January 31st 2006
I find myself in need of a few dry maple leaves. They don’t have to be pressed or anything — still hanging on the trees is even fine. I just don’t want mouldy ones that have been on the ground.
Anyone have any idea where to look?
January 30th 2006
I would just like to express my appreciation for living in an age where antibiotics exist, in a country where they are cheaply and easily available.
This as opposed to bitching about how long it takes to get an appointment with one’s own doctor, and the incompetence required to mis-file an important test result for three full weeks.
Still. It’ll be better now. I have drugs.
January 27th 2006
So I find myself getting interested in doing bead work, for one reason and another. There’s a project that I want to do as a Christmas gift (yes, I’m planning ahead) for someone. I figure between now and then I can get a lot of practice in. I’m stringing the beads on metal wire and making my own links. It’s a lot of work, and a lot of fun, but I’m also learning as I go.
So here’s the deal. I need people to practice on. I’m willing to pay for the wire (unless you want something expensive like silver or gold, then it’s your dime) if other people are willing to pay for the beads. Currently I’ve been doing prayer beads (more on that in another post/essay), but I’m open to whatever people want — necklaces, bracelets, what-have-you. As long as you understand I’m doing this as practice. The work will be as good as I can make it, but it will be beginner work.
So, what do you want? Anybody got any project ideas for me?
Check this space in a couple of days for pictures of what I’ve been doing in case you need a visual reference.
January 25th 2006
Remember these? Way back when I got people to ask me a bunch of questions promising I’d answer them? My research shows I missed this set from Karine:
1- So, why sax?
I’m to this day not sure, you know. I’d never been a great fan of the sax particularly, nor did I really have any desire to start playing any instrument at all.
And then one day, out of the blue, I wanted to learn saxophone. I ascribe it now to watching so many Simpsons episodes, but really, at the time I didn’t make the connection and I don’t know if it’s true. It just appealed to me for some reason, so I took lessons at the encouragement of a friend. I’m glad I did.
Or, I’m glad most days. When the playing is going well, you know.
2- You quilt, sew, write, sing, play saxophone, is there anything (aside from drawing) that you can’t do creatively but wish you could?
You mention not drawing but there’s a lot tied up into that — I’d like to be able to draw and paint in watercolour at the very least. I’m currently working on learning to bend the wire properly to string beads, which is a lot of fun. I’d like to be able to compose music. I write lyrics, but the idea of hearing a song in my head and being able to put together strings, brass, woodwind…mind-boggling. I’d also like to be able to play jazz improv — but I know that’s a matter of many years of practice — at myc rurrent rate I’ll probably never be proficient.
3- Tell me about the proudest moment of your life.
Ooh. That one requires some thought. My Shithead is strong enough that proud moments generally don’t last long with me. If I think about them too much, there’s a flaw somewhere that It exploits. So most of the stuff that springs to mind is fairly recent, and I wouldn’t say it’s the “proudest” moment, but they do stick out.
The day my High Priest and Priestess offered to give me my first degree — that was a proud moment. Because I knew they wouldn’t do that if I hadn’t done the work.
The last Random Colour concert — I’m not the greatest saxophonist in the world, but I kicked butt at that concert. Nailing all those solos in Rock n’ Roll Radio was a real rush for me.
Being in Maison de Calico recently and hearing Arin talking to the shopkeep about the quilt I made for Liam — I was very proud of my work then.
And if I go way back to my university days, the day I got home and opened up a creative writing assignment I thought I’d likely failed and finding that the grade was a 90% or A+. This from a professor who I respected, and who said that in order to rate the A+ he had to put it down and say “Wow. Wish I’d written that.” Proud? I ran screaming up and down the hallway and my mother told me to calm down, which was IMPOSSIBLE, because PROFESSOR SCHWENGER JUST GAVE ME AN A+ and she couldn’t figure out why that was such a big deal. I had to call a friend from school and gush.
So yeah. Lots of proud moments, but I don’t think I could call any of them the “proudest”.
4- How did you and chibipunkdemon meet?
We were in university together. He went to high school with some people I met while at university and the whole crowd of us started hanging around together. We were in the same english class as well.
5- Did you think, 10 years ago, that you would be where you are, that you would have what you have today? What did you think you would have?
No. For one thing, 10 years ago I was ending my second year university. It’s likely at that point that I still though I would go into teaching — my ambition was to teach high school english. Or I was thinking I would become a journalist and write fiction on the side. None of which panned out for me. Also, if you’d asked me back then I probably would have expected to be married with children by now — that’s just where I would have seen myself at 29. I probably would also have expected to be a Rich and Famous Author by now (or at least have a book published).
Augh. How depressing. What happened to my motivation and youthful idealism?
January 24th 2006
*crawls out from under the bed*
Hmm. Election night over. Country still seems to be here.
Actually, I found it quite the exciting evening. I find myself full of cautious optomism. I mean, I don’t like the conservatives any more than I ever did — they’re WAY too Republican — but they’re a minority government. And with the power structure sitting the way it does, they’re going to have to work with all of the other parties to make the government stable. Possibly in the process they’ll move more toward a central-right party and shut up about the “family values” side of their platform.
Well, one can always hope.
It was nice to see the Bloc lose some support, it’s nice to see the Liberals out of power, and it’s nice to see more seats for the NDP. The power structure in Quebec seems to be changing, and that’s a good thing. This whole Bloc/Liberal dichotomy was getting stagnant.
I was also glad to see Sam Bulte voted out. She financed her last campaign with the help of the US Canadian (see comments) entertainment industry and then tried to get all kinds of restrictive copyright measures implemented here. I’m glad the people in her riding decided to say a big fat “no” to people who fund their campaigns on lobby interests.
And the best part of the evening, of course, was hearing Rick Mercer describe Jack Layton as “A tiny little socialist with a funny gay mustache”. I like living in a country where the politicians aren’t sacrosanct.
In the end I think we got the best government we could hope for. And like I said before, I think this government might actually work, provided the parties all willing to share their toys and play nice. Which they’d better –any party that brings down the government any time soon will be in rather a lot of trouble vote-wise, I think.
Yes indeedy. Interesting evening.
January 23rd 2006
A little Owl has reminded me that I used to like doing these little quizzes. They make one think.
So, this week’s question (or, well, not question. More of a topic, really.):
Give us a tour, some images, or detailed descriptions of your sacred space(s). Be it a small table in your room, a small trip through the woods, etc. Show us where a spiritual place is for you.
I do have an altar, which is a little cupboard I bought at a secondhand store and painted over. This is in the back half of my little office, which is my working space. I won’t call it “sacred space” — the whole office is sacred space, and is consecrated as such. If it comes to that, the whole house is, really. But the office is generally where I work, not just spiritually but creatively as well. It’s my writing room, my sewing room, and as all of these things are intrinsically linked to my spirituality, it’s my magical working space.
My altar itself is actually full to overflowing at the moment and needs to be cleaned out — get rid of the old herbs and spell components, get a bigger cabinet, organize a bit better. But I like the space itself. It’s small, but it’s organized so that I can see my altar from my desk, and so that I have enough room to sit and meditate and do minor workings (anything where I have to move a lot is a no-go, but then it would be anyway in this office.)
A “spiritual place” is a bit different, at least in my thinking. My office is a spiritual place because of the work I do there. But I think spiritual places are places that raise spiritual awareness because of what they are, not necessarily because they’ve been consecrated to a certain purpose. To me, the coast near my mother’s childhood home is a spiritual place. It isn’t sacred space. It’s not consecrated to my purpose or faith, but I make a connection with my soul and with divinity there that I don’t make any other place. It’s not really possible for me to go there without making that connection. Another good example would be the monastery at St. Benoit du Lac. Scott and I visited a few years ago and it was incredible. As soon as you get out of the car, it’s like a wave of peacefulness washing over you. This is something that must come with it being used as a spiritual retreat over so many years. It’s like it’s now soaked into the ground. I imagine the grounds have been blessed so it may be that it is both sacred AND spiritual space. But it is definitely a spiritual space.
I guess I haven’t really taken you on a tour, but I’ve given some thoughts about sacred space, which was more the bent of my thoughts anyway.
January 23rd 2006
…for making my Bulk mail folder more exciting. They must’ve updated it yesterday, ’cause now the e-mails from EVERY SINGLE E-LIST I’M ON go into my bulk mail folder. Now every time I get spam I expect it to actually be a real e-mail. I’ll have to set up filters for them all. Grr.
This after they worked it out that all of the comments from my blog must be spam and put them in the bulk folder. And for some reason, messages from my Dad get the same treatment, so I had to make a filter for him as well.
I mean, I know filtering spam can’t be an easy job programming-wise, but do they actually test this shit before they implement it? Perhaps they’re trying to get me to use all of my filters so I’ll have to buy their stupid upgrade in order to actually not have my legitimate e-mail trashed accidentally.
January 20th 2006
I did an ego search on Technorati over the holidays and found that there was a quilting site and a Pagan-y crafting site that both linked to my blog at one point.
Now I can’t find them. They were good sites, too, and I was looking forward to poking around on them more. Sadly, I was at my parents’ place and couldn’t bookmark them (and didn’t think to send myself the link. Drat.)
So if you’re out there, and you linked in from those blogs, or you own the blog, or if you just think you might know the one I mean, leave me a comment, wouldya?
Thanks.
January 17th 2006
…but it is not a quilt today. Today it is a mass of uneven blocks, aggravating corners, seams that aren’t straight, points that stretch beyond recognition, finished blocks that are all different sizes.
Today it is ugly. Today I hate it. It is aggravation. It should be another pattern, another colour, another something. Not what it is.
Tomorrow, when I am a little further along, when I finish some more blocks, it may be a beautiful thing. It may be a wonderful, quickly-pieced gift from the Gods. But today, today it is not. Today it is a neverending slog.
Today it is boring.
I am putting it away until tomorrow. Part of me says that I must get through this or I will Never Get It Done (I’m starting to feel the pressures of the deadline I’ve imposed on myself.)
January 16th 2006
Things that make me feel like life is all right and even if the writing is going slowly, that my life is not an entire shambles:
1. A sink with no dishes in it.
2. All/most of the laundry being clean
3. Having a tidy house in general
4. Cooking at home on a regular basis
5. Eating healthy, and having healthy food in the fridge.
6. Regular exercise.
7. Regular writing
8. Regular saxophone practice.
I’m getting better for (1) and (2), though there’s still a pile of laundry in the bedroom, it’s significantly smaller than it used to be — thank God. It was driving me a little nuts. (4) is coming along nicely as well — I cooked most nights last week. I also did up a menu and a grocery list for last week and this week. (5) is sort of an adjunct to (4) and yes, I’ve been eating less junk (despite having a cupboard full of it, post-Yuletide. Which always happens.) (6) hasn’t happened yet, but it will within the next few weeks.
And (3), well, (3) is coming along as well.
I’ve decided that yes, writing = important despite the fact that I’ve been very slack the last little while; it has to happen a LOT more than it has been happening. The sax practice as well. I must get into my head that while both things are occasionally frustrating, they are also immensely rewarding and a lot of fun. When did I let myself forget that? How could I?
Yes I have noticed that the first four tasks are all domestic. I DO feel better about myself when the house is clean. There’s probably a Hierarchy of Needs thing in there, or I could ascribe it to work avoiding, or Childhood Trauma (mom’s a neat freak).
Anyway, long and short of it is, though it’s not really a New Year’s Resolution, I’m trying to pick up the pieces of a life that I kind of feel got away from me somehow. I’ll let you all know how it progresses.