The weather has been great these last two days. Clear skies and balmy sunshine. Not bad for February in England where benign climates are something you spend hundreds of pounds to escape to every summer holiday. Nature is having a sunbathe too, trees are and flowers looking very much like they should in spring. Woodpeckers have colonised one of local parks, making it sound like a construction site as they burrow into trees. Squirrels and rabbits at large, doing squirrelly and rabbity things (sur
The weather was nasty. Strong cold winds, heavy showers - it felt like I was walking home along the deck of a ship in the midst of an Atlantic squall. The car salesman stood leaning in the doorway smoking as I stumbled past. You could see his mind working. I felt an unsteady red dot land on my wallet. That salesman is starting to spook me a little. I wonder if he's a cannibal on the quiet?
Another thing is starting to spook me a little too. Why is it that drivers of brand new shiney Subaru I
Hello to everyone after my unfortunate absence , here is a short blog to get me back into the swing of things.
A long European jorney took me via Koln, Frankfurt, Zurich and Innsbruck to Verona and the Venetian Carnival. Verona has the second largest surviving amphitheatre outside of Rome, and what a joy it is to behold in mellow sunlight. One might imagine that Theatre is worn and fragile with antiquity, however under a patina of weathering the massive structure retains its basic integrity and
Most of my Brighid's Fire (the actual ritual part) was short, sweet and to the point. I lit a candle, said a few prayers, did a bit of healing work.
The "prep work" took the majority of my evening. I started at about 3.30 or so...painting a bottle to go on my shrine (it's sitting next to it as it's too big to go ON the shrine, it looks silly and easily tipped over.)
Then I spent...close to two hours painting my legs with indigo. The indigo painting, for me, is part art, pa
February is the dreariest month of the year.
Pantagathus and Perinax aren't here.
La Donna Sophia will seldom appear.
Nephele wears combat boots this time of year.
And Ursus can be a pain in the rear.
Faustus needs a good tax man.
Coldrail is locked in the porta can.
The Klingon is a frozen man.
Kosmic eats frogs out of a tin can.
And Ramses can be a pain in the can.
Moon has a corner on gold.
L W has a nasty cold.
MPC will never fold.
The G-Man is very bold.
And a swift ki
Prayer for Imbolc
Our Lady of Spring
Your fire melts the frost
Your water is the rain that falls
Your sun warms the earth
And seeds beneath the farmers' fields
Give us life! As you give life
Let us grow! We're born anew
May your fire warm our hearts
And your water wash our souls
Let your sun draw forth the seeds
Of life and growth within us
Your fire drives us!
Your water carries us!
Let us be strong
And grow vibrant in your hands.
My writing is really taking off!! Wh
AD points at a pile of cartons beside our porta-palace. "Caldrail, those parcels need to go by Slick Parcels today"
Righto. Out with the signing book, fill in the details (do they really need all this information?), write up the labels and stick them on the parcels - except this one because that the other order, so carefully peel off the label and reapply it to the correct box... now it won't stick.... get the tape, and the labelling is done. Now to phone Slick Parcels and get this lot out t
The Association of Southern Schools has decided to pursue some of the seemingly endless taxpayer dollar pipeline through Washington designating Southern slang, or y'allbonics, as a language to be taught in all Southern schools.
The following are excerpts from the Y'allbonics/English dictionary:
HEIDI - (noun) -Greeting.
HIRE YEW - Complete sentence. Remainder of greeting. Usage "Heidi, Hire yew?"
BARD - (verb) - Past tense of the infinitive "to borrow. "Usage "My brother bard
We interrupt your normal reading to bring you the latest story, hot off the press. The Independent Peanut Republic of Rushey Platt has announced that they have annexed the state of South Carolina. Rushey Platt apologises to the USA for the incovenience, and assures citizens of their new dominion that they will not be required to fill in british tax returns. That concludes this newsflash, we'll bring you updates on this story as it happens. Over to our on-the-spot reporter, Sally Forth. Whats hap
Hello, I'm Caldrail, she isn't, and you're reading The Albion News Network (brought to you by International Portakabins - "We don't break windows").
Todays headlines - Major logisitics company fail to deliver parcels.... Warehouse manager under investigation for failing to meet deadlines.... Security guard mocked for failing to send Caldrail to the right door.....Office girl sacked for failing....
We'll have more on these stories later, but now, an important message from our sponsors...
I hope that I have the names right, but here goes anyway:
Once upon some good hundred plus years ago, Commodore Vanderbuilt was collecting railroads. He decided the Erie Railroad would be nice to have, so he started buying up its stock. Now, there was a chap called Jay Gould, who really owned the RR. JG thought that it would be a very good idea to print up stock certificates as fast as the good Comm. could buy them. For some unearthly reason, the Comm. got the idea that he had bought the RR
This is what I've been doing for the past two days.
Yesterday: a volcano pendant. Didn't turn out as planned...had a hard time with it actually, but the longer I have it for, the more I like it.
It's made of silver and that is an orange sapphire.
Today: my completed shrine to Brighid. Painting this took a LOT out of me. But through the experience of setting up the shrine and doing my first shift work, I learned a LOT about this recent depression.
My indigo body painting
Hi. Antiochus got a concerned e-mail from Gaius and remembered this place. Any classics have been thrown aside for everything that's been happening lately.
I've been accepted into college. I am currently working on one of 17 scholarship essays. I just finished my last first semester of high school; no more gym class for the rest of my life. Yes! I applied for a high-paying summer job designed for college-bound students. Current economic conditions are jeopardizing it. My very expensive new
I'm still fighting the depression. It's largely situational...so while I don't know exactly what is causing some of it, I do know that once things 'settle down' it should improve. I really hope and pray that that is soon, too. I wonder just how much more I can take.
I joined a Brighid flamekeeping Cill over on TC. Tomorrow is the beginning of my first shift, and I'm building a shrine to her tomorrow evening. I'm happy that I will have the house to myself for that. I don't know what all will
This is a little late in coming as it goes to subscribers first.
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My Children:
The babbling and lying is all over in Iowa! But the air-waves are still polluted with the gas heads' condescending explanations of how, when, where, and why. Look, this is how it stands:
Rev. Huckleberry vs Obama :: Faith vs Hope. No Charity whatsoever.
Headlines in November:
Obama Sweeps South Carolina, Florida, and Ohio. Wins By Landslide.
Rev. Hucklebe
I just wish I could gather all the establishment conservatives like Limbaugh, Delay, Hannity, Savage, et alia and bury them alive because they are too damn stupid to realize that they won't win 08 if they freaking support Romney. This is the first time(in maturity) that I can recall that Republicans can be so childish and stupid. Gosh darn!
Picture a busy day in the Warehouse. Sheets and sheets and sheets of orders are appearing in AD's hands as he emerges flustered from the offices. Our tame forklifter is depositing pallet after pallet from the racks. His quiet smile is very disturbing.
Finally AD and his boss saunter off to their high level meeting. Time now to go into the offfice, sit down, and catch up with some of those tiny administrative duties that are such good excuses for an easy time. Close the door, shut the windows
Oh dear.... The floor of the warehouse is crumbling under the weight of the forklifts trundling back and forth. The builders are in, cutting gaping holes in the floor, filling them with concrete, and getting miffed when they discover lumps of cement nearby or a forklifter knocking plastic cones aside.
The guy who fixed the electrics in our porta-palace finally finished wiring up our area today, and slowly (expertly) manoevered his cherry-picker out onto the main aisle, whereupon his platform
Well, it's official. I just sent off my first paper, with the hopes that it will get published.
Ok, let's not get our egos pumped up hugely here. It's a working paper, meaning that it's not posing a 'novel' idea per se, rather it's going to lead to a bigger, better paper. Also, the chances of it getting published are slim...you just can't expect everything you send off to be published. But still...there's a sense of accomplishment associated with this. I have officially taken the next
Don't you just love large corporations? They can afford the glossy ads with happy smiling people, promising all manner of wondrous success with their economically priced and desirable goods. The reality of course is that they're in business, and really their only oncern is how much cash they can extract from your pocket. So when things don't go to plan, and the badly designed product doesn't meet expectations, naturally you get miffed and raise objections, and perhaps unsuprisingly, the large fa
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php?semesterid=27
There's some interesting courses that I haven't seen in the previous semesters:
Shakespeare
Modern Physics: From the Atom to Big Science
The Making of Modern Europe, 1453 to the Present
Introduction to Design of Human Work Systems and Organizations
Information Law and Policy
Existentialism in Literature and Film
American Politics:Campaign Strategy - Media
Developmental Psychopathology
Introduction to Practical Reasoning and Cr