Stolen from everywhere. Wasn't gonna do it, 'cos I'm only involved in two or three fandoms. Then I acknowledged that "fandom," to me, isn't a list of TV shows and movies, and I have indeed been involved in more than a dozen fandoms.

The one who seduced you and fucked you over and broke your heart in a million pieces and laughed about it: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1st Ed

The old flame you don't see very often any more but whom you still really enjoy getting together with for a few drinks and maybe a pleasant nostalgic romp in the sheets: Star Trek (TOS)

( MOAR FANDUMZ HEER )

Pagans, especially Wiccans, get a variety of responses when they tell people about their religion. While many of them are honestly curious and no harm is intended, some are openly hostile... and plenty more are just actively clueless, questions or comments that would never be directed at a religion that didn't have a history of being suppressed or ignored or ridiculed. This bingo card is designed around Wicca and other witchcraft religions--but these are the same questions/comments that get thrown at other Pagans, some of whom get the double fun of explaining, "No, Wicca isn't like that" and "... but it doesn't matter because I'm not Wiccan."

And while, in many areas, these responses are nowhere near as hostile or rudely ignorant as some of the other privilege-based responses to other situations (race, disability, poverty, etc.), they are... consistently annoying. Consistent enough that any Pagan who does public outreach of any sort has a set of canned responses for each of these, enough that we're prone to disregarding these as serious questions or comments. Enough that many of us have wound up snarling at unsuspecting co-workers or acquaintances who thought they were being polite.

If you find yourself wanting to say any of these... be very aware that they are clichés, that we have heard them all many times. That some of them are rude no matter how well-intentioned they are. That each of them could trigger a pages-long rant, or sever a budding friendship. Sometimes even a long-standing friendship. (Note to f'list: I am not dismayed by any of these. I am, however, bored by some of them, and tend to play with my answers, because I can be damned sure that's the only entertainment I'm going to get from them.) If you want to say any of these... be aware the reaction may not be as mild as you'd hoped.

( Bingo Card under a cut-tag 'cos it's large-ish )

I left the guild of annoyance today.  I thought about saying something first and then I looked around a bit and thought some more on it.  There's one possibly two people I respect there.  Everyone else is very much like the guild leader or worse.  I don't think the guild leader is the person who doesn't fit, I think I'm the person who doesn't fit. In the end it wasn't worth the hassle and the inevitable banning, pms, and random hate thread.   I just moved on to greener pastures.

Why Churches Fear Gay Marriage  my linking in ij hasn't been exactly solid so the actual site address is: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/11/25/proposition_8_religion/index.html  in case this link is bad. EDIT: I first came across this article through wildhunt, which has a subscription that moondancer provides in the comments below. In the future I'll add these to the original post, but as I'm not very good with editing posts, I'll through the mention up this time, with the understanding from now on I'll link.

It's a neat article that interviews Robert Rodriquez and asks in his opinion why the church is so anti-gay marriage.   Rodriquez interestingly enough relates the church's fears of gays as a displacement for their real fears regarding the rising power and demand for power from women and the "women's movement"

Personally, I'm somewhat torn in what the article says.  I agree that the gay rights movement and the feminist movement are connected, for me personally, they are closely connected.  I agree that feminism is still alive and pushing buttons.  I guess that I just felt like Rodriquez's language was a bit insulting and that he made women out to be farther back from equality that we are.  I suppose in the later though, the combination of religious an racial influence might alter my view as opposed to Rodriquez.

Something else that strikes me as odd is that Rodriquez sticks with the Roman Catholic church.  Their power structure is built in such a way that he and others won't make a difference in it. 

I suppose what struck me personally the most was the talk of male power structure in Abrahamic faith.  The reason I had problems with the church was that I could never be a priest or a bishop or pope because of my gender.  Not only could I never rise in ranks but nuns can't even perform the same basic duties as priests.  Were the gender roles equal in Catholism, it would have been years later, if ever, that I considered questioning the church.  Certainly, once I started questioning and reading, there were a lot of flaws and reasons to break away, but honestly the church's stance in feminism, which later connected me to abortion and gay rights, is the factor that turned me away from that faith system. 

Because of my own experience and the general numbers in agreement with my choice to walk out, I find i odd that Rodriquez doesn't mention this.  Making an issue out of gays instead of women's demands for power does two good things for the church.  First if gays leave because of attacks, the church cares less as their place in a traditional family structure doesn't exist, where if women left in large enough numbers, the church would lose any following.   Secondly, focusing on a "spiritual war" of any kind forces women and other people dissatified with aspects of the church to put those thoughts on the back burnr while they handle the "problem" at hand.

Those are just some of my thoughts on he article, what about you guys? 

PS, I'm sorry that this place has been so inactive, I'm going to try to revive it, but I would love help.  Last I checked posting is free and open and any new article, book/movie review, or news opinion piece that relates back to your faith, even vaguely or on a personal level is welcome here.  I figure actually limiting posting is something we do after we have too many, not before.

List of Things Different that I've noticed:

1. ( Cut cause it will be long and possibly boring )

*Note, I'm talking about gaia guild drama.  It may relate back to the pagan scene in general or at least my interation therein too.  I won't know till it's written. 

I know that starting with Halloween and going through Christmas on gaia and other places I dwell a lot of "pagan" topics come up.  I know most of them are created by misinformed people.   For the most part I sit back and watch.  Sometimes I add bits and pieces where I can.  It doesn't generally bother me.  Fluffies, harassers, and so on are usually amusing to me.  It's part of the reason I can be a part of a large number of guilds and groups online, because fluff for the most part rolls off my back.  I correct where I can and I move on.  It isn't my beliefs what could I care?  

That being said, one of my gaia guilds is really under my skin right now.  There's a lot of factors involved, the first is that the guild leader has no tolerance for opinions that descent from hers. 

She created this post about "dangerous stones" where she talks about stones that apparently try to suck out here soul.  To me, it looks like a Mr. Dark, but  Idon't know a lot about stones in general, so I ask a few questions about her experience and her sourcing. 

It's all experienced based because, you know we can't trust books.  Fine, I know what I'm dealing with and instead of saying anything, mostly because she's in charge of the group, I just stop posting and watch.   Some people are mystified, others agree, others attempt akward jokes, it's expected.  This one poster comes in and explains her take on what happened. 

She said: "You are talking about the things that come out of the ground and are primarily composed of carbon, correct?

If this is the case, I would ask how a stone contains any sort of disposition other than the one we impose on it.

If I had to take my guess I would say that your experience is probably not due to intrinsic properties of the stones themselves, but of your disposition towards them. That is, if you believe that a stone is stealing your energy is it because you believe the stone is stealing your energy.  "

Personally, I thought it was a pretty nice way to tell this girl that soul stealing stones are highly unlikely and perhaps  what she experienced what more in her head than anything else (reasonable point to make in almost any pagan experience, not just the ones that seem completely unreasonable). 

The op goes off on a huge rant about how dare this other person call her crazy.  How dare she think she knew all the answers.  Insert even worse What the Bleep do We Know science.  Insert random insults.  Insert threats to ban said member/ suggestions that closeminded people leave the guild.  Ah, and a personal favorite insert experitse in energy work and insistence at this person's amateur status in this areana.

This goes on back and forth between a the angry op and a few disagreeing people (I'm included in disagreeing, I was only trying to point out that providing an alternative opinion isn't always a way to say that said person's take is wrong, only that there are more likely solutions or at least others to consider).  Eventually she asserts that there is at the very least someone more right and that this venue is closed in her thread.  Her thread is about dangerous stones and she isn't interested in discussing ANYTHING else that comes up here.  I let things go again because, she's partially right that we've gotten off topic and because she's the guild leader. 

She warns anyone else who attempts to keep up the convo and eventually mindless dribble returns.  That's all fine until some poor girl comes in and says:
"Perhaps the term "dangerous" is subjective.

I don't believe that I have a "soul," first of all, so something that sucks my soul away would not be feasible.

Secondly, hematite, for instance, is "generally" (with few exceptions), a "good" stone for people. But it's horrible for me. It feels like it's trying to purify me, and I don't do purification.

I also don't do grounding, but whatever.

This isn't just the hematite I've gotten, but also hematite from friends who claim it works wonderfully well for them.

Some stones are just out to get you, and some aren't. Rarely is it that a single stone doesn't work well for everyone no matter what.  "

Op comes back and is nasty to her.  In her rebuttal she includes:
"Just because you "don't believe" you have a soul doesn't mean you don't. Anyways, if you didn't, a stone would be the least of your worries, for sure. Soul is our will, our emotion. Without a soul you have no free will, and would thus just be a complicated program. You can believe whatever you want, I am just pointing out that what you believe and what is real isn't necessarily the same thing."

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.  If anyone is being rude and mean when it comes to differing views, it's her.  But she's the guild leader so I don't know whether or not to say something.  I'll probably be banned.  But the flip side is that I really want to leave the guild at this point in time.  Should I quietly leave or should I just go for the jugular and call this chick out for her bull? 

Meh, I have to think about it some still.

Current Mood: aggravated

http://davensjournal.livejournal.com/540509.html

In case anyone didn't know, the owner of amortentia.net had amassed a collection of Harry Potter fic (and some SGA fic, and half a dozen other stories), and placed them on her own personal archive... without bothering with pesky permissions.

http://bethbethbeth.livejournal.com/559055.html has the initial warning; http://bethbethbeth.livejournal.com/559346.html has followup info after she's remove the stories. Before she removed them, I saved out the list, because I didn't expect her to be willing to take them down. (And it's not like she's acting the slightest bit repentant... she's very huffy that people are barraging her with emails.)

Icarus was interested in the list; I figured other people might be. I am not responsible for her typos.

( long list of authors & stories: 96 authors, 156 stories )

On one of my LJ snark comms, it was brought up that someone (not on the forum) was deeply distressed at her new job at a fish counter--because she not only had to prepare the fish, she sometimes had to kill them. And she couldn't handle that, killing those poor innocent fishies. She believes life is sacred!!! Not that she minds dealing with them once someone else has killed them, but she can't do it herself because THAT WOULD BE WRONG!!!

In the comments, it was brought up that PETA is pushing the idea of fish as "Sea Kittens."

"it's high time that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) stop allowing our little sea kitten friends to be tortured and killed."
"Sea kittens are just as intelligent (not to mention adorable) as dogs and cats"

I'd be appalled if I could stop laughing long enough to believe that anyone is persuaded by this. OMFSM they have "save the sea kittens" t-shirts & coffee mugs! Quick, someone break into one of their warehouses and steal me one ('cos no way in seven hells do I want to give money to PETA) because those are... beyond baffling.

Please, won't you think of the sea kittens?

Husband bought me a Sony Digital Book PRS-505 Reader. A new one.

Which they should've called the "Sony Bookman" or something like that, 'cos it is DUMB DUMB DUMB to name your expensive high-tech very competitive single-purpose device with a name that CANNOT BE TRADEMARKED.

However, Sony's incompetent marketing dep't not my problem.

Is red. Is engraved with a quote by Louisa May Alcott: "She reads too many books & it has turned her brain." Is reads PDFs, RTFs, TXTs (which I haven't bothered with, because RTFs allow bold/italic & metadata, and it's a matter of seconds to convert one to the other) and LRF (sony's specific format). Is claims it also plays MP3s and AACs, but I haven't gotten that far. Also haven't figured out the arcane "Download your free 100 classics from the Sony bookstore" process.

Have read books. Have reread "Falling Free;" am halfway through with "Intreat Me Not to Leave Thee;" am partway through a Syran novel I bought from Fictionwise.com. Have read a few pages into several other books as I try to sort out the settings and get used to the format.

( ramblings about new tech & my relationship thereto</a>Husband wanted to buy me A Shiny. He can't do that very often; he doesn't have much independent income. But the last few weeks, he's been building model airplanes for people, and they've been paying him. So he had money, and I'd been talking about replacing my three dead Cliés and comparing the Sony reader to the Cybook or Bookeen. And he said,  )

What would the reaction be, if only Christians were allowed to get "diplomas" from universities, and people of other religions got "certificates of completion of courses?"

If other religions had gone without any official recognition of their education for a long time, they'd snatch at them--but that wouldn't mean they'd accept they were equal.

I want a nice big collection of slogans, the kinds that can go on banners & t-shirts & bumper stickers. So far, I've seen:

• No more Mr. Nice Gay
• Gay, Straight, Black White,
  Marriage is a civil right
• Don't undo my I Do
• When do I get to vote on your marriage?
• Mormons get ten wives--I only want one!
• Stop the H8
• I'm too old for this shit -- Equal Rights Now!
• Love and let Love
• Real Family Values Value Every Family
• Stop blaming God for your bigotry
• 1 Step Forward, 8 Steps Back (with Obama logo as the "O" in Forward)
• Repeal 8; Choose Love, not Hate
• I did NOT learn H8 in School Today! (sign held by a child)
• I helped elect the first Black president, and all I got was this lousy marriage ban

Work, as I've mentioned, has recently installed WebSense & blocked a bunch of pages. (If I sound like I'm harping on it, that's 'cos for the last two years, I could go anywhere that wasn't porn or online gaming sites. At least, I assume I couldn't have visited porn sites; I never tried those. I did run into the fact that I could get to SJGames *forums* but not their main site.)

So. Websense. LJ blocked (which, hey, matters not a whit this morning.) Twitter, blogspot, wordpress, YouTube: Social Networking sites blocked. (IJ apparently under the radar, and could we keep it that way plz?) Photobucket, flickr, megaupload etc. blocked: Personal Network Storage and Backup. Software exchange sites? Blocked as free software exchange sites. (Sourceforge available; portableapps.com is not.)

Join The Impact: available.
Last week, could get to the main site but not the "wetpaint.com" subsections.

Seven Weeks to Equality? Blocked.
This Websense category is filtered: Potentially Damaging Content. Sites in this category may pose a security threat to network resources or private information, and are blocked by your organization.
URL: http://sevenweekstoequality.com/

Erm...

"Civil disobedience" is no threat to our network security.

Current Mood: annoyed

If you've turned a page in a newspaper or magazine or read anything online lately, you're probably very aware of 'The New Frugality'. Shoppers are staying out of stores in droves, and stores are breaking out of the 'Black Friday' hammerlock and offering great deals on things weeks ahead of time. Parking lots in front of popular restaurants have more empty spaces than usual- even on Friday and Saturday evenings. Mall and shopping center parking lots- usually full of holiday shoppers- look like mid-week in mid-summer- practically empty. In the shopping centers, few people have packages in their arms.

I think that things are starting to hit home with a lot of people. They're doing things that readers here know I've been doing for quite a while: consolidating trips, putting need over want, saving and paying cash, concentrating on paying down credit cards, eating at home, and having at least one- if not more days where no money is spent. That last is really working- I have money left over after the bills are all paid. This is good. Now, if only I could get that $$$$ back that was lost in my various accounts because of the crashes... Citigroup has announced some sort of cutbacks- and they manage our state retirement funds. I think I read the phrase 'stay-the-course' at least five times on my latest statement. Noting that I lost more than I put in was not pleasant.

Even well-off people are cutting back although some seem to still be in 'bling-mode'.

Even with coupons, I still find myself exiting stores empty-handed more often than not. I ask myself if I really need what I have in my hand. 99% of the time, I don't. I put it back, and I leave- even if I've carried the item around for 20 minutes. I've learned how to disconnect my desire, not to become attached to something, and to damp down that 'gotta have it' impulse. The result is that my savings hasn't dipped below my 'floor' in several months. I am hoping to raise that 'floor' as time passes. It's a good feeling to see a decent balance.

It's gotten to where I am loathe to spend money even when I need to. I do need a new computer- but I can't seem to settle on something. Do I need a quad-core, when a dualie would do? Should I insist on the 64-bit version of the operating system? Is 4GB of RAM enough? Should I get a system with Blu-Ray? And should I go for the 24" monitor when a 20" or 22" might do? Considering how cheap good systems are getting, a little splurge in this area would not be a bad thing.

But I've been into and out of shops- and have not yet settled on a system. Why? Because I cannot bear to part even with that bit of money. But when I do, I'll have a system I will like.

I do still like to shop- when I come home with a lovely jacket for $7, that's a treat. When I can save 90% on something, it's always a good thing.

But nowdays, I let my mind run down the places where I can get takeaway, then it hops to what I have in my freezer- and the freezer wins every time. I do still get takeaway- but it's things that I don't normally make at home- like sushi or certain Chinese dishes. And it's now twice a month- not twice a week. My wallet shows the difference, and I like being in the 'black'.

I am shovelling down my debt as fast as possible. I've paid down $5K this past year on my car alone. Other bills are slowly shrinking, and the only plastic I use is my debit card.

It isn't hard to live within my means- it just requires some 'won't-power'.

“To attain the SANCTUM REGNUM, in other words, the knowledge and power of the Magi, there are four indispensable conditions--an intelligence illuminated by study, an intrepidity which nothing can check, a will which cannot be broken, and a prudence which nothing can corrupt and nothing intoxicate. TO KNOW, TO DARE, TO WILL, TO KEEP SILENCE--such are the four words of the Magus, inscribed upon the four symbolical forms of the sphinx.”

I started this blog off several years ago talking about my metaphysical experiences, and nearly the entirety of my old web page (to be radically redone one of these days) was about my metaphysical and religious life- as it was in the late nineties and early oughties.

I look back and realize that I've gone through some radical changes in the intervening years- changes that actually reversed my course and took me into what I am now calling 'zero-land', and out again.

Where am I now? I'm trying to figure that out. Somebody on LJ pointed to a Wikipedia article about M. Scott Peck, (they were talking about the nature of evil, I think), and I found this paragraph about the four stages of human spiritual development:

Peck postulates that there are four stages of human spiritual development:

* Stage I is chaotic, disordered, and reckless. Very young children are in Stage I. They tend to defy and disobey, and are unwilling to accept a will greater than their own. Many criminals are people who have never grown out of Stage I.

* Stage II is the stage at which a person has blind faith. Once children learn to obey their parents, they reach Stage II. Many so-called religious people are essentially Stage II people, in the sense that they have blind faith in God, and do not question His existence. With blind faith comes humility and a willingness to obey and serve. The majority of good law-abiding citizens never move out of Stage II.

* Stage III is the stage of scientific skepticism and inquisitivity. A Stage III person does not accept things on faith but only accepts them if convinced logically. Many people working in scientific and technological research are in Stage III.

* Stage IV is the stage where an individual starts enjoying the mystery and beauty of nature. While retaining skepticism, he starts perceiving grand patterns in nature. His religiousness and spirituality differ significantly from that of a Stage II person, in the sense that he does not accept things through blind faith but does so because of genuine belief. Stage IV people are labelled as Mystics.

Peck argues that while transitions from Stage I to Stage II are sharp, transitions from Stage III to Stage IV are gradual. Nonetheless, these changes are very noticeable and mark a significant difference in the personality of the individual.