Random thoughts
Wow, I feel like shit. I've been saying that a lot lately, haven't I?
Happy birthday to bob_jiggity!
I keep dreaming about my late grandfather. Not sure what that's about. The dreams are entirely harmless, I was pretty close to him, he seems fine--I'm just not sure why he's showing up all of a sudden.
My silverjewelryclub.com purchases have started rolling in, and they're actually pretty nice. Although, when people tell you they're smaller than they look? Believe them. In fact, the pendants might should be a little smaller, even. The chains are nice, though, and I needed some good chains anyway (I don't like anything shorter than 20", for some reason).
Getting sort of interested in chakras, which isn't helping the jewelry buying. Basically, I view astrology and that kind of thing as 1) fun and 2) interesting metaphors to help you visualize what's actually going on and work on self-improvement. Like, nominally I'm a Sagittarius, but I've always wondered why a good bit of the free-wheeling profile doesn't fit me. Then I find out that I have a Virgo ascendant. So now, whenever I get overly perfectionist, for example, I like to joke that "my Virgo is acting up." And I keep that in mind and try to work around it.
So I'm looking at chakras, and I'm realizing that they're basically a series of metaphors for aspects of our lives. Like, "all the other chakras depend on the health of the first chakra, the root chakra" = "if you're not physically healthy, it's going to be hard to work on anything more psychological until you get that in order." And... I think I'm not doing so well on that first chakra. But somehow, "I want to work on my root chakra" sounds more optimistic and more pro-active and generally less baggage-ridden than "I need to exercise more and lose weight and be more confident in person." You know? The "chakra" version doesn't carry all this societal baggage with it. It sounds more like you're doing it for something deep within yourself that isn't even about whether other people notice or not. And therefore you're also not setting yourself up to fail with all these fears and expectations. I like that. So, one of the first things I bought for myself was a little garnet pendant (root = red). I don't know if gemstones actually have "powers," but I do believe in the effects of color on the mind, as a visual stimulus if nothing else, and garnets will remind me to work on it.
So: how do I "stimulate" my "root" (SHUT UP)? "Physical exercise and restful sleeps, gardening, pottery and clay. Red food & drink. Red gemstones, red clothing, bathing in red, etc. Using red oils such as ylang ylang or sandalwood essential oils." Bathing in... Countess Bathory? Is that you?
On the upside: Oils? Hoooooo boy, do I have a lot of those lying around.
Just a couple of notes: I have been given the link to the weird British Calvin Klein-esque Lostaways-dancing ad many, many times. Also the Sawyer Song. Rest assured that I am no longer in need of those links.
More Lost stuff: Visit the Hanso Foundation and Dharma Industries. Bonus: The Dharma Initiative orientation film.
Aieeee! A screencap comparison of the Dharma Initiative Drs. DeGroot and The Others: "We're gonna have to take the boy."
Jennifer Garner's hed would have been pastede on yay!
Officials Probe NYC Subway Terror Threat.
Bush Plan Shows U.S. Is Not Ready for Deadly Flu. (Greaaaaaat.)
t4_flirt: "linkspam request...super-addicting helicopter game i found in my husband's games folder last night."
A 2003 piece Anderson Cooper wrote about his brother's suicide.
Author expelled after calling Harry Potter gay: Reverend Graham Taylor, who penned the novel "Shadowmancer" which, like the tales of the famous boy wizard created by J.K. Rowling, centers on witchcraft and battling evil, got his marching orders after teachers accused him of homophobia.
"As for Harry Potter, well, he's not the only gay in the village," Taylor told children at Penair School in Truro, southwest England, referring to a catchphrase from the popular British comedy TV show "Little Britain."
He also said villains in Rowling's blockbuster series were "wimps" and called TV "crap" compared to books.
Teachers stopped Taylor's talk and asked him to leave.
German Potter fan 'threatens to kill': The stress of standing in line to buy the German edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince proved too much for a man in Germany, who ran amok and threatened to kill people unless he got a book, police said on Tuesday.
The unnamed 24-year-old man stormed into a book shop in the Hanover railway station and absconded with six copies of the German-language edition, which went on sale nationwide on Saturday.
Finding it hard to carry the books while running, he dashed into another shop on the railway concourse and pushed shoppers aside to demand a shopping bag from a sales clerk. He punched a customer in the face when admonished for being rude.
Russell? Is that you?
George Washington U. First Year Writing Course: "Get a Life!: ‘Shippers, Slashers, and Other Media Fans": "And what about those troublesome fans who use some preexisting story as the springboard for their own stories or art: are they authors in their own right, or thieves, or pathetic parasites? How do we compare a fan novella drawing on characters from the Harry Potter universe to such a work as Jean Rhys's critically-acclaimed Wide Sargasso Sea, which rewords the characters of Jane Eyre? [...] Every student will also become a participant-observer of an internet fan fiction community (e.g., Full Metal Alchemist or Lord of the Rings); this primary research will form the basis for both 1) an analytical essay on community expectations and 2) a large final project: a bound, thematic portfolio, comprising both scholarly and creative writing, that documents the semester's engagement with writing, revision, and fan fiction communities."
Yeah... you might want to be on the lookout for new comm members asking odd questions.
Pamie (of TWOP and Pamie.com) got a TV writing gig. Pamie's TV writing gig... does not seem to be going so well: "If you remember nothing about this column, remember this: 'Hot Properties' is stupid and annoying. Wait, I'm not done yet: The only thing more stupid and annoying than 'Hot Properties' is 'Freddie.'"
Oh, and I forgot to mention: I set up rosehannah lo these many moons ago as a Black Ribbon journal. If I do end up doing anything NaNoWriMoish with it, all that will go there. I'll probably friends-lock it, so you'll need to join it, as it's a community and not just a single-user journal, so friending it alone won't give you access. (Why a community? Same reason as m15m: allows more users to friend/join.)