Today I'll be heading out to see two different friends at their birthday parties. First is shemayazi down in Shoreline. I haven't been to her house yet and will be delighted to go and see her and invisigoth and their place.

Later in the day it's over to agatheringgrove for Shannon's birthday. And apparently Coventry are playing there tonight; several friends of mine are in the band and it'll be great to see them playing again!

Yay for parties!

Happy birthday folks!

I was contacted today by Scarlet Imprint with the news that two of my poems and my essay "Becoming Poetry" were selected for their Sacred Poetry anthology!

Contracts and other info forthcoming as the book gets into shape. Now I must submit a bio and the usual stuffs authors do for anthologies.

Today, children, we celebrate!

Does anyone on this list have current contact info for the owner(s) of the "Gateways to Babylon" site?

http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/


I would love to include one of their essays in the Ereshkigal devotional, but it looks like the site has not been active for a while, and no one responded to my email to the webmaster.


Thanks!

Aside from my Celtic reconstruction-based religion another important aspect of my life is self-sufficiency. To me, personally, it goes hand in hand with my religious practice, and it is something that gives me great feelings of pride. What better gift is there to offer the deities, spirits and ancestors, than to give something you've nurtured and helped grow.
What more joy is there to take the autumn fruits, or the spring oak leaves, or the honey from the bees and to create your own wine, beer or cider? And return their seasonal gifts with nurturing so that you may share in their offerings to you for many years to come.

I strive to one day become completely self-sufficient. With energy harvested from sun, wind and rain. All materials being recycled through food and compost. Rain water collected to irrigate the garden patches or even flush the toilet. Life-stock to take care of 'waste' disposal (pigs) and work along side ourselves until the day comes they'll provide us with food.

John Seymour, needless to say, is one of my great heroes. His books give me great pleasure and copious ideas for living. Life is hard work, but work is rewarding. I agree with that fact that today's society seems to shy away from work, and when something can be replaced by a machine it is joyously welcomed as 'progress'. What is so wrong about working yourself to a sweat prepping the land for new materials?

I've been eying the Killowen Smallholding for courses for the next year, but 625,- euro is a bit steep for me. Still, my books are all to me, and with them I feel I'm getting a wee bit closer to achieving my goal each year when another self-sufficient chapter is added to my life.

Well, this past evening we had thistlemoons and her man over for dinner, our first guests in a dog's age. Literally, I know we've not had real guests, sit down for dinner guests, since Gleann has been with us. Aaron made a wonderful pork roast, if I do say so myself...must brag on him here. We had root veggies, and they brought VT cheese, nuts and dried fruit. And we shared hot chocolate with raw milk. So mostly local eating, which is always a good thing and good to share with others who are into it too.

It was really great getting to know someone I had been corresponding with for awhile, initially through The Sarah Connor Charm School, online. Turns out that we weren't at a loss for things to discuss. I look forward to them being up this way full-time. ~:)

I also must brag on Gleann. As I said this is the first real company since he's been with us. He tends to be protective and people just coming in for a moment, even my sister and father who he knew over at my Dad's, would seem threatening to him. And they came with a dog! And introducing him to dogs here has been a hassle. So we started out outside with him first running around the humans and then both he and Pepino on leashes walking around and then we all came in. He calmed down and warmed up to them, except when Scolaighe did get up and was near them, he got very protective of her but not real aggressive, just a "stay back from my sister" thing. At the end of the evening he was sitting on my lap "holding paws" with thistlemoons and was calm until they were heading out the door to see the horses before leaving. Um, I think he thought he was going to get to keep them. LOL I'm very pleased to find that he's going to be okay with this entertaining thing, as I hope we get to do it a bit more frequently.

Our house was no longer as horrendously embarrassing as it had been, Aaron also did a great job on cleaning up. But there are still places where, well, it is. Um, and a lot of stuff hidden in the bedroom. ~;) Hopefully before they visit again it will be all back under control and kept that way. It was a bad year, we'd been in the middle of tearing things up when it became bad, so....but now it's time to get it more livable.

Photos from the distinguished Mr. Rupert H. Murgatroyd of the Seattle Steamrats can be found here. You'll see alfrecht and myself in quite a number of them. The site is a slideshow that will show one pic at a time.

[InstituteforFeminismandReligion] New research resource at National Library of Ireland.Friday, November 13, 2009 12:09 AM


A new research resource has come online at the National Library of Ireland which should be of great benefit to all involved in women's/gender history research.

http://sources. nli.ie

By logging on to ‘Sources’, the National Library of Ireland’s new digital directory of Irish studies (http://sources. nli.ie), people can now retrieve any one of up to 196,574 records of materials housed in the National Library of Ireland or in universities and research institutions around the world. Subjects covered in the materials range from art, architecture and archaeology through economics and genealogy to history, politics, literature, science and zoology.

The ‘Sources’ digital directory pinpoints exactly what Irish interest material is held where – information which previously could only be accessed by consulting the bulky printed catalogues in either the National Library of Ireland in Dublin or one of a limited number of university libraries or major research institutions holding the complete set of printed records. With the click of a mouse anyone can now access the Sources database via a PC and can start the process of researching what material exists on a particular topic, and in what library or institution around the world that material is held.

For the first time, it will be possible to search the manuscript and periodicals records together. As a result, someone doing research on their local area might find information about manuscript maps, estate papers and business records for local shopkeepers, as well as details for articles in local history journals. Once the records are found, the information can be easily emailed or shared to bookmarking and social networking sites such as Delicious and Twitter. Other features of ‘Sources’ include an interactive map showing the location of all the archives and libraries around the world where the Irish material listed is stored. Full contact details for each outlet are also provided.

• 23:11 Not a cloud in the sky. Ah, the stars.
• 23:58 twitpic.com/pbehv - Mwahaha! I have it and you don't.
• 00:29 Okay, if #Glee were to get John Barrowman on for an ep ... I might end up watching it.
• 10:58 No better way to start the day than waking from a depressing dream.
• 12:51 Okay, the plan is to write 13,914 words this weekend. #nanowrimo
• 13:46 213 words down but now, lunch.
• 15:40 Words are a'flowing. Hope the momentum lasts. #nanowrimo #writechat #writing
• 15:52 Note to self: trust what comes to you. Don't overthink. That is what the rewrite is for.
• 16:30 Pizza and Star Trek XI tonight! Must finish these last 1100 words. #nanowrimo
• 17:31 Listening to The Corrs always lifts my mood.
• 18:52 Running to Papa John's with @heasome and @Darth_Imperius
• 19:54 Just whacked my forehead and a goose egg is already coming up. :(

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I have a lot of trans friends. I know that I see only a tiny fraction of the struggles they deal with every day. They're all courageous people trying to be true to themselves.

Here are some of the things that they're constantly facing. Please give it a read and pass it along.

Author Helen Benedict, a psychological counselor, and women veterans in search of deeper and wider understanding of the plight of women in the military.

Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen, Truth to Tell, KFAI Radio | MN

"More American women have fought and died in Iraq than in any war since World War Two, yet as soldiers they are still painfully alone. In Iraq, only one in ten troops is a woman, and she often serves in a unit with few other women or none at all. This isolation, along with the military's deep-seated hostility toward women, causes problems that many female soldiers find as hard to cope with as war itself: degradation, sexual persecution by their comrades, and loneliness, instead of the camaraderie that every soldier depends on for comfort and survival. As one female soldier said, 'I ended up waging my own war against an enemy dressed in the same uniform as mine.' "

These words from the leaf of a stunning book, The Lonely Soldier, by Helen Benedict, and describing the still-burning issues that shame our military and civilian attitudes toward women serving in the military - both highlighted in a coming Veterans Day Conference in Bloomington and a play by Chante Wolf (At War with Women) portraying the traumas women soldiers and veterans suffer in and after combat and military service. PTSD - combat and otherwise - are often no different from those of the military men we hear about all the time, themselves often forced to suck it up rather than seek assistance for their nightmares and the violence memories trigger with little warning in the middle of the night. Add the dimensions of sexual predation and humiliation by combat comrades and the recipe is disaster.

More...http://www.evergreenedigest.org/content/women-military-trauma-inside-and-out

The ability to heal.

Self-explanatory, really. There's too much pain and suffering in this world. It would be good to have more of an ability to change that.

• 23:03 DOMINIC MONGHAN ON KIMMEL TONITE!
• 23:15 Dude a herd of deer in the front yard... O.O
• 00:42 K, time to brush teeth and hop into bed. Rising early tomorrow to get some writing done. Oíche mhaith dhaoibh!
• 10:51 Up and writing. #nanowrimo #writechat
• 11:59 Anyone on here have a 405- cell # and tried to call me earlier?
• 12:55 Eating a salad before I finish getting ready for work.
• 17:35 Sitting at work, waiting on 6pm to arrive. Just finished reading some children's books; me brain is mush. Need a break.
• 17:37 Don't get me wrong. I LOVE #Supernatural, but is anyone else weary of all the crack on it lately?
• 18:07 RT @lysana: If DC allows gay marriage, the Catholic Church won't care for the poor. Blessed are the vindictive. ow.ly/BHzW
• 18:13 RT @holidayswap: Today is the LAST DAY to sign up for the #holidayswap - please don't forget! Santa would be crushed.
• 18:38 woo, just signed up for #holidayswap!
• 18:47 RT @GMAtwater: #spn fans If you wish @DanneelHarris well, please visit @lilianvivis & report her as spam. DON'T harass, just report. PLZ RT!
• 18:54 #SUPERNATURAL - 5.09 SNEAK Peek - The Real Ghostbusters bit.ly/lO6pi
• 19:00 On the way home!
• 20:04 Missed the last two eps of #FlashForward and I am a little lost. :/
• 20:35 Lol a Baddacci ref. #reading #flashforward
• 21:07 Omg does Chuck like Becky? LMAO.
• 21:31 This season is too full of crack. Have we forgotten about the end of world or are we simply pandering to fandom now?!
• 21:41 Srsly. What is it with #Supernatural and creepy ass kids?!
• 21:46 *rolls eyes at Becky*
• 21:53 Wow.
• 22:00 ... *grumpy sigh* ... save for the last 30 sec that ep was pointless. #supernatural
• 22:27 RT @skygazing: #nanowrimo tip: use "and" instead of commas between items of a list. eg I took apples and oranges and bananas to our picnic.

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Last night I got sucked into sections of the PDF dissertation that alfrecht sent me. I'm going to have to print it out to really get into it, and that's 200+ pages, so I'll have to go out and get another ream of paper and an ink cartridge for the printer later this week. It deals with discourse around the scholarly dialogue surrounding Buile Suibhne and tackles several issues that I think are important, so I need to get this read sometime soon.

Today was gorgeously sunny but cool, about 50f at 3pm when I went out. A wonderful day all around.

This afternoon I went over to have Garuda's oil changed. I'm due for the 90,000 mile maintenance sometime soon. I dealt with wipers (necessary to see at this time of year) and air filter today. Next month it'll be a brake adjustment and replacing worn belts. Probably January I'll do the actual 90,000 mile maintenance so it'll be done before the PantheaCon perambulation.

And now back to my couch for some reading.

Notes augmented

We've enhanced and de-bugged Notes. If you haven't tried it yet, now's the time! You can create a private note when you ban multiple users. You can also delete multiple notes at once. Lastly, paid users have the option to add a note (visible only to you) whenever you add or remove a friend (guaranteed to avoid embarrassing social mishaps). If you don't currently have a paid account, you can upgrade now! It only takes a few minutes and costs less than a bad shopping mall haircut (plus, it's way more fashionable)!

Product tweaks and bug kill

1. In another effort to zap spam, comments containing links from domains LiveJournal deems untrustworthy are now automatically screened
2. If you sign up to get notifications of the Writer's Block question of the day, you'll now see the daily question in the email notification, so you'll have a little extra time to ponder before you post. You can subscribe to Writers Block notifications here
3. The issue causing random comments to vanish has been fixed!
4. If you visit a LiveJournal page and get prompted to log in, you'll be returned to the same page after you sign in (Thanks, Dreamwidth)!
5. If you don't edit the timestamp for an entry at all, the entry timestamp will indicate the time the entry was posted instead of the time the Update Journal page was loaded
6. Comments with paddings/backgrounds render correctly within the comment box (and will no longer wrap outside the box and break frames/margins)

New FCK fixes rich text editor!

1. We've updated our RTE (Rich Text Editor) to FCKeditor version 2.6.5
2. When switching from the RTE to HTML editor, links for syndicated feeds are no longer broken
3. RTE now functions properly in Safari 4.0
4. An extra line/space will not be auto-inserted whenever you switch from RTE to HTML editor
5. The insert image link now works correctly in all browsers

LiveJournal Cares

We’re pleased to introduce you to lj_cares, a new LiveJournal community dedicated to raising awareness and funds for U.S. charitable organizations that improve the health and well-being of people around the world. Each month, we’ll spotlight a nonprofit that is making a significant global impact through medical research, public outreach, and/or humanitarian social programs. Charities will be selected in accordance with the U.S. calendar of national health observances based on a high rating (of over 60%) on Charity Navigator and global scope of impact.

In this, our inaugural month of November, we will celebrate national adoption month by offering a charitable virtual gift (priced at $2.99) to support Love Without Boundaries, an organization that saves the lives of orphans with life-threatening diseases and places them in loving homes around the world. LiveJournal will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of charitable vgifts (we'll cover the cost of credit card transaction fees). To learn more about Love Without Boundaries, please visit lj_cares and read about how they helped save Baby Kang and the Rainbow Twins from fatal illnesses, who are now thriving in nurturing families. You can purchase your Love Without Boundaries gifts in the Virtual Gift shop.

Papered in postcards

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to send in postcards to surround us with LiveJournal community. Thanks for coming through! We've received postcards all the way from Germany, Finland, and Canada and from all over the US, including Texas, Florida, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, Hawaii, and Oklahoma just to name just a handful. We're thrilled with our improved decor.

Please keep the love coming for one more week by writing to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be drawing the names of ten random contributors next Thursday to win paid account credits!

Photos of the week

We have more dazzling images posted by talented LiveJournal photographers from around the world. We're hoping to span the entire globe, so please continue posting and tagging. Of course, you can also sit back and enjoy the view at lj_photophile.

You can see a sample of this week's gorgeous photos and check out spotlight communities and awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

We thank you, once again, for joining us. See you next week!

Last Friday was the first gathering of the Woodland Hedge School, here in soggy Vancouver BC. Luckily, we were able to come in from the hedges to actually do our thing.

Our first learning is to be Ogam, using Erynn's Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom as our text. We'll also be familiarizing ourselves with some of the myths and stories at the end of each class. (Then I zoom off to yoga. Perfect!)

This is something I have wanted to have happen for a very long time. I finally wore my friends down to the point where they were unable to refuse. (OK, that's maybe not exactly how it happened.) Very happy.

Slan.

This afternoon I went out to Applebees for their free veterans day dinner for military folk. As you might imagine, it was packed to the gills. I was there about 4pm and waited nearly half an hour for a seat. There was still a considerable clutch of folks waiting at the door when I left. I imagine it's massively crowded all day, but the staff seemed to be holding up reasonably well. It's not the type of place I usually go to -- joe-bob American food like Denny's but more upscale and with a bar. The food was okay, though, and free is always nice.

I'd been planning to write today. I did do some reading, having finally found the Nora Chadwick Geilt article. During the search process I managed to pull a back muscle somehow. (The project did involve shifting several large stacks of books to look at the stacks of paper beneath them.) After I shifted the books around and griped about my back hurting, I sat down to read the book on Armagh etc and nearly fell asleep with my nose in it, so I took that as a hint to go grab a nap, as I've been feeling under the weather a bit of late. Rest is better than succumbing to a cold or a flu, so I might as well.

I slept for about 3 or 4 hours then got up and dug around in some file folders I'd put in a bookshelf near my desk. It was in this stack that I found the Chadwick article. I read the whole thing (again). I think after all this time a few of her arguments are a bit questionable as she stretches the definition of geilt a bit and treats Suibhne as a possibly-historical character, which I most sincerely doubt is the case. There's also an article in that same folder that I need to read about geilt as a loan-word into Norse. This is something Chadwick touches on in a couple of places, but the article was written long after her publication. At any rate, I think I'm still more in the "research" than the "writing" phase of this.

I need some better etymological stuff than the paragraph or two from Chadwick. I'm thinking maybe Nagy tackled it in his Fionn book but I can't remember for sure.

Just as a coincidence, alfrecht tells me that a doctoral dissertation currently in review is up as a PDF on the web that addresses geilt, so he's sending me the PDF and the link for it. Yay for more topical reading!

• 01:11 Gordan wishes he was Blade. #supernatural
• 10:50 is grateful for those who have fought, and are still fighting, for our freedom. May we never forget you.
• 11:01 Watching #GilmoreGirls before I plunge into today's to-do list.
• 11:45 It is sad how much I am squeeing right now.
• 13:26 So I have some ideas for future scenes in my novel. The thing is, I have NO idea how to get there :/ #nanowrimo
• 14:10 Just thought of the perfect name for a comedic werewolf novel. #writechat #writing
• 14:44 Still need to decide what I am cooking for Thanksgiving...
• 14:45 Moody, whining, crying and screaming nephews do not aid in the creative process. #nanowrimo
• 14:57 Okay. Time for a shower & then to lock myself in my room for the rest of the day and night. Words must be, & will be, coaxed out. #nanowrimo
• 19:17 So @jconner05 just offered me his iPhone and to take over his plan. I might take him up on it. *ponders*
• 19:30 Um...I just saw a dominatrix in a pistachio commerical...
• 20:00 RT @Hollidayo: Supernatural was nominated for a People's Choice Award! Check it out and please vote. www.peopleschoice.com/pca/
• 20:19 My novel just said: "Wait did I do that? Here, let me get my celluar. Oh wait, I can't cos I'm a plot hole. Soo..." #nanowrimo
• 20:25 About to watch 'Bruno'.
• 21:50 Bruno was funny. Some parts were a little much but Sacha is good at pointing out bigotry and hypocrisy.
• 22:04 Taylor Swift looks like a prepubscent boy.
• 22:15 Kenny Chesney makes me vomit in my mouth. #cmas
• 22:32 Reba had to have a boob job. #cmas
• 22:49 Hey, Daughtry & Theory of a Deadman are coming to Bham. Already seen both before though :)

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