I am spending too much money again :o)
Diary: Week of 19/10: Work, Banks, Dungeon, and Unit 22
Alas good indications of a job seem to be looking a bit shallower this week. Despite the agency seeming very confident in suggesting that we not take the job offered but wait for a better offer they are yet to get back in touch... I've been sending out CVs in the meantime in any case...
I finished Iain. M. Banks 'Inversions' early in the week, which was a change of space. Different to most of his books this one is set completely in a low-tech world of feudalistic societies. There are sci-fi elements but if you aren't looking for them and have no read Iain M Banks before you might completely miss them and assume you are reading a fantasy book.
The characters were good, and the plot interesting enough, although entirely unexplained in the text itself. That's typical for Iain M Banks I suppose, although usually he pretty much explains everything towards the end; this time he doesn't bother.
On Wednesday/Halloween I went down to Dungeon, which had the longest queue I had seen there. I hear the queue formed before Dungeon even opened, but all the same I quickly came to wish I'd arrived a bit earlier... :o/ I almost considered going to Dungeon instead (some of the Rocksoc people did) but I tend to find Hobbit much too dull a lot of the time so I decided to stick through with over an hours of queueing (queue time estimate is generous)
Once finally inside it was all good though. Dancefloor was fairly packed but me and Jacky managed to find some space to dance when we want to (which is pretty surprising given the place was at max capacity). Said hi to a number of people (including Fraggleonspeed who I think should always wear her costume from now on...) :o)
I slept through most of Thursday, but got up in time to put some CVs into envelopes and then head of to Dungeon again to meet thepussykat and littlecyberalex. The night was much quieter (typical for a Thursday) although the people that were there were good company :o)
The music was brilliant and I danced, and danced, and danced... all by my only own! Terrible; they play good music and I'm the only one on the dance floor :oP
Me, Caroline and _phoenixrising went back to thepussykat and littlecyberalex's to drink more wine, which we did for some considerable while into the morning :o)
Friday was Emanate @ Unit 22. As usual too loud to talk to anyone and with no quiet area to retreat to so I kept myself occupied by dancing as much as possible. As usual the EBM/Industrial room was packed whilst the Metal room was fairly empty (as it seems to be when Emanate isn't on). Even though I'm not personally that keen on Industrial music it's clearly the way that venue needs to go if it wants to keep bringing people there.
Went home with lil_ravenfire and Michael that night were we watched Reign of Fire before I disappeared in the early hours of the morning ready to spend the rest of the weekend doing just about nothing... :o)
Thoughts: Wicca being made to look a bit bad again
As a preface I have no objection to pagan beliefs. Not only do I think that forms of paganism can be intellectually respectable, or at least respectable, I don't really have much objection to religions that are mere nonsense anyway. Doesn't bother me much.
Also, I know for a fact that some pagans find other neo-pagans and Wiccans to be a bit embarrassing anyway and may well broadly agree with much of what is said here, so it's all good :o)
That having said people may remember my last giggle at the expense of certain neo-pagans due to the Homer controversy over by the Cerne Abbas giant: linky
Here's the latest thing that caught my eye:
Halloween banned at school
That's right, a school somewhere was silly enough to actually ban Halloween celebrations for fear of offending Wiccans.
The article even managed to find some nutball Wiccans to quote in defence of this position.
No, I'm all for trying to be respectful with how state faculties like state schools are organised, but there seems something silly about cancelling traditions that predate the Wiccan religion for fear of offending Wiccans.
The ironic is that there is evidence that the original Celtic pagan traditions around the time of 'Halloween' actually did involve costumes that mimicked the evil spirits they wanted to drive of, hence the tradition of dressing up as 'evil creatures' does have roots in actual paganism.
One would like to think this was just the schools superintendent getting all riled up despite receiving no complaints, but I have little doubt that there are a few crazies in the Wiccan community that made the whole lot looked bad here.
I remember bumping into this issue when a Wiccan I was communicating with online found the classical fairytale notion of the witch as in British culture offensive. I'm certainly aware that the (older) image of witches is not as flattering as the (newer) image of witches adopted by the neo-pagan community, but that doesn't make the traditional image bad or wrong, especially when so often the neo-wiccan use of the phrase fails to measure up to the standard notion of a witch anyway (occasionally lacking any actual witchcraft at all by the standard meaning of the term).
It's not that many steps short of being worried about the classical notion of a vampire offending people who use the term to refer to their spiritual beliefs that they call vampirism now. I'm not personally going to move away from my classical image of vampire or consider the established vampire mythology 'politically incorrect' just because a few people have put their own spin on it and decided they are vampires.
I think part of the problem is that some particularly uninformed Wiccans expect everyone to accept their dogma as true, particularly in regards to the history of their religion. It's as if unless we accept the religious account of Wicca that suggests it predates the twentieth century and has a connection with actual paganism then we are being in some way intolerant.
I find that rather like expecting me to believe that all people are descended from Adam and Eve in order to be respectful towards Christians, or to believe that Muhammad really was visited by angels and thus the Koran is an accurate text regarding the history of their religion and the world.
On the same note the rhetoric you get from certain neo-pagans about the 'Burning Times' could not be more silly, and I'd place it alongside believing in the global flood Noah survived.
As far as can be told, the witch trials were directed at falsely accused Christian women, not at Pagans.
Although, and here's the really ironic thing, if you want to know where the root of this persecution and fear of witches comes from, it's not Christian, it's pagan (as far as one can tell anyway...).
The early Christian Church did not believe in witchcraft. A person found to be a 'praticing witch' would not be burnt for witchcraft, but for superstition and blasphemy.
In fact, mere belief that witchcraft was real at all was heresy.
However, as Christianity expanded it started absorbing certain pagan ideas, including the belief in and fear of witches. This lead to the Church making the radically different, and rather pagan, change to belief in witches.
I don't expect all pagans to accept this version of events, just as I don't expect all Christians to accept an atheist commentary on the history of their religion, but I would like to note that the main difference that separates the two perspectives is faith and a lack of it, and there should be no demand for me to change my beliefs when all that there is to challenge them is other people's faith commitments to a religious perspective on history.
Link: Scary Mary
Link: Irn Bru - Snowman
Link: Get Pointy Ears Today :o)
Link: List of Disgusting Foods
Plans: Dungeon this Wednesday :o)
Alas good indications of a job seem to be looking a bit shallower this week. Despite the agency seeming very confident in suggesting that we not take the job offered but wait for a better offer they are yet to get back in touch... I've been sending out CVs in the meantime in any case...
I finished Iain. M. Banks 'Inversions' early in the week, which was a change of space. Different to most of his books this one is set completely in a low-tech world of feudalistic societies. There are sci-fi elements but if you aren't looking for them and have no read Iain M Banks before you might completely miss them and assume you are reading a fantasy book.
The characters were good, and the plot interesting enough, although entirely unexplained in the text itself. That's typical for Iain M Banks I suppose, although usually he pretty much explains everything towards the end; this time he doesn't bother.
On Wednesday/Halloween I went down to Dungeon, which had the longest queue I had seen there. I hear the queue formed before Dungeon even opened, but all the same I quickly came to wish I'd arrived a bit earlier... :o/ I almost considered going to Dungeon instead (some of the Rocksoc people did) but I tend to find Hobbit much too dull a lot of the time so I decided to stick through with over an hours of queueing (queue time estimate is generous)
Once finally inside it was all good though. Dancefloor was fairly packed but me and Jacky managed to find some space to dance when we want to (which is pretty surprising given the place was at max capacity). Said hi to a number of people (including Fraggleonspeed who I think should always wear her costume from now on...) :o)
I slept through most of Thursday, but got up in time to put some CVs into envelopes and then head of to Dungeon again to meet thepussykat and littlecyberalex. The night was much quieter (typical for a Thursday) although the people that were there were good company :o)
The music was brilliant and I danced, and danced, and danced... all by my only own! Terrible; they play good music and I'm the only one on the dance floor :oP
Me, Caroline and _phoenixrising went back to thepussykat and littlecyberalex's to drink more wine, which we did for some considerable while into the morning :o)
Friday was Emanate @ Unit 22. As usual too loud to talk to anyone and with no quiet area to retreat to so I kept myself occupied by dancing as much as possible. As usual the EBM/Industrial room was packed whilst the Metal room was fairly empty (as it seems to be when Emanate isn't on). Even though I'm not personally that keen on Industrial music it's clearly the way that venue needs to go if it wants to keep bringing people there.
Went home with lil_ravenfire and Michael that night were we watched Reign of Fire before I disappeared in the early hours of the morning ready to spend the rest of the weekend doing just about nothing... :o)
Thoughts: Wicca being made to look a bit bad again
As a preface I have no objection to pagan beliefs. Not only do I think that forms of paganism can be intellectually respectable, or at least respectable, I don't really have much objection to religions that are mere nonsense anyway. Doesn't bother me much.
Also, I know for a fact that some pagans find other neo-pagans and Wiccans to be a bit embarrassing anyway and may well broadly agree with much of what is said here, so it's all good :o)
That having said people may remember my last giggle at the expense of certain neo-pagans due to the Homer controversy over by the Cerne Abbas giant: linky
Here's the latest thing that caught my eye:
Halloween banned at school
That's right, a school somewhere was silly enough to actually ban Halloween celebrations for fear of offending Wiccans.
The article even managed to find some nutball Wiccans to quote in defence of this position.
No, I'm all for trying to be respectful with how state faculties like state schools are organised, but there seems something silly about cancelling traditions that predate the Wiccan religion for fear of offending Wiccans.
The ironic is that there is evidence that the original Celtic pagan traditions around the time of 'Halloween' actually did involve costumes that mimicked the evil spirits they wanted to drive of, hence the tradition of dressing up as 'evil creatures' does have roots in actual paganism.
One would like to think this was just the schools superintendent getting all riled up despite receiving no complaints, but I have little doubt that there are a few crazies in the Wiccan community that made the whole lot looked bad here.
I remember bumping into this issue when a Wiccan I was communicating with online found the classical fairytale notion of the witch as in British culture offensive. I'm certainly aware that the (older) image of witches is not as flattering as the (newer) image of witches adopted by the neo-pagan community, but that doesn't make the traditional image bad or wrong, especially when so often the neo-wiccan use of the phrase fails to measure up to the standard notion of a witch anyway (occasionally lacking any actual witchcraft at all by the standard meaning of the term).
It's not that many steps short of being worried about the classical notion of a vampire offending people who use the term to refer to their spiritual beliefs that they call vampirism now. I'm not personally going to move away from my classical image of vampire or consider the established vampire mythology 'politically incorrect' just because a few people have put their own spin on it and decided they are vampires.
I think part of the problem is that some particularly uninformed Wiccans expect everyone to accept their dogma as true, particularly in regards to the history of their religion. It's as if unless we accept the religious account of Wicca that suggests it predates the twentieth century and has a connection with actual paganism then we are being in some way intolerant.
I find that rather like expecting me to believe that all people are descended from Adam and Eve in order to be respectful towards Christians, or to believe that Muhammad really was visited by angels and thus the Koran is an accurate text regarding the history of their religion and the world.
On the same note the rhetoric you get from certain neo-pagans about the 'Burning Times' could not be more silly, and I'd place it alongside believing in the global flood Noah survived.
As far as can be told, the witch trials were directed at falsely accused Christian women, not at Pagans.
Although, and here's the really ironic thing, if you want to know where the root of this persecution and fear of witches comes from, it's not Christian, it's pagan (as far as one can tell anyway...).
The early Christian Church did not believe in witchcraft. A person found to be a 'praticing witch' would not be burnt for witchcraft, but for superstition and blasphemy.
In fact, mere belief that witchcraft was real at all was heresy.
However, as Christianity expanded it started absorbing certain pagan ideas, including the belief in and fear of witches. This lead to the Church making the radically different, and rather pagan, change to belief in witches.
I don't expect all pagans to accept this version of events, just as I don't expect all Christians to accept an atheist commentary on the history of their religion, but I would like to note that the main difference that separates the two perspectives is faith and a lack of it, and there should be no demand for me to change my beliefs when all that there is to challenge them is other people's faith commitments to a religious perspective on history.
Link: Scary Mary
Link: Irn Bru - Snowman
Link: Get Pointy Ears Today :o)
Link: List of Disgusting Foods
Plans: Dungeon this Wednesday :o)