Lost_Warrior

EWW ::shudders:: that's just awful! Not sure why that bothers me more than the rest of it though LOL. On the other hand, it does mean a nifty way to dispose of the bodies *as well as* kill the victims.

Thanks!! I haven't heard back yet, but I'm hoping too!

Well I talked to the guy who would have been my boss today. He said that he really was only looking for a subcontractor (and that I really hadn't made an issue by calling too much; I and my friend had both blown it out of proportion). I'm unable to be a subcontractor until I have a shop to work in, but I said I'd give him a call as soon as I had a place to work. He asked for my number as well which shows me he definitely is interested. He also filled me in on the name of the guy in Beaver Lake. I had been looking for him. So I went to yellowpages.com and searched for the guy in Beaver Lake...I found two that seemed likely and the first one I called was it. I left a message, I hope he calls me back. Wouldn't it be awesome if he could use another set of hands in the shop?!

I just bought a new Celtic CD and I found this weird statement on the back of the case: "The Ancient Celts, like the Hindu's with whom they were so closely connected, believed in the transmigration of the never dying soul." Now, ignoring the questionable "transmigration" bit (I had thought the Celts had no concept of reincarnation) what about the Celts and Hindu's being connected to each other? I had thought they didn't even know of each others' existence, let alone that they were "closely connected".

I got home yesterday (finally! It was great to be able to sleep in my own bed!). I went into my old work just to say hi and ran into my friend. She seemed angry with me, it turns out that the reason the job I thought I had wasn't working out as planned was because a) I had been calling my perspective boss' house (I was given that number and I had assumed they had a home office; it didn't make sense that I would be given his *home* phone number!!) I called a few too many times (even though I was told to call back later in hopes of catching him!) and c) I was following some very well meaning advice that obviously I shouldn't have followed. Basically, I was a bit overzealous and in trying to secure a job, I pissed off the guy's wife and blew it. I hope I didn't get my friend who had hooked me up with the guy in trouble; I don't think I said anything that would put him in a difficult position if things didn't work out (I was careful not to do that!) but I don't know what *he* said. I guess I can't do anything about how far he chooses to stick his neck out; but I still feel responsible. I'm going to call him tonight, and I'll call the guy I was going to work for tomorrow. Basically I'm going to say something like "I'm sorry I kept calling your house, honestly I thought that you had a home office and did not realize that I'd been given your home phone number. I didn't mean to cause any disruption in calling to tell you when I'd be back in town, I was following well meaning advice that I shouldn't have followed. If you still want to talk to me we'll set something up and if not, just tell me now and I'll go away, no hard feelings." I'm not too worried about not getting the job, I know I can make something work. I've got more than one back up plan! I *am* kicking myself in the butt though! I came home and the energy here is much better than it was when I left. I still feel a bit pissy whenever I'm here and I don't entirely know why. I guess I have to work on the energy here, because this doesn't happen elsewhere. I see my mom has a lot of new books that I might like to read. I started one called "Sexual Life in Ancient Rome" or something like that (can't remember now) and though it's written in a style that's a bit dry, it is very interesting.

I believe that they wore chainmail, and chain mail is extremely heavy (a mail shirt can weigh 40 lbs, and the clibanarii's armor covered their entire body). I saw a sketch of one (I'm unsure of it's historical accuracy) that showed a conical helmet and a mail "robe" that covered his entire body from his head to his feet. The horse was fully armored as well.

Aww, now I actually like the well made ceramic nomes. The brightly colored plastic veriety, not so much. I wonder when the flamingo craze will die off. My neighbor once had cows in her yard, and even in her trees. She did it to annoy her daughter.

I know, I love that one. It was written by Warhorse and originally posted on The Cauldron.

I finally got to New Hope today, and I finally got my gemstone runestones! They are made of sunstone, and they are beautiful! I actually first bought a set of rainbow moonstone ones, but I couldn't connect with them, like there was a shield around them and they wanted nothing to do with me. I couldn't stop thinking about the sunstone ones! I swear they were calling me so loudly I couldn't ignore it, so I actually went back and asked if I could trade the moonstone ones I'd just bought for the sunstone ones! The guy was confused at first, but he let me. I felt really weird asking, but I couldn't leave the other ones there. The little sunstone guys seem quite happy with me...and the moonstone ones must have been meant for someone else; I do hope they find their home soon. It's actually kind of annoying being "called" by objects so strongly. I also finally got my dragon's blood perfume oil. I had some, but it was fake, and the smell was similar to Lady Stetson (to which I'm allergic) with undertones of dragon's blood. I had to force myself to get used to it (after nearly violent reactions to the scent). This stuff smells nothing like that, it's sweet, and flowery, and woodsy all at once. And it smells like *home*. I love it. Plus, it is long lasting (by long lasting I mean I took a shower...and the smell is still on me! the fake stuff is like that as well, but not as noticeably.) The funny thing is, they were out of the oil that they carry that I like so much, so I had to go with a different brand. I got to smell some of the stuff they had left (not enough for a whole bottle) and I actually really like this better! If they had had theirs, I probably wouldn't have gotten this. All in all I had a really good day. I am really excited to go home (for one thing, I want to see how my myrrh oil turned out after 8 weeks or so!) and it'll be great to be in my own bed again (plus, this bedroom is so small. I literally have to vault over the bed to get from one side of the room to the other!). I also can't wait to get my own shop set up. I haven't actually worked with my runes yet but I hopefully will start doing that tomorrow. I just wish I could get to my google bookmarks on this computer; I have a link to a really good rune site that I can't remember the name of.

OOps Pertinax I accidentally called you Pantagathus. I should refrain from posting when I'm tired, sorry about that. GPM: I'm not entirely sure yet. I haven't written the ritual out yet at all; there's still a lot of work to be done before I get to that point!

Ursus: I live in the eastern part of PA. My dad's is more east central or southeast (is east central a correct term?) but I actually live in the northeastern PA. There aren't a lot of jobs or people where I live, but I still love it. Gets lonely and difficult sometimes though. Pantagathus: I LOVE that poem!! Where on earth did you find it?? Being a hard polytheist, I'd have to disagree with the last bit, but the rest is pure gold!

I don't think there was much in the way of a concept of Original Sin, except for in the cases of mystery cults such as Ursus mentioned. I have never encountered much in the way of "sin" in writings about ancient paganism. I'm sure they did have a concept *similar* to "sin" but I'm not sure I would call it "sin". (I'm not sure what I would call it though.) They certainly had a concept of ticking the gods off and being on the receiving end of their wrath! They did have a concept of reward and punishment in the afterlife, but it's rather vague. There was Elysium and Tartarus (roughly comparable to "heaven" and "hell") but if I recall correctly not everyone went to one of those two places. Only the heroes were rewarded in Elysium and only the vilest of villains (and maybe politicians! ) were punished in Tartarus.

Well, I'm back safe and sound in PA. I really missed Pennsylvania, and any thoughts I once had of moving out west are now completely gone. I love this place. Yesterday we went to Green Dragon...it's a HUGE flea market both indoors and outdoors. It's enormous. I didn't buy anything but a sno cone and a pretzel, but I had a good time just checking everything out. This afternoon my cousin is getting married. It's going to be so weird that Becky is going to be a Pearson instead of a McJilton! Ack! I'm really happy for her though; I hope she and her new husband are very happy. I made her a vase full of silk flowers for a wedding gift, and painted their names, and the date they will be married on it. I've come to the conclusion that my family has figured out that I'm Pagan, but are ignoring it. I'm not going to rock the boat and bring it up, they are rather Fundamentalist Christian (I wouldn't go so far as to call most of them "Fundy"...at least, if they were once, they've mellowed out quite a bit). The other day I officially dedicated myself to Morrigan. I've been dedicated to her for years, I just did it officially in ceremony the other day. Short, to the point, and spontaneous. I'm not sure why exactly she wanted me to do it but I did it anyway. Half the time I have no clue why gods want me to do things. I wrote a few more posts for Love, Hope and Life and I put in a table of contents. Breaks things up into slightly different categories and lists every post on the same page. It was a pain, now I'm just going to have to remember to update it every time I write a new post. I'm working on getting everything "set up" and then I'm going to initiate myself....on the surface it seems like an initiation is rather pointless, but it feels like the right thing to do. Plus, I want the experience of how ritual initiations work so that if I'm ever working on one for someone else, I'm not "flying blind". If I'm going to screw it up or have some sort of unforeseen undesired consequence, I want it to happen to me and not someone I'm working with. Today I finally was able to speak to my friend, who is having a very rough time of it. It's a huge load off my mind to hear from her that she's doing quite well. I am still worried about her, and have been for some time; but it was nice knowing that she's alive and well, and that the prospects for her future are indeed bright. Tomorrow I'm going to New Hope and it promises to be an excellent day!! I'm going to get some Dragon's Blood oil (real thing, and scented. Not the fake stuff I have now, or alternately the stuff that has no scent) and a set of Rune stones. I have been looking for the Runes but haven't found them yet, I know where I will probably get them. They're calling me, I think I'm ready for them now.

UNRV is WONDERFUL and thanks for making it such a cool place to hang out. So many webforums I see are not that good, there might be a huge wealth of information but it's poorly run, or there is far too much drama to have it be worth staying, and some just never take off to begin with. This place is excellently managed; I am wishing that the pagan forums I go to would be like this. I guess it just goes to show that people never lose interest in Rome!

No, sadly I died along the way. LOL It looks like it's time for another blog post. Not right now though, I'm headed off to Green Dragon in a few.

Bio and chemistry!! I loved bio...chemistry I liked, but I wasn't *in love* with it like I was biology. Don't take the AP chem courses unless you want them for college...the test is evil. Welcome to blogging!

Wasn't there a battle somewhere in Gaul or Britain where the Romans were defeated by warriors dropping out of the trees on them?

LOL you don't shoe cows silly!! I don't shoe horses anyway; I do ornamental stuff.

No actually I don't follow Brigid at all. I follow Morrigan, who through total UPG (unverified personal gnosis) I believe forges her own weapons. It became SPG (shared personal gnosis) when two other people described similar ideas. But as for Brigid, last time I tried talking to her the response I got was "You're not mine; go bug your mother!"

Oh but playing with fire is SO MUCH FUN!! ::is trying very hard to make a career of playing with fire:: Fire is an addiction. Seriously. Don't get started. Congrats on the AP score! Those tests are evil! I know, I took (and passed) two of them (4 on English and 3 on Chem). What AP class were you taking?

I'm going back to PA tonight at 3 25 AM (yay?). I'm exhausted and so NOT looking forward to the trip. I am really going to miss being out here in MN and working with Al. I've learned so much, I can't wait to get my own shop set up and see what I can do! The birdbath stand that was such a pain in the ass got taken out by some wind, it's a real shame after all I went through with it. It was a good project though, I learned a lot. We went to Raven Works Forge and I got to meet Joel and Sue; they're really cool, and I had a great time talking to them. I learned so much just from seeing things from a different perspective. It was so inspiring. Yesterday and today I worked on a "letter opener" that turned into a mini replica of an Amazon war spear with a Norse Rune engraved handle (Uruz, if you must know. I'm thinking of getting it tattooed on me somewhere. My ankle maybe?) It was a lot of work but I'm finally happy with the result. Wish it was a little sharper. I also made an armband that kind of matches my tattoo. I'm totally psyched about it and can't wait to wear it everywhere and show it off! Fire is such a fun addiction.... I got some bad news this morning, apparently the place I had a job lined up for is not hiring a full time blacksmith (of course, this came from the boss' wife, not himself. I just asked her to take a message for me that I'd be home in two weeks). I was a little taken aback by it but I'm not that upset. While I don't feel completely ready to set up my own shop yet (I'm not talking about hanging a sign and being an official business...just having a place to work on my own stuff) it looks like I'm going to have to and to be honest, I'm quite excited about it! I just wish I had more money to start out with. I don't want to have to get a loan...I've got my mom on it; if anyone can ferret out an opportunity, she can! Of course this means that my NEPA newsletter might not be able to be in print like I wanted; at least not unless advertising can cover the costs. That's OK with me, although of course it's a disappointment. I can always do it the free online way! I've been busy, and I didn't get to read all the books I had planned to or all the writing done either...I guess I'm just not the bookworm I used to be. I would say I'll get alot of it done on the train but I know I won't. I'm hoping to sleep as much as I possibly can. I am really not looking forward to the train ride over two days. It's only two layovers and shouldn't be as harrowing as the ride out here but at the same time I'm nervous about it. I don't like giving up control. Next time I come out here I'm definitely going to drive...driving is fun, and I really enjoy long trips in the car. On the train, not so much. See you Sunday night! (or Monday morning).

Our newest member, Karenadl of Graubenau, is my friend Kathy (who I've been staying with for the past 5 weeks). She loves all things herbal and all things fiber and also used to do reenactments and various fantasy sci-fi cons.

::hugs:: you have my sympathy. May your father live long in Elysium!

YEEEOW!!! Is there any record of the success/failure of this operation? (or the death rate from things going wrong??)

I rarely leave the forum; I was aware that there was a newsletter, but I'm not a big fan of newsletters. I've "got my fingers in too many pies" so to speak and they quickly clog up my inbox.