, refute anything you see here.
tl;dr – live right, dammit.
- What:
annoyed
Em hotep, everyone!
It's that time of year again, where I strap on the pads and punish myself on the lacrosse floor for two very good causes.
For those of you that don't know, every year for the past three (3) years, and now entering our 4th year, I play in a marathon lacrosse game to benefit some national (Canadian) charities. Our game this year will be 18 hours long, played under Masters rules and watched over by The Guinness Book of World Records, as in years past. This year, also as in years past, we are playing for the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness (http://www.ccfaa.ca) and Spirit of the Stick (http://www.spiritofthestick.com/) and our game will be played from 6PM on Friday June 10, 2011 to 1PM on Saturday June 11, 2011 in Aurora, Ontario, Canada.
I put this appeal out, as I do every year, in the hopes that I can raise some money to put towards these two worthwhile charities, and I urge you strongly to check out LaxDOVE’s website for more information (http://www.laxdove.ca).
This is also the part where I ask you to open your wallets, if you can, and give a little cash towards these good causes.
Without funding from you gentle readers, the public, The CCAA and Spirit of the Stick could not exist, and it’s from the wallets of folk that care and folk that want to make a difference that these charities are able to carry out their work. I realize that the majority of you readers are in other parts of the world, but please at least consider contributing to these worthwhile causes because without your support, they would not exist. That, and if I raise enough money I get shinies…but that’s beside the point. If you feel inspired to contribute, you can PayPal me your pledges: awetitu@gmail.com
I’ll be logging my floor-time and Tweeting from the event as it happens, you can follow me on Twitter - @Awetitu, as well as snapping a butt-load of pictures for updating to my Facebook. PM me for details if you don’t have me added as a Friend already and we’ll go from there.
Thanks for taking the time to read my wall of text, and I hope you can help!
Yours in lacrosse,
Awi
LaxDOVE - http://www.laxdove.ca
Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness - http://www.ccfaa.ca
Spirit of the Stick - http://www.spiritofthestick.com
Yes, the marriage of Will and Kate is a wonderful thing, but the excessive coverage has led to a lack of news about those in the United States and Mexico and elsewhere in the world, and as a result, we miss the opportunity to draw the good out of tragedy.
I fear that there are too many news stations that are so used to filler stories in their 24-hour cycle that they have developed what I call “Breaking News-It is” where anything that breaks the stream of “news” they have going can’t be shown. You can’t follow a Corgi re-enactment of Will and Kate with news of mudslides in Darfur or an earthquake in Mexico or tornado devastation in the Midwest.
It is tunnel vision to the extreme when breaking news is shunted because it doesn’t “fit the theme” of a particular hour. Gone are the days of “This just in” and “We interrupt your scheduled programming to bring you the following.”
When did our entertainment become more important than the real world? When did celebrities and media become the new centre of our individual Universes, instead of our own day to day lives?
Take ownership of your news and your lives.
If you see news happen, get it out there any way you can.
Seriously?
Like nothing but "FIRST!" comments and gay slurs and grammar nazis?
I mean REALLY?
If that's the case, then I may as well take my planned extended vacation.
I remember a time when (wow does THIS date me) BBS's were the in thing, IM-ing was new and a 14,400K modem was the size of a good paperback novel. I remember a time when there were ideas exchanged and people could spell and made sense.
For those that think that this has been too long already, I leave you with this:
You can find the group here: http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?s
“Jenny Oropeza's name is on the ballot. You have the right to vote for her…If you do, and she wins, there will be a special election called. You will then be able to thoughtfully consider who will represent you in the Senate for the next four years.”
The Republican Party (them whose candidate, John Stammreich, lost to a dead woman) claims that this is a violation of election regulations as the letter violates state law that prohibits publishing campaign advertisements that are false or fraudulent depictions or representation of public documents.
As near as I can tell, here are the Ballot Access Laws for California:
California: Per section 5100 of the California Election Code, ballot access requires one of the two conditions below to be met.[8]
• If at the last preceding gubernatorial election there was polled for any one of the party's candidates for any office voted on throughout the state, at least 2 percent of the entire vote of the state. -Sen. Jennifer Oropeza was the incumbent…methinks she had at least 2% of the votes in her District, not to mention her State.
• If on or before the 135th day before any primary election, it appears to the Secretary of State, as a result of examining and totaling the statement of voters and their political affiliations transmitted to him or her by the county elections officials, that voters equal in number to at least 1 percent of the entire vote of the state at the last preceding gubernatorial election have declared their intention to affiliate with that party.
Stop me if I’m TOTALLY crazy, but, umm, I think the incumbent candidate meets those requirements, no? So, if Sen. Oropeza meets the requirements, despite being dead, she still can appear on the ballot and you still have the right to vote for her…the major kerfuffle, according to the Republicans is that, as the Secretary of State is supposed to be apolitical, her name cannot appear on ANY party’s political pictures. Sadly, we cannot control who quotes us. The letter is not from the Secretary of State’s office, and is printed on California Democratic Party letterhead, which leads me (a logical person) to believe that the information that is contained in the letter is meant to be informative only, NOT, as the Republicans believe, as part of a nefarious plot to make sure no one gets elected (or at least not their candidate…man, that’s gotta sting. “Dude, you got beat by a dead chick!”).
Help me out, folks…if the opposition party candidate was THAT objectionable, would you cast your ballot for a dead person as well?
Or does this mean I write like a drunken Irishman?
An issue has started to rear it's ugly head and it's one that neither of us can ignore anymore.
It appears that we both have developed allergies to our cats, Tiamat and Ares. I know, I know: "Then why did you adopt?" Because when we did, the allergies were not that bad. They were manageable. But it now appears that the allergies have gotten progressively worse. Waret wakes up every day with a sinus headache and is constantly popping allergy pills and I'm getting packed sinuses and itchy eyes every morning because Tia likes to sleep on my head. Add to that the fur that Ares is dropping like it's going out of style and there's enough pet dander in here to choke a horse.
We love our cats dearly, but I fear they are starting to take a toll on our physical, and to a lesser extent our mental, well-being. I am not sure how this will pan out, but I wanted to solicit some of your opinions.
Please weigh in folks. It's a decision that we are not looking forward to making, and I wanted to hear from all sides.
Needless to say, I'm a little nervous.
What if the other kids don't like me? What if the teacher doesn't like me? What if the classroom doesn't like me?
It's been 10 years since I've been in classes and I'm not sure how it's going to work out. The intentions are to complete my courses, get my Certification as a Financial Planner and use that to my advantage. As it is, I sadly lack portable skills. I have the knowledge provided by my current employer, but that's only good as long as a company I go to uses the same computer programs in their administration. I'm also limited in that my experience at this jhob deals with only a couple types of retirement plans, and there's a whole spectrum out there.
Anyhoo, wish me luck kiddies!
Some comedian once said that American politics was based on special interest groups and lobbies, like the Tobacco Lobby and the Alcohol Lobby and the Insurance Lobby and citizen's lobbies, and in America there are 350 MILLION Special Interest Groups and Lobbies. I'm starting to think that he may have been right, but for the life of me, I can't remember his name. I'd like to give him credit where credit is due.
It breeds what Meti called a "Cuture of Entitlement" and I can't really disagree. It's not just in the States, as the comedian joked, but really everywhere. There seems to be a growing culture of entitlement, a growing feeling that people want things handed to them on a platter instead of having to work for it, and that saddens me. Also a growing sense that people take things entirely for granted and our wants are more important than anything else. Case in point?
The State of the Union Address
Please take the time to read the entire article. I'll wait. Really, I will. I have the time. Digest that just for a second.
When did a fictional program about a plane crash on a monster-infested time-travelling island, and an over-hyped, over-blown karaoke contest become more urgent, more pressing, more real than The State of the Union Address? More important than your own country? YOUR OWN FUCKING COUNTRY! Honestly. Can anyone tell me? Tell you what, if anyone can tell me a good night for the State of the Union address that doesn't conflict with a season premier or a new episode that falls into the traditional timeframe for the State of the Union address (late January to early February) I'll pass that on to Obama and all you vidiots out there that joined the Facebook group and the Twitter Clan can relax.
I'm sure that something will be done, like ABC doing the smart thing and pre-empting entertainment for REALITY as opposed to reality-based programming and fiction. Or each and every one of you fans of LOST can RECORD the damned show, turn off Twitter and the interwebs for a few hours, watch the State of the Union Address and then watch that damned show after. I'm sorry, but mindless entertainment should not take precedence over your country. And for the blowhards out there threatening to vote for the other guy next election if Obama does pre-empt your show: Wow...really? The touchstone of American politics and society, and the thing that everyone holds so dear, DEMOCRACY, hinges on whether or not you get to watch your stories? If that REALLY is the case, then we are all fucked. You are asking the President to change something that has been done since WASHINGTON for your TV show? You're not entitled to that. Nuh-uh. Sorry.
Note to the LOST and American Idol fans who were up in arms about this: Go fuck yourselves. Your country is more important than that. You are spitting on your own country and your President. I don't give a fuck if you voted for him or the other guy, Barack is still your President of YOUR country and it behooves you as an American citizen to take an interest in your country.
This way you'll know when to emigrate to Canada. :-)
- What:
shocked
If something in writing does not answer a question to your satisfaction, then you're out of luck. Dried ink on a page cannot change, something else has to.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease, this is true, but the same doesn't hold true for people. Sometimes a ball-gag is involved.
Well, recently when talking to this friend on the phone or picturing this person in my head, I see them with three dogs around them. Not hounds, or rotties or shepherd or anything like that, but those small wire-haired mutts that are not any one breed in particular but completely adorable.
I'm wondering if there's any connection with lwa or Netjeru or anything, but for the life of me I can't come up with anything in particular. St. Lazarus is only pictured with two dogs, one light and one dark, and I'm not sure if there are any Netjeru associated with lost mutts or small dogs...anyone shed any light?
- What:
contemplative
 Dear Santa...Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! In April ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small} kitheru and I donated clothes to the needy (11 points). Last Friday I bought porn for daisyankh (10 points). Last Sunday I signed my organ donor card (28 points). In August I helped bestekeni see the light (8 points). In January I put money in djehutydjesi's expired parking meter (14 points). Overall, I've been nice (71 points). For Christmas I deserve a pony! Sincerely, |
The team GM approached me after the game last night (we lost 8-5) and said that, seeing as the team had been together for a while, and some of the guys were anxious to win SOMETHING besides the Toilet Bowl, they wanted to bring in another goalie to replace me and have me run the floor. He told me there'd been some grumbling on the team about the goal-tending, and even though I'm a friend he thought he should mention it, and even mentioned the goalies (yup, not one, but THREE that were coming available for next session) that he wanted to "platoon" me with and blah-blah-blah. I freely admit, I'm not the best goalie in the league, far from it, and there have been nights where I haven't been spectacular in goal, and I've been lit up, but it's usually the same guys that used to play Jr. A/B and Sr. A/B that are doing it. Then there are nights I stand on my head and we don't score more than 3, but the problem is the goalie?
Really?
Hmm...funny that.
It's a non-contact beer league, and it's supposed to be for fun, but with that one statement all the fun has been sucked right out of this for me. I think it's time for me to hang up the pads, or see if someone else will take me because I don't need a negative attitude like that and a sense of "Oh, geez, Meathead's in goal, we're going to lose..." hanging over my head. I mean, really. I mean, if the problem REALLY is goal-tending, then shouldn't they win ALL the games I'm not in goal?
Yeah, guess what, they don't win the games I don't play. Guess what THAT means? Yeah, not ALL the goalie's fault.
I'll take the Christmas break to think it over, and to be honest, I probably will end up hanging them up. I think I've had enough lacrosse for now. I may come back to it at a later date, or with a different league, but a session or two off might help me out.
- What: angry
Nothing seems to be connected, synapses are misfiring and in general it's been a piss poor week.
There's new printers that don't work right and new policies and procedures for timesheets and hour tracking and to top it all off my brain has decided to be on hiatus. That which I thought I knew no longer springs readily to mind and I've been fighting calcs and packages all week. It's a really disconcerting feeling for me, beacuse I'm used to being on top of things, used to being knowledgeable and used to getting things right.
It's frustrating and just damned upsetting in that it's separated me from my happy feelings.
That is all.
I know, right? I’m going back to COLLEGE at age 34. Seriously. “But, Awi, why?” you may ask. For the chicks, dude…I get older, those hot College chicks stay the same age…lol.
No, seriously, I’m going back to get my Certificate in Financial Planning. It’s 4 courses spread out over a year and after that I set the exam for the Canadian Institute of Financial Planners, get my certification (hopefully) and start my own business. Well, start my own or find a better paying job. One of the two.
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Please take the time to remember the fallen today and observe a moment of silence between 11:00AM and 11:02AM. 120 seconds is a pittance in light of the sacrifice that many have made, and taking the time to remember the dead is the least we can do.
Thank you.
I’ve come to learn that I am a small, bitter, jaded, petty, vengeful, spiteful, mean, hateful, conceited, rotten, dastardly person at times.
You know what? I am perfectly OK with this.
I DO take pleasure, at times, in the pain, misery, mishaps and misfortunes of others, sometimes because I feel myself to be above them, be it socially or mentally or morally or ethically or whatever have you, but most of the time I take pleasure in them because they are videos NOT of me. Like the internet videos you see of teenagers on skateboards racking themselves on railings at high schools while their buddies film them? Yeah, those make me howl. Trust me, if video cameras were more compact and portable when I was in my skateboarding phase (20 years ago, for those keeping track of my age) there’d probably be footage of me having yard sales everywhere and y’all would be laughing at me.
And the videos of the guys getting pummelled by cops after fleeing? Yeah, those make me howl.
And the footage of the Animal Control Officer and “Pinky” the cat? Yeah, that made me howl.
And that footage from that Japanese game show “Hit in the Nuts”? Yeah, that made me howl.
Get the idea?
There is no shortage of this shit going on in real life too, and now I am at a loss. I mean some of this shit happens to people I’m close to and some of this happens to those that I’m no longer close to but was, and some just happens to random strangers and I sit here and think to myself: “Self, that’s some fucked up shit right there. It’s fuckin’ funny but I like the person that it happened to so now I’m not sure how I feel…”
Made up my mind: I will laugh because the world needs more of it.
Old habits die hard, and new ones dance on the gravestones...
We are bred to believe that the new ways are better and that our parents were out of touch for preferring letter post and post cards and diaries, but in reality, we have the same things, just in slightly different forms. Letters have been replaced by e-mail, post cards have been replaced by Twitter and dairies have been replaced by blogs.
Manufacturers of household appliances would have you believe that you spend less time doing household chores each and every week, but in reality we are still spending the same amount of time. Wash cycles on older machines takes 37 minutes and on my parents' ultra-new machine, it still takes 37 minutes. There is one small difference between the days of Yesteryear and today - instead of doing things consecutively, we do them concurrently. We are still spending 20 hours a week doing household chores, but instead of 3 hours a day, it's all stacked up on one day because we can set the dish washer, the clothes washer and vaccuum all at the same time.
There's really only one instant thing in this world and that's pain. It's something I'm starting to flirt with more and more...this idea of instant gratification through pain.
I have always thought of Druids as the red-headed step-kid of the Warcraft family, to be honest, a jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none type, which was part of the appeal to me: I wanted to do EVERYTHING. I wanted to Tank and Melee DPS and Ranged Caster DPS and Heal and playing a Druid character allows me to do all of that, dependent on how I’m specced for that particular day, and not only that, do all four WELL. Atually, like any Ranged DPS, I really wanted to Tank (like any actor I wanted to direct…lol) or Melee DPS or SOMETHING other than stand waaaaaay back from the action and drop bombs on it. Having played a Hunter all the way up from Level 1, I needed the change.
To be honest, I had been feeling a little out of sorts with my Druid because it seemed that up to Level 58 that there wasn’t a lot of demand for a tanking Feral Druid. Razorfen Downs and Scholomance, it seemed, were better tanked by Paladins (with their buff against Undead) and other instance runs like Sunken Temple seemed to do better with Warriors than Druids (because of the Warrior’s wide-range AoE Taunt). Rolling a Druid, it had appeared, was looking like it might’ve been a wasted role as I was relegated to, you guessed it, Ranged Caster DPS (OOMkin FTW!).
Turns out I'm more in demand for Burning Crusade content than I thought, which ain’t a bad thing. Typically it’s not more than 5 minutes after I log in on Dreddnought, and someone is messaging me asking if I’d like to run HP: Ramparts or HP: Blood Furnace, or Coilfang: Steam Vaults or Coilfang: Slave Pens, or even Auchindoun: Mana-Tombs. I've been getting runs on a consistent basis (translation: If they were Dailies, I’d be making MAD BANK) through HP: Ramparts and HP: Blood Furnace as a tank and CR: Steam Vault and CR: Slave Pens as a healer and it's been a LOT of fun so far. I’ve finally found a Race and Class that I enjoy playing that can do what I want it to, and that’s deal goodly amounts of damage while keeping clothies from tanking and also spread the love and keep people alive. I think I’m going to apply to be a contributing member of Angry Healers on WordPress though. I’ve only been healing for a little while but I think I get EXACTLY what they’re talking about.
There’s only so much I can do as a Hunter and quite frankly, it’s kinda depressing when the only action you seem to get is from folks that want shit to die quickly because you bring 3.4K – 3.6K DPS to any given situation. I’m tired of getting asked to come into an instance for one boss, not having other DPS that can keep up and then getting locked to that particular instance after one pull. It had gotten to the point where I was deliberately trying to avoid playing my Hunter except for times when I KNEW no one was on in Guild (translation 4AM…) so that sort of thing wouldn’t happen. I still LOVE playing my Hunter and I’ll farm mats and pug 5-man instances ALL DAY LONG, but getting pulled in for 10-man and 25-man raids for one boss before it all goes to shit is just not fun. Those of you out there that play a pure DPS class like Mages, Warlocks and Hunters will know what I mean. We are there for one reason, and one reason only: to do shit-tons of damage in as little time as possible so that runs go faster. That’s it, that’s all. I’ve been in so many raids where if there isn’t a Hunter or Mage or Warlock at the top of the damage meters, the Raid Leader is going around whispering each one of us: “What’s wrong? Where’s the DPS? STFU and bring it, n00b! WTF did you get your account? eBay?” and man, I tell ya, there’s no days off.
This was the major reason I decided to level lowbies again instead of sitting around looking for Heroic runs on my Hunter.
- What:
satisfied
Let's try this...
( Hidey-hidey Tweety-tweety )
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
I will update when possible, but nothing major.
See ya, later!
(617): omg i finished an entire carton of double double chunk chunk ice cream last night...
(716): what? what exactly is in double double chunk chunk?
(617): self-loathing.
(415): I set the bag of cheetos on the open box on my coffee table while I was watching TV. I was so high I ate half of the styrofoam peanuts in the box by accident. Am I going to die?
(510): I hope so
(508): Do I have a sign around my neck that says "SWM desperately seeking ultra-plus-size woman that likes everything I do"? I swear they're organized
(914): No, but you do have a sign around your neck that says "Free cupcakes."
(512): Fake titties should be able inflate and deflate like tires. So on Saturday you can put on your Double D hooker titties or Sunday put on your size B church tits.
BRILLIANT!
( Hidey-hidey Tweety-tweety )
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
( Hidey-hidey Tweety-tweety )
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
( Hidey-hidey Tweety-tweety )
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
