Τό γυναικεῖον τῆς Ὑπατίας - An Áit Bhanda na Hypatia - Hypatia's Gynaeceum

Spent Christmas with assorted siblings, nieces, nephews, and one great-nephew. My family are a bunch of funny, snarktastic, singing, story-telling weirdos. It's a crowd where I can mention having told a story they haven't heard and my older sister will ask me to tell it...we do not believe in getting too old to listen to stories (or in having heard them too often, for that matter).

Which reminds me, I need to work on my story repertoire. I am planning to go to the Southern Order of Storytellers' Winter StoryFest in January, and may sign up for the open mic this year. There are occasionally paying gigs through them and now that the grad school crazy is over I can make myself available for those, but to do that I need to have more stories I can tell off the top of my head. There are a couple of Jack tales that I like but need to come up with my own versions of, and I need to re-memorize "The Raven Princess."

William Blake Lodge, O.T.O.
2010 Calendar of Events

Website: http://www.williamblakeoto.org
Inquires: master@williamblakeoto.org

Location: 208 South Pulaski St., Suite 5B; Baltimore, MD 21223
Inclement weather cancellations will be made, via email, by 10am the morning of the event.
Members of the public may attend events listed as Open.

Thurs. Jan. 7: The Merkavah (Open)
7:30pm: Doors open
8:00pm: Class
$20 per class, $60 for entire 4 class series requested from non-members

Series Description: Merkavah Magic - Explore some of the basic concepts and texts of the Merkavah mystical and magical system, a direct precursor to much of Solomonic Magic.

We explore the basic history and concepts of the Merkavah system, look at the idea of the image of God, the concept of the seven heavens, and the purpose and idea behind this ancient system of spirituality.

Sat. Jan. 9: Gnostic Mass (Open)
3pm: Doors open
3:30pm: Mass
$10 donation requested from non-members.

Sat. Jan 9: Thelema Discussion Group (Open)
4:30pm: Doors open
5:00pm: Class on Parsifal

Discussion group upon miscellaneous texts/movies/music/artworks/themes of interest to Thelemites.

( More behind the cut )

Study: Coffee won't sober you up but makes you think it did

How the Brain Encodes Memories at a Cellular Level

Smaller Fingers Mean More Sensitive Fingertips -- "[The researchers] knew that touch receptor cells cluster around sweat pores. And people with smaller and more sensitive fingers did have a higher concentration of sweat pores."

Oklahoma firm recalling beef products in six states -- Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, Michigan, and Washington

Japan PM's approval rating dips in fund scandal, poll

Salvation Army Major Shot in Front of 3 Children -- NYT article

Police: Pastor shoots 21-year-old son to death during Christmas dispute at Philly-area home

I seem to have acquired a mal-ware virus thing called MSB. It pretends to be a Microsoft program but actually screws with my browser. This one sort of killed Firefox after I tried removing the offending articles. Should be fun (NOT) sorting this one out.

I have just had my first Christmas post-surgery. Wow! I must admit that I've had a lot of conflicting emotions about what my surgery actually means. I have really felt somewhat annoyed sometimes when people talk about this as a "confirmation" or that I have "finished now" or they congratulate me. Oddly, even worse is when people ask me about how I feel now about being this new person. Why does this bother me? Because I'm not a new person. I'm the same person, and the surgery was not my transition. I was a woman already. In fact, as far as I'm concerned the minute I started taking hormones was a much bigger deal, because that is when my entire body, and not just my genitals, began to go through irreversible changes.

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I would like to revamp my metrodemontreal.com website, improving it over my current l33t 1999-era Web-1.0 handwritten HTML skills. Ideally I'd like to pay someone to write me a nice structure that would allow me to easily create the new site with my old text, figure out a better way to approach the photographs (such as the kind where you click on the thumbnail and the larger image appears), and improve the design (possibly by hiring a graphic artist as well).

I'd appreciate help from anyone who knows how to get grants for that kind of thing (cultural, environmental promotion, etc.)

I spent Christmas at home in Erie with the whole family, which has been wonderful. My aunt and I have bonded over knitting, and I'm inheriting Mom's entire stash since she can't knit any more. It's all acrylic yarn and metal needles, but there are some nice knitting bags, and a couple of half-finished projects. We had some plans to go to a nice local yarn store that's right around the corner from Mom and Dad's, but they're closed. And now linuxspice is interested in learning, too.

I'm balanced on a knife edge about the Seattle job. I'm in for heavy emotional anguish whether I stay or go, so it really comes down to a straight-up choice between a really cool agile company and the disruption it'll cause to my Canadian citizenship, to say nothing of the 2011 world championships. My family is in favour of me going, some friends of mine who I respect think I'm nuts to even consider it, and linuxspice will support either choice. I have another 48 hours or so to decide, and there are two more people I want to consult.

A wild card might be Boston. linuxspice has a lead on a contract there, and the cool Seattle company has a project going there that I might get assigned to. I think I'd rather be in Seattle, though, or Toronto. In the worst case, I suppose, I could go for one project, then return to Toronto. We'll see.

Actually it was a lovely holiday season. No, I was born Jewish and never converted to anything else, although I'm so eclectic that bits of religions from all over merge in my life. I have a tree, for example, which looks like a Xmas tree, but is also my Solstice bush in which I place all sorts of memoranda from our trips to Europe - the Santa Claus as a Scotsman playing bagpipes form St. Andrews, the windmill from Amsterdam, the crystal from Bath, and so on. Then I hang my collection of witch figures all over. Heck, there's a witch instead of an angel on top of the tree. Even found some tiny Halloween figures and hung them -- black cat, Frankenstein, pumpkins. The guys- husband and son -- did object strenuously about my trying to put the Grim Reaper figure on a branch so I secreted it on a tiny fake tree I have in my room. It is a reminder to me of "Memento mori," which is okay with me but does seem to freak everyone else out.

As I write, the drums of Africa keep beating. Money has been lost between my bank and the good old African Postal Bank. If it's one thing you can bet on in Africa, it's that the thieves are around, even in so-called secure places like banks. I contend with Abou wishing me first a good Christmas and then asking me if I lied when I said I sent him money. Having trouble collecting money from my customers, there is no more money to replenish this lost amount, yet somehow I am peaceful about it. I mean, after a while, it is a shrug and what can you do (although I am telling him to get the hell out of this bank and go to a European one, like Thomas Cook).

Then Mike is home for however long it will be while he looks for jobs in his field. He now has his Ph.D. in International Relations, specializing in security matters. He sent out resumes immediately and got short-listed, just as immediately, with a group that embeds a variety of social scientists with soldiers on the front line in Afghanistan. The pay is $200,000 a year -- which, seeing that one is on the frontline, is easy to see why it is so much. On the other hand, this group seems not to be especially liked by anyone in the professional fields. After causing me upset for a few hours, Mike did research on them and pulled back from thinking to repay his student debt this way.

Where he will actually go is up in the air, but after yesterday's plane incident with a wannabe Al Qaeda man coming in from the Netherlands, I think business for Mike will continue to look promising.

Oh yes, and I'm learning to not take his jibes so hard. In fact, I see myself not caring when referred at last night's Xmas party to the "Old Folks Table." The party was lovely, the other "old folks" were great talking to, and heck, I liked all the younguns too. What do I care how they see me? This is my journey, my life, and why let anyone divert me from it?

Me and the Grim Reaper hanging out together. Pals to the end.

Huge wave of relief. I need a week to recover.

Had a very delightful Hogswatch complete with electric pig atop tree. I love making fictional holidays real. There was dinner and fun and I got some lovely gifts.

Today, going to visit biofamily which is a bit nervewracking, but I hope it will go well. Nothing particularly clever to say right now, but it shall do.

Bless us.

I've had a good Yule and a happy Christmas. Or as the people I used to live with in the late early 90's and I used to say: Yahoo YulHanaMas!

I am treasuring the people in my life more and more.

I have cats!

I do survive and I will live.

Yes, it is amazing.

Bless us all!

So we're just under one month out from the date of the Feegle Grinder/Wee Free RPG. If you're interested, I strongly recommend you take a look at the mini website we've built for it, and especially the character sheet and rules. Of course, reading the books would be good too. :)

If you have questions (it's a fairly simple system, but there is some quirkiness to it that may trip you up if you're used to more complex RPGs), this would be an excellent place to ask them. You'll only need 6-sided dice, but you'll need 3 of one color, 5 of another color, and 8 of a third color (we have some, but if you have your own to bring, that would be great).

The grinder will be held at our house in southern KCMO, starting at 9AM or so (with instructions and final explanations of the system) on January 23rd and going until 2AM or we get tired of it, whichever comes first. If you don't have directions, we'll email them to you privately to keep the address off the full Interweb. Feel free to point people at this public post or the Facebook event if you think they'd be interested; we can probably have 5-7 players going at a time, but expect to die more than once over the course of the day if you're staying (Feegles being more or less interchangeable, this shouldn't be a big impediment). You don't have to stay all day, of course; you can come late or leave early if you've got other stuff going on.

I received no gifts today and only three overall: my father presented me with a $10 giftcard to Borders (he knows me so well), and netmouse and sarahmichigan both sent me books of stamps (hooray!).

The only person I gave anything to was lameautarch: I treated him to an opening-weekend showing of Avatar at the local IMAX theater. (The ticket prices were well worth the effects; however, we should have eaten beforehand instead of paying through the absolute nose for snacks.)

Last night, he took me to spend Christmas Eve with his extended family. Nice (if sometimes silly) conversation, lovely food, good company.

I am thankful for my family and friends. Without their support and love, I don't know where I would be. I thank every one of you for being in my life.

Nativity

"Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, the maiden shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
-Isaiah [7:14]

Two thousand years ago in Nazareth
An evening warm as yesterday lies fresh
At the beginning where the Word is death
Nine months before the birthing of the Flesh.

Here, night that speaks in stars moans on a heap
Of straw as Porcius and his Mary screw
Next to a manger. Joseph is asleep.
Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

He cannot sense her spirit as it joins
His army, and is now hellbent on Rome.
She cannot fathom how her shuddered loins
Rage into ruin like a Gaulish home.

She cannot note how in his eye there glows
A heinous blue, the glint of Spanish blades,
The blanch of bodies in the Polish snows
And dawn appalled on armor. The Crusades

Embrace her there. Salvation bursts in sin.
The reaper's glove is on the crescent moon
Harvesting a new star for Saladin
Till dawn lies on the manger like a rune

God is conceived of. Here lies Israel
Where Porcius came nine months from Christmas eve.
The shtetls boom with tears for Ishmael
Detonating himself in Tel Aviv.

And here his banner over her is lust.
Her hair has mapped an empire on the air.
There is no star to warn the Magi just
What kind of Caesar germinated there.

If you have shoes that you no longer wear, but they are in good condition and have life left in them, please consider donating them to charity. If you have a local favorite, great. If not, may I suggest the Ashe Foundation?

In America, shoes are fashion and fun. Women tend to have so many of them that we make jokes about it. Young urbanites shop at stores for collectors' edition kicks. In Africa, a pair of shoes can mean the difference between life and death--literally, as diseases like hookworm and even simple infections can kill those without access to clean water and basic first aid supplies.

The Ashe Foundation collects new and gently used shoes (and medical supplies, and other needed items) and distributes them in Africa to those in need. CNN did a story on Ashe earlier this year, which I caught while on a work trip. Seeing the passion of the group's founder made me want to help. I've just packed up five pairs of shoes and am sending them to:

The Ashe Foundation
3940 Laurel Canyon Blvd, Suite 111
Studio City, CA 91604




website: http://www.theashefoundation.org/

facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Studio-City-CA/The-ASHE-Foundation/58216342030?ref=ts&v=wall#/pages/Studio-City-CA/The-ASHE-Foundation/58216342030?v=wall&ref=ts

the late-night mass at the cathedral was lovely, and i would like to post more about it later. 
it was a lovely christmas eve holiday overall. 

now i need to make some coffee and start getting my blood moving through my body.

if Santa Claus is all done delivering toys to the good little christian children, 
perhaps he could bring his sled by to help me finish the moving process?

It's been a long year, starting with losing our home a year ago, and setting off to build our own homestead out here in the backwoods. Thinking back, it almost seems a lifetime ago, far away, divorced from my present like so many long ago pasts in my life.

There were times in those pasts where I would have done anything for the food you see here in this picture, and, here it is, something I made with my own hands. Just another woman in a kitchen, like so many in so many ways, somehow surviving and thriving in a world so well prepared to destroy women like me.

There were times when I could not even imagine having this much wealth in my life, nor imagine being loved, warm, out of the weather, and with some semblance of safety.

And yet, here I am, loved, with material wealth I could have only dreamed of not too long ago, and a life rich in relationships of people who care. Yes, by most standards, we're the poorest of the rural poor, but the standards miss the story. Which is what standards enforced by a cissupremacist society are designed to do. Silence. Erase. Deny our lived truths.

Thank you all for letting me share some of my lived truths with you, and may the new year allow you that same privilege, no matter where and who you are..



Oh, why yes, the bread for the stuffing cubes is homemade, thank you for asking.