I often have arguments with people about the "obesity epidemic" and how horrible it is, and how it's causing a lot of death, destruction, and the end of America and apple pie. So I cherish studies like this one, Obesity Not Always Tied to Higher Heart Risk: Study
Link. The quotes I will be using.
"People with good metabolic health are not at risk of future heart disease -- even if they are obese," Hamer told Reuters Health. On the flip-side, the non-obese in poor metabolic shape face as much risk as the unhealthy obese, the researchers concluded.
The results are in line with most previous research that defined metabolic health as having normal levels of markers like blood pressure, blood sugar, HDL, or "good" cholesterol, and C-reactive protein, which is a measure of inflammation in the body.
The obese individuals in good metabolic health were not at greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than the metabolically healthy non-obese, the researchers found.
This was a massive 7 year study of thousands of people.
You need a 2 liter jug, a pyrex jug, a lemon squeezer, 2 big or 3 small lemons, 2 limes, 1 orange, a tray of ice, 2 oz of sugar, and lots of cold water. Takes 5-10 minutes.
Put the sugar in the pyrex jug. Boil the kettle. When the kettle boils, cover the sugar with boiling water, stir to dissolve. You don't need to make syrup or anything, but you want the sugar dissolved.
Meanwhile, put the tray of ice into the 2 liter jug. Squeeze the lemons, limes and orange in, getting out all the juice and pulp you can and avoiding adding the pips. Pour the dissolved sugar and water in. Top up with cold water. Shake or stir. Drink, with ice. It'll be cold enough. I used to refrigerate it for a while first, but then I had to make some in a hurry and it was just fine.
This is very refreshing and about as isotonic as you can get. I sometimes add mint or basil to the sugar in the boiling water when I have that growing outside. If it's too sweet, use less sugar next time. I figure this has about a teaspoon of sugar per glass.
The other thing you can do, right now while limes are nine for a dollar, is just squeeze half a lime into your glass of water and ice. Kids won't drink this, but it's good.
Put the sugar in the pyrex jug. Boil the kettle. When the kettle boils, cover the sugar with boiling water, stir to dissolve. You don't need to make syrup or anything, but you want the sugar dissolved.
Meanwhile, put the tray of ice into the 2 liter jug. Squeeze the lemons, limes and orange in, getting out all the juice and pulp you can and avoiding adding the pips. Pour the dissolved sugar and water in. Top up with cold water. Shake or stir. Drink, with ice. It'll be cold enough. I used to refrigerate it for a while first, but then I had to make some in a hurry and it was just fine.
This is very refreshing and about as isotonic as you can get. I sometimes add mint or basil to the sugar in the boiling water when I have that growing outside. If it's too sweet, use less sugar next time. I figure this has about a teaspoon of sugar per glass.
The other thing you can do, right now while limes are nine for a dollar, is just squeeze half a lime into your glass of water and ice. Kids won't drink this, but it's good.
Fledgling, by Octavia Butler
A vampire story that sucks the blood out of weak-ass YA novels, and will also make you deeply uncomfortable.
Seven Stories Press, 2005, 317 pages
( Only Octavia Butler could get away with this, and I'm still not sure what she was thinking. )
Verdict: Octavia Butleriswas :( brilliant and I have yet to be disappointed by her, and I loved this modern, highly intelligent take on vampires done in her signature style, which incidentally also happens to be a brilliant subversion of the YA & PNR vampire shit that has been afflicting shelves these past few years, though I don't think Butler intended it. I wish I could shove Octavia Butler into the hands of everyone who coos over the writing in a YA novel. But, this is also a book with some huge freakin' squicks for which it makes no apologies, so be warned.
And boy am I sucking at my Mount TBR challenge. This is only the second book I've picked off of it this year.
Also by Octavia Butler: My reviews of Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.
My complete list of book reviews.
Seven Stories Press, 2005, 317 pages
Shori is a mystery. Found alone in the woods, she appears to be a little black girl with traumatic amnesia and near-fatal wounds. But Shori is a fifty-three-year-old vampire with a ravenous hunger for blood, the lost child of an ancient species of near-immortals who live in dark symbiosis with humanity. Genetically modified to be able to walk in daylight, Shori now becomes the target of a vast plot to destroy her and her kind. And in the final apocalyptic battle, her survival will depend on whether all humans are bigots-or all bigots are human.
( Only Octavia Butler could get away with this, and I'm still not sure what she was thinking. )
Verdict: Octavia Butler
And boy am I sucking at my Mount TBR challenge. This is only the second book I've picked off of it this year.
Also by Octavia Butler: My reviews of Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.
My complete list of book reviews.
At Hancook restaurant located on the 1st level of the tower, diners can look out over Seoul as they enjoy traditional Korean cuisine in surroundings which blend antique Korean beauty with modern convenience. The most popular choice at Hancook is the buffet, offering a selection of 30 different Korean delicacies.
This Wednesday I took a cable car and then a fast elevator to the top of the N Seoul Tower.
( Dinner in Korea )
Words: 3492, about 100 of them words from last time. I started again, much better. Now have good grip on voice.
Total words: 3492
Files: 2
Tea: Four O'Clock White Orchard. Also home made lemonade.
Music: Three Double Concertos.
Reason for stopping: Solid end of chapter.
Z fixed, or reasonably fixed, Protext on this computer, so I am trying it again. Much nicer using this keyboard!
Posted and deleted science query because I want an answer, not my competence to write SF brought into question. Thanks to people who gave useful answers anyway.
I think the short version of what this is about is "an art festival on a generation starship".
Total words: 3492
Files: 2
Tea: Four O'Clock White Orchard. Also home made lemonade.
Music: Three Double Concertos.
Reason for stopping: Solid end of chapter.
Z fixed, or reasonably fixed, Protext on this computer, so I am trying it again. Much nicer using this keyboard!
Posted and deleted science query because I want an answer, not my competence to write SF brought into question. Thanks to people who gave useful answers anyway.
I think the short version of what this is about is "an art festival on a generation starship".
So, yesterday was a really super-interesting day, the definition of interesting being in the "May you live in interesting times" curse kind of definition of the word.
Rehearsal in the morning, which was fine, then breakfast with Blake with made me late for my last walk with sweet little Honey, the yorkie. I didn't have Larry, which meant that I totally miscalculated the timing, and it wouldn't have mattered at all that I was late, except that the owner was there. He didn't seem to mind, but I had never met him before and felt like a real dope.
I'll miss Honey, she's a good little girl, but she got walked because the owner was living in a hotel until his house was built or remodeled or something, so I assume that there will be a backyard situation and that's why she won't need a midday walk anymore.
I was going to work at the studio for Blake that evening, so I rushed through the day like a crazy person, which is why I what happened ended up happening.
I always park in the same spot under Groovy's building, but yesterday my spot was taken, so I had to park in the next spot over. Which is next to a giant yellow pole. This may or may not be foreshadowing.
I finished the walk with relief that I was going to make it to Santa Monica on time, pulled out of the space, and CRASH! I had forgotten that I was in a different parking space and was pulling out as though I was in the space I was usually in, the one not next to a pole, and had hit said pole. I got out of the car, hoping to see maybe a teeny dent. Here's the thing with plastic cars, you don't teeny dents, the whole front bumper had been ripped off.
So I had hysterics and called Blake to call the station and tell them that I couldn't be there, then tried to call Mom, but she didn't answer. I texted Groovy's owner and asked if she minded if I hung out at her place while I tried to reach my Mom, because I didn't know what to do, if I should get the car towed to the garage or not, and where was the garage, etc.
I sat in Groovy's apartment, sobbing, until I had to stop because the dog was completely freaking out, licking my face and jumping up and down on my lap. "FEEL BETTER!!!!" was the not-so-subtle dog subtext, so I calmed down.
I kept trying to reach Mom, I called her cell phone, I called the house phone, I kept calling and calling and she never answered. I started getting really worried. I decided that I couldn't all day, so borrowed the owner's painting tape and taped the bumper back on, then slowly drove home.
As I got closer and closer, I started getting more and more frightened about what I would find when I got home. I really thought that Mom might be dead. I pulled into the driveway, her car was there. Then I went into the house, calling her name, she wasn't downstairs. I ran upstairs, "Mom? Mom?" and finally she answered. She came out of her room and I was completely sobbing. I explained that I had had an accident and that I couldn't reach her and I thought she was dead. Apparently, the ringer was off on her phone, which she had forgotten to turn back on, and she had been taking a nap, and you can't hear the house phone from her room.
God, what a couple of hours. The accident was bad enough, ripping the bumper off your car is pretty upsetting at the best of time, but not being able to reach Mom was so scary. I could have gone to choir because I wasn't going to the station, but I just was not in the mood. I went to bed early instead.
(cross-posted to hedgehog.net)
Rehearsal in the morning, which was fine, then breakfast with Blake with made me late for my last walk with sweet little Honey, the yorkie. I didn't have Larry, which meant that I totally miscalculated the timing, and it wouldn't have mattered at all that I was late, except that the owner was there. He didn't seem to mind, but I had never met him before and felt like a real dope.
I'll miss Honey, she's a good little girl, but she got walked because the owner was living in a hotel until his house was built or remodeled or something, so I assume that there will be a backyard situation and that's why she won't need a midday walk anymore.
I was going to work at the studio for Blake that evening, so I rushed through the day like a crazy person, which is why I what happened ended up happening.
I always park in the same spot under Groovy's building, but yesterday my spot was taken, so I had to park in the next spot over. Which is next to a giant yellow pole. This may or may not be foreshadowing.
I finished the walk with relief that I was going to make it to Santa Monica on time, pulled out of the space, and CRASH! I had forgotten that I was in a different parking space and was pulling out as though I was in the space I was usually in, the one not next to a pole, and had hit said pole. I got out of the car, hoping to see maybe a teeny dent. Here's the thing with plastic cars, you don't teeny dents, the whole front bumper had been ripped off.
So I had hysterics and called Blake to call the station and tell them that I couldn't be there, then tried to call Mom, but she didn't answer. I texted Groovy's owner and asked if she minded if I hung out at her place while I tried to reach my Mom, because I didn't know what to do, if I should get the car towed to the garage or not, and where was the garage, etc.
I sat in Groovy's apartment, sobbing, until I had to stop because the dog was completely freaking out, licking my face and jumping up and down on my lap. "FEEL BETTER!!!!" was the not-so-subtle dog subtext, so I calmed down.
I kept trying to reach Mom, I called her cell phone, I called the house phone, I kept calling and calling and she never answered. I started getting really worried. I decided that I couldn't all day, so borrowed the owner's painting tape and taped the bumper back on, then slowly drove home.
As I got closer and closer, I started getting more and more frightened about what I would find when I got home. I really thought that Mom might be dead. I pulled into the driveway, her car was there. Then I went into the house, calling her name, she wasn't downstairs. I ran upstairs, "Mom? Mom?" and finally she answered. She came out of her room and I was completely sobbing. I explained that I had had an accident and that I couldn't reach her and I thought she was dead. Apparently, the ringer was off on her phone, which she had forgotten to turn back on, and she had been taking a nap, and you can't hear the house phone from her room.
God, what a couple of hours. The accident was bad enough, ripping the bumper off your car is pretty upsetting at the best of time, but not being able to reach Mom was so scary. I could have gone to choir because I wasn't going to the station, but I just was not in the mood. I went to bed early instead.
(cross-posted to hedgehog.net)
A butter-basted sauteed chicken in Cooking Theory (I attend the New England Culinary Institute). Recipe under the cut or at my blog.
( Read more... )
I totally dig the Hawaiian/Tiki look and I would love to have a dress with a hibiscus flower print on it, or other tiki styles. but I'm at a loss. I had a look around ebay last night and made an attempt to Google it, but all to no avail. There doesn't seem to be anything plus size that doesn't look really frumpy. Does anyone have any suggestions of places to look?
I'm in the UK, so either UK based or somewhere that will ship to (cheaply!)
Thanks!
Edit: I am a UK 26!
I'm in the UK, so either UK based or somewhere that will ship to (cheaply!)
Thanks!
Edit: I am a UK 26!
http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive/30
Happy weekend to you! I will probably be working much of it, just the way I like it.
Originally published at Dylan Meconis. You can comment here or there.
Page 253 now online!
(permalink to this week’s page)
Mother knows best. Or does she? Maybe next week you’ll find out what that leather neck strap is for, at least…
This weekend I’ll be in beautiful British Columbia, at the first ever Vancouver Comic Arts Festival! You can’t miss me – I’ll be right by the entrance at Table 30. I love Vancouver and I’m really excited to finally have a comics convention that gives me an excuse to visit.
Admission to the Fest is FREE, so Vancouver residents, please come by and support the show!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/edmonton/di
sahlgoode posted a reply:
I noticed the ones at the Ledge are in full bloom as well. Gives you an option on which location to shoot. Heck, maybe both!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/edmonton/di
Clyde's Pics posted a new topic:
I think the ornamental cherry trees in Griesbach are ready to burst on the weekend after a few sunny days. The crappy weather has slowed down the blooming of them. I think they will look great by Sunday. The best way to get there is to come from 113 A. St. and turn east at the lights on 145 Ave. and then turn right and follow that road. You will drive right through the trees. Good shooting.
So, I've been reading Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, which is a quasi-pornotopia. Sex is utterly everywhere in the book, and it's post-capitalist—no scarcity and quantity becomes quality. There's a lot of fetishistic counting of orgasms, doses of semen and urine, etc. Being a Samuel Delany novel, the sex largely involves sucking off dirty and/or homeless guys, dickcheese under foreskins, ass-eating, piss-drinking, and lots of happy strangers. I had to take a break for a while—not because of the incest or the discussion of licking dried shit out of assholes, but because of the nose-picking. And the eating of mucus. And the sharing of mucus. And picking other people's noses.
For a break, I read The Primal Screamer (a recent quote of the day entry!) by Nick Blinko, and Green Girl by Kate Zambreno, both of which were fantastic. They also had some similarities—the main character is observed and manipulated by the narrator; that action is seen in bits and pieces, as though through to hands worth of laced fingers; both are thematically obsessed with another creative medium (music in Primal, film in Girl); both are set in England. In these attributes, they are also utterly different than Spiders, which carries on in a straightforward manner, offers minute detail, finds non-libidinal activity suspicious, and doesn't just take place in the US, but is all about it. And eating snot for sexual purposes.
I'll get back to it in the morning. At 800 pages, I actually left it at work rather than carry it on my commute while reading the other titles. I'm told the mucophilia gets a break about 400 pages in. We'll see...
For a break, I read The Primal Screamer (a recent quote of the day entry!) by Nick Blinko, and Green Girl by Kate Zambreno, both of which were fantastic. They also had some similarities—the main character is observed and manipulated by the narrator; that action is seen in bits and pieces, as though through to hands worth of laced fingers; both are thematically obsessed with another creative medium (music in Primal, film in Girl); both are set in England. In these attributes, they are also utterly different than Spiders, which carries on in a straightforward manner, offers minute detail, finds non-libidinal activity suspicious, and doesn't just take place in the US, but is all about it. And eating snot for sexual purposes.
I'll get back to it in the morning. At 800 pages, I actually left it at work rather than carry it on my commute while reading the other titles. I'm told the mucophilia gets a break about 400 pages in. We'll see...
Regular readers may remember the time when my father met Tom Cruise and taught him how to fake operating a crane for The War of the Worlds. Well, yesterday, he met Katy Perry, also on the pier. She gave a private show for Fleet Week, and my father was involved on hanging a banner on one of the cranes—"Gloria" is the crane's name.
According to my sister who reported the claims of my father to me, Katy Perry managed the hanging of the banner herself and made him re-do it a few times to get it right. This was difficult work, as the banner was pretty high up. Later, he dropped a box of flags from the cherry-picker he was in, sending Perry running for safety. All went well though, and Perry got into her ridiculous outfit and put on a show for the sailors:
According to my sister who reported the claims of my father to me, Katy Perry managed the hanging of the banner herself and made him re-do it a few times to get it right. This was difficult work, as the banner was pretty high up. Later, he dropped a box of flags from the cherry-picker he was in, sending Perry running for safety. All went well though, and Perry got into her ridiculous outfit and put on a show for the sailors:
I know a lot of y'all have ordered from Jane Bonbon successfully in the past. I placed an order several months ago (on February 28), and despite inquiring several times, I still have not received my item. The last response I was able to get from her was April 18, when she reassured me my item would be sent shortly. It's now over a month later, and I've sent two subsequent queries with no response.
I'm really disappointed with this situation, particularly given her stellar reputation (and her totally cute clothes). I'm just finishing up school, so the dress was more than a bit of an indulgence, and now I'm out the money with nothing to show for it. I'm kicking myself for not filing a Paypal dispute when the window for complaints was still open.
I've left feedback via Etsy, but I wanted to post here to see if anyone else has had a similar experience and see if anyone knew what was going on. Is she on some kind of unposted hiatus or something?
I'm really upset by the whole thing. I've never had an Etsy seller totally flake on me, and I cut a lot of slack in this situation because of her reputation. It appears at this point, joke's on me for that.
I'm really disappointed with this situation, particularly given her stellar reputation (and her totally cute clothes). I'm just finishing up school, so the dress was more than a bit of an indulgence, and now I'm out the money with nothing to show for it. I'm kicking myself for not filing a Paypal dispute when the window for complaints was still open.
I've left feedback via Etsy, but I wanted to post here to see if anyone else has had a similar experience and see if anyone knew what was going on. Is she on some kind of unposted hiatus or something?
I'm really upset by the whole thing. I've never had an Etsy seller totally flake on me, and I cut a lot of slack in this situation because of her reputation. It appears at this point, joke's on me for that.
I know slow shipping times are par for the course from eShakti - I've ordered from them before, and while stuff usually takes nearly a month to arrive.. I can deal with that.
But my recent experience has left me a bit puzzled and wary to order again. I ordered a dress at the beginning of May for a wedding in mid-June. Monday, out of the blue... I get a notification that my order has been canceled, nearly a month after it was placed. No explanation, nothing. Just canceled.
To make matters worse, I'm not seeing any sort of refund for the order on my credit card or any attempt to refund the gift card I had used to pay for part of it. Customer service has yet to respond to any emails.
Has anyone else been experiencing this kind of wierd, sketchy service from eShakti lately? Any idea on the best way to get this resolved, since customer service doesnt seem to respond at all? :l
edit: thanks for the help, all! i will be giving them a call today - i'll be sure to update if the situation changes... but i admit seeing the complaints on their facebook isnt making me feel particularly hopeful.
But my recent experience has left me a bit puzzled and wary to order again. I ordered a dress at the beginning of May for a wedding in mid-June. Monday, out of the blue... I get a notification that my order has been canceled, nearly a month after it was placed. No explanation, nothing. Just canceled.
To make matters worse, I'm not seeing any sort of refund for the order on my credit card or any attempt to refund the gift card I had used to pay for part of it. Customer service has yet to respond to any emails.
Has anyone else been experiencing this kind of wierd, sketchy service from eShakti lately? Any idea on the best way to get this resolved, since customer service doesnt seem to respond at all? :l
edit: thanks for the help, all! i will be giving them a call today - i'll be sure to update if the situation changes... but i admit seeing the complaints on their facebook isnt making me feel particularly hopeful.
Cover art for my novelette "Faster Gun," (Working title: "John Henry Holliday is Sick of the These Time-Traveling Assholes") forthcoming on Tor.com this summer.
The artist is Richard Anderson.
- Mood:
pleased - Music:the sound of thunder and the hum of the refrigerator
Hey fats,
I wore this dress to a beautiful wedding on the Outer Banks of North Carolina this past weekend. It took me a couple days to drive home, so I’m literally posting this as soon as I can.
( Goofy poses, reminiscing and nail art under the cut )
Dress and bolero: Igigi
Shaper slip: Evans
Earrings: David Howell Designs
Shoes: Aravon
Bangles: Lane Bryant
Bag: Liz Claiborne
I'm 27, 5'10", Size 28-32, and I live in Canada.
There is a Great Gatsby trailer. ( Read more... )
And my sister is NOT HAPPY about it. This is her favorite book, and she argues that both Gatsby and Daisy are ALL WRONG, and having read it, I see where she's coming from. It kind of looks like an entertaining trainwreck to me (as![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1)
says, "This will either be a stunning adaptation of a classic or a Showgirls style hot mess. There is no in-between"), but then, I've lucked out with Books I Care About. Mostly. If you'll excuse me, I need to go pour one out for the unfinished His Dark Materials movie trilogy.
Also, I feel kind of bad--I don't picspam costumes on Tumblr anymore (mostly because I despair of trying to image-describe them sufficiently), but I have been using it for the kind of things I probably used to put on LJ. Mostly because there's a nice modular quality to it--a conversation here, a trailer there; you don't have to stop and collect enough stuff to merit a whole entry (or flail around when you have a backlog to deal with). But you can't get a good conversation going for shit over there, given the way commenting is (not) set up. So. I should probably make more of an effort to do a Tumblr roundup here. Thus, for example, we have an Avengers tag with Some cute Avengers fan art, Freakishly Lifelike Loki, and THORGI. (Also: Thorgi and Lokitty.) I also tend to throw any interesting conversations under the "twitter" tag. Which is where you find all the squamous ladies. So. \;;;/
And my sister is NOT HAPPY about it. This is her favorite book, and she argues that both Gatsby and Daisy are ALL WRONG, and having read it, I see where she's coming from. It kind of looks like an entertaining trainwreck to me (as
says, "This will either be a stunning adaptation of a classic or a Showgirls style hot mess. There is no in-between"), but then, I've lucked out with Books I Care About. Mostly. If you'll excuse me, I need to go pour one out for the unfinished His Dark Materials movie trilogy.Also, I feel kind of bad--I don't picspam costumes on Tumblr anymore (mostly because I despair of trying to image-describe them sufficiently), but I have been using it for the kind of things I probably used to put on LJ. Mostly because there's a nice modular quality to it--a conversation here, a trailer there; you don't have to stop and collect enough stuff to merit a whole entry (or flail around when you have a backlog to deal with). But you can't get a good conversation going for shit over there, given the way commenting is (not) set up. So. I should probably make more of an effort to do a Tumblr roundup here. Thus, for example, we have an Avengers tag with Some cute Avengers fan art, Freakishly Lifelike Loki, and THORGI. (Also: Thorgi and Lokitty.) I also tend to throw any interesting conversations under the "twitter" tag. Which is where you find all the squamous ladies. So. \;;;/
Ten years ago, not long before the Queen’s Jubilee, I boarded a train at King’s Cross Station for Edinburgh.
It wasn’t Platform 9 3/4, but it might as well have been. My life changed the moment that train pulled out of the brick archways and into the rolling green countryside beyond London–it was just beginning to be autumn then, and the trees were full of crows. I remember thinking about bird magic, auguries, every story I’d ever heard about England and Scotland. I was a tiny thing, a maiden in all but the technical sense. I knew, as the old novels say, nothing of the world. My EuroRail photo looked absurdly, hilariously, preposterously like an illustration of Snow White. I had a bacon sandwich. My mother was with me, a psychopomp in knock-off Prada sunglasses, bearing me across the wall and into the life I didn’t yet know I was in for. It was the first time I wanted something with that desperate, pure fire–and made it happen, by myself, with will and work. After all, if you grow up loving fairy tales and King Arthur and saints who battle monsters, you want the British Isles the way some kids want boyfriends. Edited to add: is that a silly reason to want to go to a country? Yep. Is it a direct outgrowth of the complicated relationship of American culture to British culture? Yep. Was I 21 years old, pretty silly, fully of inchoate dreamy nonsense and trying to learn how to be a real person? Absolutely. In fact, a big part of that growing up was going to a place I'd dreamed about and figuring out what reality there was like.
I lived there for something over a year. I came back to America for stupid reasons–but that’s what you do in your twenties. Make stupid decisions while meaning so earnestly well.
My interviewer in Finland asked me: you’ve written about everywhere you’ve lived but Edinburgh. Where is Scotland in your books?
I laughed a little, pressed my lips together as I always do when I’m thinking, looked out the window of our car at the swans nesting in the golden Nordic estuaries. This is what I told her:
A poetry professor once told me that you can never name the thing you’re writing about. If the poem is about death, you can’t say the word death. Poems about memory shouldn’t go on about the thing itself. If you’re writing about grief, you can’t actually say grief, or sadness, or even tears. If you want to talk about love, love is the one word you can’t use.
Edinburgh is the thing I am a poem about and do not name.
Today, not long before the Queen’s Jubilee, I boarded a train at King’s Cross Station for Edinburgh. It was Platform 7. It’s just beginning to be summer now, and the fields are full of chartreuse flowers. The old churches spring up out of them like strange, huge blossoms. The train rushes over a stream so full of swans the current is pure white.
I think about bird magic again. Auguries.
I am no longer small. I know something of the world. Maybe not much of a something, but something. I have made things with my hands and heart. I look a bit pugnacious in my passport photo, like I still have something to prove. I had a bacon sandwich. My husband is with me and this time I am bearing him across the wall, to show him this object that sits at the bottom of my mind, a grey stone city with a castle and a mountain, a place that was once wholly full of fairy fruit and temptation and the rich mess of becoming bigger, becoming grown. That fairy fruit made everywhere else look dimmer for awhile. My goblin city, that swallowed me whole. I think it took falling in love with Maine to fix me–before then I always had the idea that of course I’d go back, that somehow, somehow, this was where I’d live when I could choose.
I’ve been near tears most of the morning, riding north through sheep and cattle and chapels and flowers. When you love a place, it’s hard to leave, and harder still to come back. You hope it will be proud of you, of all you became when you left to seek your fortune. You hope it will be as you remembered; you hope you are still as it knew you.
You hope it will forgive you long neglect, lines in your once-clear face, a hard blue edge of cynicism.
O goblin city, I hope you will forgive me for never writing a book about you.
Mirrored from cmv.com. Also appearing on @LJ and @DW. Read anywhere, comment anywhere.
Heya...
I've thought about this for the last couple of days and well... decided to make a post to hear other people's opinions... I've read lots of opinions on sites as tvline and such and most people think, now that Lexie is dead, Mark's story is told and he should die, too! An option Shonda left open...
It's not sure if he comes back at all, and in a recent Interview Shonda said, that she doesn't know who WILL be back next Season and if everyone on the plane crash will survive (everone of the "left 5"), so Arizona and Mark - who are obviously hurt worst - are still an option to die... but maybe she "just" tries to mess with us... and there are others that could still be gone by the start of next season as well... such as April and Avery... because most of the others with "options" to go are already confirmed to come back (such as Bailey, Richard, Derek, Cristina, Meredith and Alex), so the should COULD start without Avery, Kepner and maybe even Mark and/or Arizona...
The point is... I know there are LOTS of Mark/Lexie shippers... what would YOU want to happen to Mark? Should he die as well? And why? To be "reunited" with Lexie and have an end to their story, even if it's heartbreaking? (Okay, it already was when Lexie died, but... you get my point...)
I mean, I definitely see the point in saying "there is nothing left for him"... even though he has a family with Sofia and Callie (and Arizona), and I don't know how Shonda could ever "make that up" again by giving him a new love interest...
That was the "problem" Marc Cherry had with Desperate Housewives when he killed one of the husbands, and my guess is, that's the reason he NEVER showed how Susan was doing in the future, unlike ALL The others... we saw "fast forwards" of the other housewives but not of Susan, because he would have pissed off either the Susan/Mike fans by giving her a new man in her live, or the others by showing something like "You lost the love of your life, you can't be happy ever again, deal with it" and such...
And I think with Mark connected to Lexie THIS much... with them dancing around each other the whole time and this last speech about "meant to be" and having kids and getting married and such, I don't see how Mark can get over the loss of this so easy... (it's like Teddy said, something like "They told you it gets better, but it doesn't" and such)
The thing is: Mark is my very favourite character in the show, I don'T care much for Derek or Meredit or Cristina or such, but I love Mark and if he would die, I don't know if I would want to go on watching at all, but if he lives, it will be very painful for me to watch him suffer through maybe the whole Season...
And IF he survives, what do you think is gonna happen to him? What do you want to happen to him?
Some people said he might become a drunk (but we had this "theme" with Richard, so I don't know)... I think, he could "go back" to being the playboy he used to be after a while, like "drowning his pain" with Sex... but I don't know if that's still him, because he has grown so much in the past Seasons and he seems to be at a state now where he wants to have a real family, a real relationship...
I would LOVE to see a lot of hurt/comfort scenes between Avery and Mark (if Jesse comes back), since I think, Callie will be busy to be there for Arizona and Derek might be busy being there for his wife, but I don't know if Shonda will give me that... I want Mark and Jackson to get even closer and I want Shonda to show them "growing together" becaues they share a "similiar" kind of pain. I know itr's maybe not to compare, but Jackson DID love Lexie, and it must be a shock for him to find out she's dead as well, and I think, those 2 men MIGHT be able to spend each other some comfort...
But maybe that's just the "romantic sappy me" that wants to see a lot more Mark/Jackson (and since I know it won't ever be "more" than that, at least in a friendshippy way :P)... so yeah...
I wanna see Mark deal with the pain and at some point REALLY getting over it and starting to live again... With or without a new woman in his life, because I don't think Lexie would have wanted him to be unhappy for the rest of his life...
Personally I don't want him to die, but maybe that's an egoistic thought ;-)
- Location:At home - in my room
- Mood:
busy
So, I caught the Tour Series race in Oxford St Giles on ITV4 (the final televisual resting place of competitive cycling) and it is possible to imagine that a tiny purplish blur in the background as the riders whipped by (we'd got a good spot on the final sprint) is me! Hello ... er, Dad, probably. He's the cyclist. I only caught the men's race (having been stuck in a careers fair in Witney) but that did mean I was watching the fastest (the hour just flew by), the most dangerous (two tumbles on the nastiest of the hairpins) and the noisiest (the Eagle and Child were supplying pints in plastic cups and the sprints were signalled by a blast of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Two Tribes). Marcel Six aced the sprints, Scott Thwaites took the race and Chris Opie waved his fist at the sky as he just missed the top three. Great stuff, but sad I missed the womens' race.
Also, I'm not sure that purple shirt is really me. It may have to go back to the clothes swap.
Also, I'm not sure that purple shirt is really me. It may have to go back to the clothes swap.
Some silliness on my part while I get photographic proof that I got an art piece of mine into a local gallery.
( Photos herein )
( Photos herein )
- Mood:
cheerful
Ran some errands downtown today, this is what I wore.
My feet are taped up because I was going straight to volleyball afterwards. (I brought a change of clothes obviously, haha)
( Read more... )
My feet are taped up because I was going straight to volleyball afterwards. (I brought a change of clothes obviously, haha)
( Read more... )
I'm working on "The Deeps of the Sky" tonight, and generating a regular festival of Words Word Don't Know:
luminesced, tropopause, sheeny, thicks, unnavigable, dartlike,
Meanwhile, I had a little argument with myself on twitter as to whether I should use some modestly bogus science to create a cool special effect. I went with it. ;-) Now I'm stopping because I have to figure out how the protagonist intervenes to stop the Bad Thing from happening, or how he mops up afterward...
Oh, I might have just done so. Woot!
luminesced, tropopause, sheeny, thicks, unnavigable, dartlike,
Meanwhile, I had a little argument with myself on twitter as to whether I should use some modestly bogus science to create a cool special effect. I went with it. ;-) Now I'm stopping because I have to figure out how the protagonist intervenes to stop the Bad Thing from happening, or how he mops up afterward...
Oh, I might have just done so. Woot!
- Mood:
mellow - Music:Depeche Mode - Lilian (Album Version)
Words: 2088
Total words: 2088
Music: Three Double Concertos
Tea: Jon Singer's Green Pu Er, followed by London Tea Company's White Tea with Apricot and Elderflower.
Files: 3
Reason for stopping: bedtime
I've given up for the time being on getting Protext working properly in the emulator and gone back to the 386 laptop. I'm still planning to write the Talleyrand thing but I've been doing research on it forever and it still needs research, and I'm quite excited about this and I thought I'd sit down and write it and see where it wanted to go.
It's about the middle generation of a generation starship, and it's inspired by a panel at last year's![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92.1)
farthingparty (Info on this year's here and here) and something Z said when we were in Florence.
Total words: 2088
Music: Three Double Concertos
Tea: Jon Singer's Green Pu Er, followed by London Tea Company's White Tea with Apricot and Elderflower.
Files: 3
Reason for stopping: bedtime
I've given up for the time being on getting Protext working properly in the emulator and gone back to the 386 laptop. I'm still planning to write the Talleyrand thing but I've been doing research on it forever and it still needs research, and I'm quite excited about this and I thought I'd sit down and write it and see where it wanted to go.
It's about the middle generation of a generation starship, and it's inspired by a panel at last year's
farthingparty (Info on this year's here and here) and something Z said when we were in Florence.So, I'm searching for patterned cardigans that will fit my size 24/26 body, that are slightly modern in shape, color and pattern. I'd prefer fitted cardigans... but you know, at this point I'll take anything and try to "make it work." I'd love to try some pattern mixing, or just add variety to a solid dress over the summer instead of multiple layers.
I've done a cursory search -- F21+, HM+, ON, LB, Fashion Bug, Ave, OSP & the Redcats gang, City Chic, Torrid, Alloy, Alight, Target, Kmart -- and I keep coming up empty-handed. If you have some solid leads, as in actual links to stores that sell a variety of patterned cardigans in size 24 or 26 online (not stores like Ross or Burlington where inventory varies by location, or your local thrift store), please PLEASE share it here.
( ranting re: lack of fat style options )
So yeah, if you have some ideas for where I can find some patterned cardigans in size 24 or26, please share them here. Thanks everyone!
I've done a cursory search -- F21+, HM+, ON, LB, Fashion Bug, Ave, OSP & the Redcats gang, City Chic, Torrid, Alloy, Alight, Target, Kmart -- and I keep coming up empty-handed. If you have some solid leads, as in actual links to stores that sell a variety of patterned cardigans in size 24 or 26 online (not stores like Ross or Burlington where inventory varies by location, or your local thrift store), please PLEASE share it here.
( ranting re: lack of fat style options )
So yeah, if you have some ideas for where I can find some patterned cardigans in size 24 or26, please share them here. Thanks everyone!
I'm delighted to announce that Among Others is nominated for the Mythopoeic Award, along with an excellent list of other nominees:
Lisa Goldstein, The Uncertain Places (Tachyon)
Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus (Doubleday)
Richard Parks, The Heavenly Fox (PS Publishing)
Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless (Tor)
Jo Walton, Among Others (Tor)
complete list of all categories here.
I feel slightly overwhelmed with all the love my book's getting this week!
Lisa Goldstein, The Uncertain Places (Tachyon)
Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus (Doubleday)
Richard Parks, The Heavenly Fox (PS Publishing)
Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless (Tor)
Jo Walton, Among Others (Tor)
complete list of all categories here.
I feel slightly overwhelmed with all the love my book's getting this week!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/namastepray
NamastePrayerBeads posted a photo:
Labradorite and amethyst wrist mala
I can't find anything online that lists Chinese animal/element years into the future. What I actually want to know is what year it would be in 2212, and I'd also like to know the complete cycle of where it would be around then.
(It's really frustrating to click on something that says it's a ten thousand year calendar but which actually only goes up to 2019.)
(It's really frustrating to click on something that says it's a ten thousand year calendar but which actually only goes up to 2019.)
http://store.dieselsweeties.com/products/u
Preorders end tomorrow! I'll be sending this shirt to press at the end of the day Thursday, and we'll have one precious print run in 1-2 weeks.
I'm not gonna lie, I'm putting 2-3 aside for myself because I probably won't be able to do this one again. There may be a few left over at the end, but no guarantees of sizes.
Hooee, have I been swamped! Coming up for air to ask for suggestions: I have been ignoring all movie reviews for a while, though I know what's out. Going to a movie this weekend and so asking for suggestions. I love action adventure with funny, romance is fine. Hates: serial killers, refrigerator women, violently graphic bodily intrusion, depressing endings.
Latest movie seen, the Pixar Pirates as a Mother's Day arranged by daughter. Loved it!
It's probably going to be Avengers, unless there is something else recommended that I have missed knowing about.
I have seen some good Netflix stuff late at night when resting my hands. Anyone else ever seen Bing Crosby's Little Boy Lost? The performances by the French actors made the film. Crosby was a nice foil.
Latest movie seen, the Pixar Pirates as a Mother's Day arranged by daughter. Loved it!
It's probably going to be Avengers, unless there is something else recommended that I have missed knowing about.
I have seen some good Netflix stuff late at night when resting my hands. Anyone else ever seen Bing Crosby's Little Boy Lost? The performances by the French actors made the film. Crosby was a nice foil.
Anyone shopping from Citychic lately? I have been watching some cute stuff forever but I am unable to pull the trigger on it. I used to buy stuff from there all the time. I like some of their clothes, quality is generally ok, and with the 30% coupons they used to hand out fairly regularly the pricing alright.
Lately it seems all the coupons have dried up. They have had a steady stream of new items, but nothing new (Even from winter) going into the sale area, no special sales etc.. It also seems like their base pricing for new items (Jackets, dresses etc..) has gone up.
Anyone know if they have revamped lately? Is their quality suddenly a lot better/more consistent that makes it worth the higher prices. Anyone still shopping there regularly and want to convince me I should?
It kills me that there are some things I've been wanting forever, but I can't justify paying that much for quality that I equate with stores like LB or Torrid..
Lately it seems all the coupons have dried up. They have had a steady stream of new items, but nothing new (Even from winter) going into the sale area, no special sales etc.. It also seems like their base pricing for new items (Jackets, dresses etc..) has gone up.
Anyone know if they have revamped lately? Is their quality suddenly a lot better/more consistent that makes it worth the higher prices. Anyone still shopping there regularly and want to convince me I should?
It kills me that there are some things I've been wanting forever, but I can't justify paying that much for quality that I equate with stores like LB or Torrid..
May 23, 2012 - The official LiveJournal Release 92 has been deployed. Here’s what you’ll find in this latest site update:
NEW
BUGS, FIXED
PLANNED PARENTHOOD: HELP WITH A VGIFT!
Join us in standing up for reproductive health and education. Through the end of the month, you can send a specially designed Planned Parenthood vgift to your LiveJournal friends to help support this cause. (And if you need someone to send it to![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/user_ontd.gif?v=92.1)
frank is always happy to receive gifts!). There are three variations for you to choose from ($1, $5 and $10), but they’d all look good on your profile. Thank you for your support! Learn more.
- The LiveJournal Team
NEW
- Particularly long comment threads now collapse with the alert “...and [#] more comments.” Just click on that alert to see the rest of the comments. Here’s what this looks like:
- Notification emails now hide any content that was already placed inside an lj-cut instead of displaying the entire entry.
- Social Capital is now displayed for all communities on the profile page.
- You can now embed the Spotify player into your journal or community style.
- Personal userheads are now available for purchase. A personal userhead is of your own design and is unique to you, unavailable to anyone else. Purchase as many personal userheads as you like; each costs 5,000 LJ FunBux™, and is good for five years. Learn more.
BUGS, FIXED
- Scheduled entries should no longer return errors or double-post.
- Domain mapping should no longer force redirection to the LiveJournal login page.
- The format=light URL modifier works on entry pages again.
- Comment notification emails will send even if the entry has a poll.
- The "Music" section on the edit entries page will let you delete the entire text field.
- The help link next to “Do not add to friends pages and RSS” on the update page now links to the correct FAQ.
- The list of journals and communities added by default for new users has changed to
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/newsinfo.gif?v=92.1)
news and lj_releases for non-Cyrillic users. - Missing navigation items in the Classic journal style have re-appeared.
- Notifications about expiring add-ons will now have correct subject lines.
- The bold/italic/strikethrough buttons in the site default commenting scheme should no longer cause cursor positioning problems in Chrome.
- The Calendar feature will now update properly when you edit an entry and change its date.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD: HELP WITH A VGIFT!
Join us in standing up for reproductive health and education. Through the end of the month, you can send a specially designed Planned Parenthood vgift to your LiveJournal friends to help support this cause. (And if you need someone to send it to
frank is always happy to receive gifts!). There are three variations for you to choose from ($1, $5 and $10), but they’d all look good on your profile. Thank you for your support! Learn more.
- The LiveJournal Team
http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive/30
This weekend will mark ten years since I quit my job to make comics. I may celebrate this on the site later this week.
Oh my, these are delicious! The crust is buttery and crunchy with oats.
The filling is full of rhubarb and topped with crystalized ginger.
Recipe and more over at The Alchemist.
Hey everyone!
I've been mostly lurking in the community, commenting here and there and admiring all the fabulous and inspiring OOTDs. Today it's my turn!
( Read more... )
I've been mostly lurking in the community, commenting here and there and admiring all the fabulous and inspiring OOTDs. Today it's my turn!
( Read more... )
So my husband and I are planning our first "night away from the baby!!!" since our kiddo was born. (She'll be almost 1 when we finally make a break for it and I am beyond excited to SLEEP.)
But before sleep, lingerie.
I know of hipsandcurves. Does anyone else have suggestions for affordable, flattering lingerie?
But before sleep, lingerie.
I know of hipsandcurves. Does anyone else have suggestions for affordable, flattering lingerie?
I think this is better, although not necessarily the final version. I'm still thinking about the animism aspect. Note that LJ doesn't allow me to italicize. Note also that this scene is preceded and followed by action sequences.
Faint music sounded from the back of the cavern and the crowd stilled. It drew nearer, echoing – pipes, flutes, drums, something eldritch that might have been the wind whistling between the worlds. Figures advanced carrying torches. Their shadows preceded them, casting fantastic shapes on the cavern’s fissured walls. The crowd drew back as the procession entered the body of the cave.
Jame was reminded of Mother Vedia’s approach on her feast day. There, in fact, she was, again seated like a living statue on an upraised litter, again surrounded by her dancing, snake-wreathed attendants, but this time without bats or followers.
Before her went a gross figure looking like a younger version of the Earth Wife but also hugely pregnant, attended by a host of waddling women in a similar state.
After them, unaccompanied, came a skinny crone carrying a box. While people cheered the other two, they turned away from this last figure, shielding their children’s eyes.
“The Great Mother in her aspects of life-bearer, healer, and hungry tomb,” said Kroaky, raising his voice over the renewed clamor of the crowd as the next god emerged from the shadows.
“What’s in the box?”
“Death, of course.”
Jame regarded the diverse figures and remembered her conversation with Gran Cyd, queen of the Merikit. Showing her a fertility figure and an imu, both representing the Earth Wife, she had said, “These images were ancient long before Mother Ragga was even born.”
Jame had wondered at the time if the Earth Wife and the other three of Rathillien’s elemental Four, while each a distinct individual, wore different, older aspects in different cultures and were subject to older stories. Here, perhaps, was the answer.
It raised a further question, however: how had the deification of the Four effected the Old Pantheon, which preceded them?
There was the Earth Wife, in three of her native aspects.
Next came a cauldron seething with river fish. Fingerling trout crept over the edge of the pot and pulled up a figure glittering with scales. Cold round eyes regarded the crowd through a net of green hair and pouting lips parted over needle teeth in a smile meant to entice.
The Eaten One, thought Jame, or some variation of her, probably linked to the Amar. Did she also take a human lover? Where was Drie now, still blissfully in his beloved’s arms or deep within her digestive tract?
The goddess of love and lost causes walked behind her, backward, gazing into a mirror whose surface rippled like water. Around her feet, threatening to trip her, swarmed a host of green and yellow frogs.
“Geep!” they chorused. “Geep, geep, GEEP!”
Rain pattered in their wake.
Gorgo, thought Jame, happy to see an almost familiar face, or faces. She wondered how he and his priest Loogan were doing in Tai-tastigon. Sooner or later, she would have to find out.
More followed. Those clearly aligned with the Four seemed to fare the best. Others passed as phantoms of their former selves, and received little recognition from the crowd. Who now worshipped that dog-faced being or that drifting tatter of silk, that musky orange glow or that thing of clattering bones?
A dazzling light entered the cavern.
“Ooh!” breathed the crowd, and covered their eyes.
Jame peered through her fingers at the Sun in all his glory. She could almost make out a figure at the heart of the blaze, a man stumbling forward supporting a giant, swollen phallus with both hands.
The moon circled him, her face alternately that of the maiden, the matron, and the hag, just like the pommel of the Ivory Knife. She looked up with shifting features and saluted Jame.
“Sister, join us!”
Was this also a mortal who had undergone at least a temporary apotheosis – Like the Guild Lords above? Like Dalis-sar in Tai-tastigon? Like she herself, eventually, if she became That-Which-Destroys?
Heat washed through the cavern, worse than when the sun had come among them but without his dazzling light. An old woman carrying a heath-side firepot, a martial figure clanking in the red hot armor of war, and then a stillness. Heat gave way to a sudden, mortal chill. Jame felt the sweat on her brow turn cold.
“I won’t look,” said Fang, and hide her face against Kroaky’s shoulder.
A cloaked and hooded figure had entered the cavern. He made his way forward slowly, feeling ahead of him with an iron-shod staff. Why should he cause such dread? Perhaps it was the smoke seeping from within his garments. Perhaps it was the stench of burned flesh. Perhaps it was because he came alone, without attendants, and all turned their backs on him.
“Nemesis,” said Kroaky, glaring down defiantly although his voice shook. “I had nothing to do with the old man’s death. Ask Tori. He was there.”
“Wha …” Jame started to ask him, but memory caught her by the throat.
My father, nailed to the keep door with three arrows through his chest, cursing my brother and me as he died ….
“It wasn’t our fault,” she said out-loud. “D’you hear me, Burnt Man? Neither one of us was there!”
Wind frisked into the cavern. It swirled around the dark figure, teasing apart his robe, releasing streamers of smoke until with a flick it twitched away the garment altogether. For a moment, a black form stood there, exposed. His charred skin was laced with glowing cracks; his eyes and gaping mouth were pits into nothing. Then the wind blew again, harder, and he crumbled from the head down into a shower of cinders. The crowd cheered.
“They think he’s gone,” said Kroaky in an oddly husky voice, “but he always comes back. Like guilt. Like sorrow.”
The wind remained, now tumbling about the onlookers, snatching off this man’s hat, flinging up that woman’s skirt. Laughter followed its antics, all the louder with relief. A figure appeared whirling like a dervish in a storm of black feathers.
“Who …?” asked Jame.
“The Old Man,” said Kroaky, almost reverently, holding down his ginger hair with both hands. “The Tishooo. The East Wind.”
“In the Riverland, we call him the south wind.”
“Well, he would come at you from that direction. In fact, he moves about pretty much as he pleases, the tricky old devil. Some say that he governs the flow of time itself in the Wastes, don’t ask me how. Here we most often get him direct from Nekrien. He keeps away the Shuu and the Ahack from the south and west, from the Barrier across the Wastes and from Urakarn. We don’t honor those here.”
“What about the north wind?”
“The Anooo? That blows us the Kencyr Host and occasional weirding. Blessing or curse? You tell me. Without the east wind and the mountains, though, Kothifir, Gemma, and the other rim cities would be buried in sand like the other ancient ruins of the Wastes.”
The procession wound around the cavern until it reached its center. Here torches were set in holes drilled in the limestone floor and the avatars of the Four joined hands within the circle. They began to rotate slowly sun-wise. Their worshippers formed a withershin ring around them, then another going the opposite way, and so on and on, alternating, to the edges of the cave. Jame grew dizzy watching their gyrations. Everyone was chanting, but not the same thing:
“There was an old woman …”
“There was an old man …”
“There was a maid …”
“There was a young man ….”
The circle next to the gods slowed, swayed, and reversed itself. One by one, the rest corrected themselves until all were revolving the same way, those innermost going slowly, those outermost running, panting, to keep up. The world seemed to shift on its axis. Torches flared blue, casting shadows across an open space grown impossibly wide, split by fiery sigils.
They had opened Sacred Space.
Faint music sounded from the back of the cavern and the crowd stilled. It drew nearer, echoing – pipes, flutes, drums, something eldritch that might have been the wind whistling between the worlds. Figures advanced carrying torches. Their shadows preceded them, casting fantastic shapes on the cavern’s fissured walls. The crowd drew back as the procession entered the body of the cave.
Jame was reminded of Mother Vedia’s approach on her feast day. There, in fact, she was, again seated like a living statue on an upraised litter, again surrounded by her dancing, snake-wreathed attendants, but this time without bats or followers.
Before her went a gross figure looking like a younger version of the Earth Wife but also hugely pregnant, attended by a host of waddling women in a similar state.
After them, unaccompanied, came a skinny crone carrying a box. While people cheered the other two, they turned away from this last figure, shielding their children’s eyes.
“The Great Mother in her aspects of life-bearer, healer, and hungry tomb,” said Kroaky, raising his voice over the renewed clamor of the crowd as the next god emerged from the shadows.
“What’s in the box?”
“Death, of course.”
Jame regarded the diverse figures and remembered her conversation with Gran Cyd, queen of the Merikit. Showing her a fertility figure and an imu, both representing the Earth Wife, she had said, “These images were ancient long before Mother Ragga was even born.”
Jame had wondered at the time if the Earth Wife and the other three of Rathillien’s elemental Four, while each a distinct individual, wore different, older aspects in different cultures and were subject to older stories. Here, perhaps, was the answer.
It raised a further question, however: how had the deification of the Four effected the Old Pantheon, which preceded them?
There was the Earth Wife, in three of her native aspects.
Next came a cauldron seething with river fish. Fingerling trout crept over the edge of the pot and pulled up a figure glittering with scales. Cold round eyes regarded the crowd through a net of green hair and pouting lips parted over needle teeth in a smile meant to entice.
The Eaten One, thought Jame, or some variation of her, probably linked to the Amar. Did she also take a human lover? Where was Drie now, still blissfully in his beloved’s arms or deep within her digestive tract?
The goddess of love and lost causes walked behind her, backward, gazing into a mirror whose surface rippled like water. Around her feet, threatening to trip her, swarmed a host of green and yellow frogs.
“Geep!” they chorused. “Geep, geep, GEEP!”
Rain pattered in their wake.
Gorgo, thought Jame, happy to see an almost familiar face, or faces. She wondered how he and his priest Loogan were doing in Tai-tastigon. Sooner or later, she would have to find out.
More followed. Those clearly aligned with the Four seemed to fare the best. Others passed as phantoms of their former selves, and received little recognition from the crowd. Who now worshipped that dog-faced being or that drifting tatter of silk, that musky orange glow or that thing of clattering bones?
A dazzling light entered the cavern.
“Ooh!” breathed the crowd, and covered their eyes.
Jame peered through her fingers at the Sun in all his glory. She could almost make out a figure at the heart of the blaze, a man stumbling forward supporting a giant, swollen phallus with both hands.
The moon circled him, her face alternately that of the maiden, the matron, and the hag, just like the pommel of the Ivory Knife. She looked up with shifting features and saluted Jame.
“Sister, join us!”
Was this also a mortal who had undergone at least a temporary apotheosis – Like the Guild Lords above? Like Dalis-sar in Tai-tastigon? Like she herself, eventually, if she became That-Which-Destroys?
Heat washed through the cavern, worse than when the sun had come among them but without his dazzling light. An old woman carrying a heath-side firepot, a martial figure clanking in the red hot armor of war, and then a stillness. Heat gave way to a sudden, mortal chill. Jame felt the sweat on her brow turn cold.
“I won’t look,” said Fang, and hide her face against Kroaky’s shoulder.
A cloaked and hooded figure had entered the cavern. He made his way forward slowly, feeling ahead of him with an iron-shod staff. Why should he cause such dread? Perhaps it was the smoke seeping from within his garments. Perhaps it was the stench of burned flesh. Perhaps it was because he came alone, without attendants, and all turned their backs on him.
“Nemesis,” said Kroaky, glaring down defiantly although his voice shook. “I had nothing to do with the old man’s death. Ask Tori. He was there.”
“Wha …” Jame started to ask him, but memory caught her by the throat.
My father, nailed to the keep door with three arrows through his chest, cursing my brother and me as he died ….
“It wasn’t our fault,” she said out-loud. “D’you hear me, Burnt Man? Neither one of us was there!”
Wind frisked into the cavern. It swirled around the dark figure, teasing apart his robe, releasing streamers of smoke until with a flick it twitched away the garment altogether. For a moment, a black form stood there, exposed. His charred skin was laced with glowing cracks; his eyes and gaping mouth were pits into nothing. Then the wind blew again, harder, and he crumbled from the head down into a shower of cinders. The crowd cheered.
“They think he’s gone,” said Kroaky in an oddly husky voice, “but he always comes back. Like guilt. Like sorrow.”
The wind remained, now tumbling about the onlookers, snatching off this man’s hat, flinging up that woman’s skirt. Laughter followed its antics, all the louder with relief. A figure appeared whirling like a dervish in a storm of black feathers.
“Who …?” asked Jame.
“The Old Man,” said Kroaky, almost reverently, holding down his ginger hair with both hands. “The Tishooo. The East Wind.”
“In the Riverland, we call him the south wind.”
“Well, he would come at you from that direction. In fact, he moves about pretty much as he pleases, the tricky old devil. Some say that he governs the flow of time itself in the Wastes, don’t ask me how. Here we most often get him direct from Nekrien. He keeps away the Shuu and the Ahack from the south and west, from the Barrier across the Wastes and from Urakarn. We don’t honor those here.”
“What about the north wind?”
“The Anooo? That blows us the Kencyr Host and occasional weirding. Blessing or curse? You tell me. Without the east wind and the mountains, though, Kothifir, Gemma, and the other rim cities would be buried in sand like the other ancient ruins of the Wastes.”
The procession wound around the cavern until it reached its center. Here torches were set in holes drilled in the limestone floor and the avatars of the Four joined hands within the circle. They began to rotate slowly sun-wise. Their worshippers formed a withershin ring around them, then another going the opposite way, and so on and on, alternating, to the edges of the cave. Jame grew dizzy watching their gyrations. Everyone was chanting, but not the same thing:
“There was an old woman …”
“There was an old man …”
“There was a maid …”
“There was a young man ….”
The circle next to the gods slowed, swayed, and reversed itself. One by one, the rest corrected themselves until all were revolving the same way, those innermost going slowly, those outermost running, panting, to keep up. The world seemed to shift on its axis. Torches flared blue, casting shadows across an open space grown impossibly wide, split by fiery sigils.
They had opened Sacred Space.
http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2012/05/2
http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/?p=13133
The mail relay machines for your web servers got backed up earlier today. We are working on processing that mail as fast as we can, but it will likely take another few hours to clear that mail queue. In the meantime, you will see delay in sending your php- or sendmail-based email or those created by your cronjobs. No mail is lost, we’re processing it all in the order they are generated on your server. We apologize for the delay and the inconvenience this is causing.
Update May 22nd 10:04pm PDT We’re happy to report the mail server has caught up now. Again, we are very sorry about the inconvenience this has caused. -Dan J
Update May 22nd 8:37pm PDT The mail is still being processed through the central relay server. Unfortunately it’s taken longer than expected but we are making progress. Again, we are very sorry about the inconvenience this has caused. -Dan J
Update May 22nd 3:53pm PDT We’re continuing to clear the mail queue on the relay server. To reduce the load, we are only processing a certain amount of queued up mail at a time. We apologize for any inconvenience this is causing. – Andrea
Update May 22nd 1:05pm PDT The mail queues have been catching up as expected, but we’ll keep this post open until we are back to normal. Thank you for your patience. – Andrea
So I found my dress in Macy's! I didn't want to go for a typical black dress because I assume everyone else will be in mostly black. Its way more sparkly than pictured. Its Ivory and gold with some super sparkly beading.
What is your opinion on my choice of accessories? (Sorry for the face, I just got back from class!)
Now I have a question for all you Fats, I am a lil wary about my arms, and my arm pits. Is there any kind of coverup I can get to help me out with my issues? I spent a pretty penny on the dress so I want something not sooooo expensive, preferably under 75 if it's something I can use with multiple fancy outfits.
Thanx ladies and Gents!!!
What is your opinion on my choice of accessories? (Sorry for the face, I just got back from class!)
Now I have a question for all you Fats, I am a lil wary about my arms, and my arm pits. Is there any kind of coverup I can get to help me out with my issues? I spent a pretty penny on the dress so I want something not sooooo expensive, preferably under 75 if it's something I can use with multiple fancy outfits.
Thanx ladies and Gents!!!
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