Indigo Incarnates
Imbolc Stuff: First, I wanted to say that the Imbolc service at Turning Circle was very enjoyable. Since it's the Friday closest to Imbolc, the service honored Bridget, the Celtic goddess of blacksmithing, fire, poetry, and healing.
As usual, we had difficulties with the cigarette lighters. I was smart this time, however, since I brought my own. It was a gift from Doug. It runs on propane instead of regular lighter fluid, so it sounds like an itty-bitty welding torch, hee hee. :)
I'm leading a rites in February and March. They are going to be a full moon ritual, but I'm writing it in such a way that it could be used for Imbolc (February) or as a general winter ritual and Ostara (March) or as a general spring ritual.
Moving on to the "soul freezing" part: Yes, it is nine degrees outside. We live in Baltimore, so we’re just not supposed to get single-digit temperatures – even in winter. Tomorrow is Imbolc, so winter is supposed to be halfway over, but you’d never know it. The furnace is running 24/7 but the house is still cold. I really need some favorable weather.
On the bright side, Turning Circle rarely holds outdoor rituals.
I’m almost finished writing the ritual for February. It’s a luck ritual, and I can’t think of anyone who couldn’t use a bit of luck these days. Certainly the economy isn’t doing anyone any favors, that’s for sure.
Rant #1: The iPad. So, I was cracking up as Steve Jobs & Co. were extolling the virtues of the ever-blessed iPad computer. Lemme tell ya: “iPad” sounds like a feminine hygiene product for starters. The device costs between $500-$800 but has some *serious* limitations. For instance, although it has a touch screen, it cannot do handwriting recognition or signature capture (so the shipping companies won’t be using it). It’s lacking an IR sensor or any kind of optical device (so it’s useless for scanning/managing inventory). It doesn’t run Windows or Mac OS/X, so you can forget about word processing, spreadsheet, etc. Thus, Corporate America is going to take a pass on this gadget. For personal use, it’s also crippled. With it3lacking a USB port, you won’t be able to watch movies via portable DVD drive. The proprietary operating system also cannot support Flash content, so you won’t be able to watch Netflix or other types of animated, multimedia entertainment. It doesn’t have a SD card slot, so the only way to transfer files from one iPad to another device is to email the file. And that, of course, brings me to Apple’s unholy marriage to AT&T. With an iPad, your ONLY choice in 3G internet is AT&T. While they are not the worst service provider, they fall way behind Verizon for coverage. An iPad on the AT&T network will be operating at EDGE speed, not 3G speed, much more often than AT&T would like to admit. (The latter is four times faster than the former). Oh, and the iPad cannot multitask. So you have to close the current application before opening a new application. Uh… computers have had multitasking capabilities since 1988. That was 22 years ago, Stevie! Finally, for laying out $500, you get a whopping 32 GB storage space. Whoooopie! Even a bare-bones Netbook has 160 Gb of storage, two USB ports, multitasking capabilities, and a card slot – usually for $349.
Rant #2: Obama: Oh… so I noticed that Obama has been in office for a whole year and NOTHING has improved. I guess we should have seen that, since Obama is a lazy, lying Chicago politician. Other than formulating a bad healthcare bill and buying his daughter a dog, he broke EVERY promise he made in 2008. The *real* unemployment rate (the U-6 figure, not just people collecting unemployment) is now 17% – basically it doubled since Obama took office. He spent $1.2 trillion in one year that was nothing but fat, padded pork for the megacorporations. He stabbed the GLBT community squarely between the shoulder blades when he backed DOMA and DATA, as well as removing from his website any reference that he had ever supported gay rights. He also then compared homosexuality to incest. He won’t close Gitmo. He won’t end the war. He won’t revoke the Patriot Act. He won’t end earmarks and lobbying. And if the closed-door meetings concerning the healthcare bill are any indicator, he certainly isn’t interested in “transparency in government”. Yeah, I guess by 2012, we’ll probably get stuck with a super-majority of hard-core rightwing Republican bigots in the House and Senate thanks to Obama’s gross incompetence. I wish he’d do the honorable thing and resign.
[ add comment ] ( 2 views ) permalink Imbolc Stuff: First, I wanted to say that the Imbolc service at Turning Circle was very enjoyable. Since it's the Friday closest to Imbolc, the service honored Bridget, the Celtic goddess of blacksmithing, fire, poetry, and healing.
As usual, we had difficulties with the cigarette lighters. I was smart this time, however, since I brought my own. It was a gift from Doug. It runs on propane instead of regular lighter fluid, so it sounds like an itty-bitty welding torch, hee hee. :)
I'm leading a rites in February and March. They are going to be a full moon ritual, but I'm writing it in such a way that it could be used for Imbolc (February) or as a general winter ritual and Ostara (March) or as a general spring ritual.
Moving on to the "soul freezing" part: Yes, it is nine degrees outside. We live in Baltimore, so we’re just not supposed to get single-digit temperatures – even in winter. Tomorrow is Imbolc, so winter is supposed to be halfway over, but you’d never know it. The furnace is running 24/7 but the house is still cold. I really need some favorable weather.
On the bright side, Turning Circle rarely holds outdoor rituals.
I’m almost finished writing the ritual for February. It’s a luck ritual, and I can’t think of anyone who couldn’t use a bit of luck these days. Certainly the economy isn’t doing anyone any favors, that’s for sure.
Rant #1: The iPad. So, I was cracking up as Steve Jobs & Co. were extolling the virtues of the ever-blessed iPad computer. Lemme tell ya: “iPad” sounds like a feminine hygiene product for starters. The device costs between $500-$800 but has some *serious* limitations. For instance, although it has a touch screen, it cannot do handwriting recognition or signature capture (so the shipping companies won’t be using it). It’s lacking an IR sensor or any kind of optical device (so it’s useless for scanning/managing inventory). It doesn’t run Windows or Mac OS/X, so you can forget about word processing, spreadsheet, etc. Thus, Corporate America is going to take a pass on this gadget. For personal use, it’s also crippled. With it3lacking a USB port, you won’t be able to watch movies via portable DVD drive. The proprietary operating system also cannot support Flash content, so you won’t be able to watch Netflix or other types of animated, multimedia entertainment. It doesn’t have a SD card slot, so the only way to transfer files from one iPad to another device is to email the file. And that, of course, brings me to Apple’s unholy marriage to AT&T. With an iPad, your ONLY choice in 3G internet is AT&T. While they are not the worst service provider, they fall way behind Verizon for coverage. An iPad on the AT&T network will be operating at EDGE speed, not 3G speed, much more often than AT&T would like to admit. (The latter is four times faster than the former). Oh, and the iPad cannot multitask. So you have to close the current application before opening a new application. Uh… computers have had multitasking capabilities since 1988. That was 22 years ago, Stevie! Finally, for laying out $500, you get a whopping 32 GB storage space. Whoooopie! Even a bare-bones Netbook has 160 Gb of storage, two USB ports, multitasking capabilities, and a card slot – usually for $349.
Rant #2: Obama: Oh… so I noticed that Obama has been in office for a whole year and NOTHING has improved. I guess we should have seen that, since Obama is a lazy, lying Chicago politician. Other than formulating a bad healthcare bill and buying his daughter a dog, he broke EVERY promise he made in 2008. The *real* unemployment rate (the U-6 figure, not just people collecting unemployment) is now 17% – basically it doubled since Obama took office. He spent $1.2 trillion in one year that was nothing but fat, padded pork for the megacorporations. He stabbed the GLBT community squarely between the shoulder blades when he backed DOMA and DATA, as well as removing from his website any reference that he had ever supported gay rights. He also then compared homosexuality to incest. He won’t close Gitmo. He won’t end the war. He won’t revoke the Patriot Act. He won’t end earmarks and lobbying. And if the closed-door meetings concerning the healthcare bill are any indicator, he certainly isn’t interested in “transparency in government”. Yeah, I guess by 2012, we’ll probably get stuck with a super-majority of hard-core rightwing Republican bigots in the House and Senate thanks to Obama’s gross incompetence. I wish he’d do the honorable thing and resign.
( 3 / 1097 )
Calendar
