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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
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8:10 pm - Midsummer Ritual
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Shining Lakes Grove had its Midsummer ritual today. It was a good rite, we had a good omen and no one died.
I wore my new ritual outfit and I looked quite good if I do say so.
We had tons of rain Friday night which made starting our fire rather complicated. But there was no rain today, although the ground at our ritual area was rather soggy.
As is our custom we honored Bel and Danu as primal father and mother since the summer solltice is the time of the sun's strength. At Yule, we honor Danu and Bel and celebrate the gifts of Danu.
We incorporated something new. After each Kindred was welcomed, we took a brief moment to feel Their presence among us. Normally we never bothered, but I think it helps focus everyone on the devotional aspects of the ritual.
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| Monday, May 25th, 2009
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11:58 pm - Back from Wellspring
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Liz and I are back from Wellspring and we had a great time.
We arrived at Brushwood around 4:30pm and set up our tent with Tear of the Cloud Grove. They are wonderful people! After getting set up I cooked up some hamburgers and we just hung out. We did go to the opening ritual which was good. I love hearing Ian lead ritual. Most of Thursday was saying hello to folks
We stayed up late and hit the hot tub before going to bed.
I never actually made it to any workshops aver the weekend, but did make the annual meeting for the first time. We mostly hung out all day.
A few highlights:
I was involved in a healing rite for Flip from Grove of the Midnight Sun who is battling tonsil cancer. That was pretty neat. We did a variation of a healing rite done be Jane Sibley. This entails forming a circle, gathering energy from everyone and then channeling it towards the person needing healing. Normally the person to be healed is present, but since Flip is in Northern Michigan, we had to improvise. I was chosen as the conduit for the energy because I'm familiar with Flip and where he lives. I used Rún Valdr to both connect with Flip and to set up an energy conduit to him. I also set up energy conduits between all the participants and myself as well. I barely felt the energy, alhough I'm sure it was a significant amount. I'm thinking I did a good job on the conduits. What struck me the most was the quality of the energy. It was very smooth, silky even.
Tear of the Cloud Grove did a Memorial Day ritual to honor those who died in battle for the country. It was a very moving ritual and there were quite a few tears shed. One point of interest was that those running the ritual all wore suits and ties (well except for Gretchen, who didn't have a tie).
I helped out with the Warrior Games, mostly by grading and tallying the results of the riddle contest. I got the highest score in archery, the only thing I competed in.
The major high point for me was the main rite which was to start the ADF Initiatory Program. Fox, the previous Arch Druid made the trip up just for this ritual and then left again afterwards. It was a fantastic ritual. The Deities of Occasion were Manannan as Gatekeeper, the Earth Mother and the Elder Wise. The Elder Wise are those Ancestors who had been Priests, Magicians, Druids, etc. The ritual was led by the women of ADF, and in particular, Sue Parker, and there were several really cool things done. First, three women did each of the Kindred welcoming. That was really neat.
Secondly, when it was time to bring in the three Arch Druid Emeriti and the current Arch Druid they were led by young girls. Then before they could enter the main ritual area (which has three openings), they each were challenged by two women and asked what their oath would be. After giving the oath, the women decided amongst themselves whether it was good enough and then allowed to enter. Each of the three openings were used. I really liked the choreography of this section of the ritual.
Then the four Initiatory candidates held hands in the very center, while they were surrounded by 9 women holding hands. Each of the ritual participants were asked to hold hands. The same energy raising that was used for the healing rite was used and we sent energy towards the women who would then channel the energy into the men. I learned later that during this energy raising, they were chanting names of different goddesses.
After this, the men led the Unity part, where all the names of the Groves of ADF were read from oldest to youngest. My Grove was like number 6 or so.
Before closing things up they had announcements and the winners of the Artisan contest and Warrior Games were made known. Then the women closed the ritual.
For me it was a very powerful and well run ritual. The level of choreography needed to keep things running smoothly was immense. Afterwards, I kept saying that this is how ritual should be. However, with all the people involved, I doubt any one Grove would be able to pull it off. Only at festivals are there enough people to draw upon.
The weekend was brought to a close Monday as we packed up, said our good byes and made our way home. I'm looking forward to next year and our campsite will be done up in Auto CAD. I find that after going to all the rituals through out the weekend that I would like to incorporate some into how my Grove does things.
Overall it was a great weekend.
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| Friday, May 15th, 2009
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8:37 am - Mercury in Retrograde correction
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I was wrong about when Mercury went retrograde. I went retrograde May 7-8 and will go direct on May 30. Didn't mean to add a whole month of madness.
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8:35 am - That State thing all the cool kids are doing
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| Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
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7:48 pm - Windows 7
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So I signed up for the Windows 7 OS beta awhile back, but never loaded the software.
Then I got an e-mail that I was eligible for the Windows 7 Release Candidate try out. This will last until June 2010, however after March or May 2010 it will shut down every two hours until I actually buy the OS. I downloaded both the 32 bit and the 64 bit versions and installed the 64 bit one.
For those who are not familiar with Windows 7, it is what Vista should have been but failed horribly at being. Vista had double the RAM needs of XP, was bloated, clumsy and awkward. Windows 7 has RAM requirements similar to XP, is faster as they re-did the kernaling system (don't ask me, I'm not sure), and just over all better.
I must say that I really like Windows 7. It's very pretty, quick and I can finally use all 4 gigs of my RAM. There were a couple of games that I had that were not really xp compatible that work great now. One was Halo 2, which was a Vista only game. I had found a program that would let me install and run it under XP, but it wasn't ideal. Now it works great. The other was FakeFactory which re-skins parts of the Half Life 2 games, mostly replacing people with higher res skins. Most notable was the change in Alyx, your NPC cohort who now looks like the Victoria Secret model Adriana Lima.
The only program I haven't had luck runnig is AVG antivirus. So I installed Avast instead, which works fine.
I will definitely buy this when it goes live.
current mood:  good
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| Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
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9:13 pm - Throwback Pepsi products
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So Liz and I got a 12 pack of Mountain Dew Throwback and Pepsi Throwback at Krogers yesterday. It uses sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.
Man is this stuff good!
It is so much better than the other stuff. I must have missed it when the high fructose corn syrup was introduced, but now, the sugar stuff is less sickingly sweet than before. It has a lighter cleaner kind of taste.
What a difference real sugar makes.
current mood: happy
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5:10 pm - Mature Meme
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| Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
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8:30 am - Mercury is in retrograde
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Mercury went retrograde yesterday.
Run for your lives!!!
Or rather, since running is a form of travel, maybe you should walk slowly and carefully, looking both ways for your lives.
Mercury will turn direct May 30.
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| Sunday, April 5th, 2009
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4:17 pm - The most amazing thing I have ever seen
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| Monday, March 23rd, 2009
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8:08 pm - I saw something awesome
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So I'm coming home from work and get onto I-14 heading into Ann Arbor and suddenly there was a huge back-up. It ended up being an accident. Looked like two semi trucks had an accident. One cab was just crushed. It totally closed down the freeway.
Anyway, the accident was just past the exit for a little service drive thing that crosses two other streets. I figured I would get off the freeway, stay on the service drive and just get back on.
Just as I passed the sign announcing the exit in a half mile, some idiot started driving on the side of the road that is reserved for emergency vehicles. It never fails that in situations like this people get impatient and do stupid things. It always pisses me off that people would just drive where they are not suppose to because they can't wait 10 freaking minutes.
But here's where the awesomness happens. After the first idiot drives by, other people start to make their way into the emergency lane. Then the pick-up truck behind me moves over and I'm thinking, "Don't you do it!" But then he just stays behind my car, keeping all the other idiots from moving past our position. It was so cool.
He stayed there until we were all safely on the exit ramp and on the service drive.
But the awesomeness doesn't end there. The first road you come to is Miller. Now if you were to turn left and go a hundred yards you would be where my Grove has its outdoor rituals. But you have to yield to traffic traveling along Miller. I was anticipating this taking a long time. But there was a State Trooper there directing traffic and I was waved along across Miller.
Next road is Maple. This has a little traffic circle thing so I had a better feeling about this. However, another State Trooper passed me and also started directing traffic, so I was waved on again. Then it was a quick trip back onto the freeway and then home.
Only to find that Liz had gotten home before me. I was driving her car, so this means that I will get to drive my car tomorrow! I love driving my car. It's not so much that I'm driving a vehicle, but feels like I can run really fast without getting tired. It is so responsive and light.
Also, City of Heroes next issue is in open testing on the test server. The big thing is the Mission Architect. This allows you to create your own missions including custom created enemy groups and even allies. You get to pick the map, mission objectives, write all the intro stuff, NPC dialog and stuff. It is so cool. User created content for an MMO FTW!!!!
The test server keeps crashing because so many people are on it to try out the new feature. Sometimes the test server gets full and a second one opens up to take the overflow. I have never seen this happen before, no matter how cool the issue content was.
So even thought you can't create maps from scratch yet, it is still freaking cool.
And tonight is new Chuck and Heroes.
I'm living in Awesomeville!
current mood: awesome
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| Thursday, March 19th, 2009
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10:13 pm - Supernatural
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Wow, great episode of Supernatural.
Really good stuff.
I like the episodes with the angels and this did not disappoint.
Despite being Pagan, I have a fascination with angels. I'm not a big believer in the whole cute, cuddly nice beings, but recall that when God needed a disaster, He sent angels.
I think it is the whole Grace thing that I find interesting. They are powerful and quite beyond humanity. It's kind of hard to explain.
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| Saturday, March 14th, 2009
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11:25 pm - Yearly Profit Sharing Check.
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Well, on Friday my company distributed the yearly profit sharing checks. I wasn't too sure I would get one since I have not been there a whole year yet, but I did.
So today Liz and I went shopping and I bought her a new vacuum cleaner, since our old one died. We got a Dyson Ball, model D25, for all floors. The yellow one. It's pretty cool and the ball really does make a huge difference in terms of maneuverability. And when I say I bought her a new vacuum cleaner it should be noted that I do most of the vacuuming.
Then I bought her an electric guitar. It's not a very fancy one, but it's a real electric guitar. She had been wanting one for a long time now.
I found a good site that gives free lessons. It's justinguitar.com. There are lots of lessons, all for free, from tuning the guitar up to very fancy stuff. There's even a forum where you can compare notes with other beginners.
We have enough left over to have dinner at a fairly nice restaurant. We are leaning towards sushi/sashimi. Possibly Saica which is near us and is a very nice place.
current mood: happy
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| Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
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8:34 am - Sick
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I went home yesterday because I was queasy and throwing up.
I felt pretty good today until I started throwing up again. So I called in to work to let them know I was staying home.
Not sure what the deal is. My stomach kind of hurts, but I don't think I have a fever or anything. Just nauseated.
I think I'll go back to bed.
current mood:  sick
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| Monday, February 9th, 2009
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8:39 pm - Obama
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I'm sitting here watching the Obama Address on tv and am flabbergasted. This is unlike any other presidental address I've seen. There's no bullhshit. No shifting of blame. No dodging questions. Just honest answers addressing real problems in a sane and rational way with obvious insight and intelligence.
This is totally refreshing.
No president since Carter would be able to stand there and do the same thing. And I doubt Carter could have pulled it off. I can actually believe that Obama wants to help the citizens of the country and not just play politics like everyone else (including Clinton).
We have the coolest president evar! I'm so glad I voted for him!
current mood: happy
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| Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
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11:32 pm - Now Wacom Art Tablet
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My new Wacom Intuos3 6x8 art tablet arrived today.
I did this with it after playing with it for 20 minutes or so.
current mood:  accomplished
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| Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
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7:37 pm - Plumbing
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Yesterday morning I noticed that the basement toilet wasn't flushing properly.
This morning I noticed water bubbling up from the drain in the laundry room. And not in a good way.
So I stayed home to wait for Mr. Rooter to show up, which was around 4pm or so.
They snaked out the drain which took all of a minute and as a plus, installed a new disposal in the kitchen sink, as our old one was pretty much dead.
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| Thursday, December 25th, 2008
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1:30 pm
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We will be having Christmas tomorrow instead of today because Liz wasn't feeling well. She's feeling better today and is looking forward to tomorrow.
I asked for money this year so I could get a Wacom art tablet.
Liz floated me some money and I ordered a Wacom 6x8 Intuos3 tablet today. Cost was $250.89 on sale with free shipping. Normal price is $329.99. I had to hurry because the sale ends tomorrow. It was on Digital Graphics Resoeurces.
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| Saturday, December 20th, 2008
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6:31 pm - Yay
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I woke up today to find that the subdivision had been plowed.
I was able to make it to ritual. Liz made soup for me to take and everyone loved it.
We only had 10 people total show up for the ritual, which is very small, but there was lots of food. It's strange that at a ritual where 30 people show up everyone brings cookies for the Feast afterwards. But only 10, there were 3 things in crockpots.
But we had a good omen and no one died, so it was a good ritual.
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| Friday, December 19th, 2008
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11:03 pm - Ritual tomorrow?
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My subdivision is extremely heavy with snow. I hope I can make it to my Grove's ritual tomorrow.
My Senior Druid was over at our house for our flame lighting. Normally we light a fire the night before the ritual, but with the snowy season, we just have a candle lighting at our house. We also decorated ornaments for the return blessing.
He got stuck trying to get out of the subdivision. Liz and I spent a half hour pushing the car.
My fear is that I won't be able to make it out until the roads get plowed. The problem is that I have all the ritual stuff sitting in my car.
I think this ritual is cursed.
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| Saturday, December 6th, 2008
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4:49 pm - The weekend
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So Liz is out of town this weekend visiting her aunt in St. Joseph, MI leaving me all alone.
She gave me lots of money for food, so don't worry.
As I ponder my aloneness, I am reminded of a certain time in my youth when my twin brother went off to Safety Camp for a week during the summer between 4th and 5th grade. He had been made Safety Captain and it was required that he go to the camp.
This meant that I was alone for a whole week. Being a twin is the definition of sharing. Even though we are not identical, my brother and I shared everything. It was terrible not having my twin around. I was quite relieved when he finaly came back.
I've always felt that being married is kind of an extension of the twin experience. It has the same level of sharing. I miss my wife when she's not here.
I woke up around 2pm today, got showered and dressed and then broke out the snow blower to clear the driveway and sidewalk.
I imagine I will spend a bit of time playing City of Heroes and Lord of the Rings Online today.
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