Note: I’m trying to figure out the best format for laying out this site (pages vs. categories, etc.) so be patient as the page may change its structure in the future.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, Wikepedia has a great article on Haitian Creole which gives a good background and introduction to the language. Important notes are that Haitian Creole, as other creole and pidgin languages, are a conglomeration of other languages that become more of less fixed in their structure sometime along the mixing. Haitian Creole is a pidgin language unique to the country of Haiti due to its specific history and influencing cultures. To sum up Haitian history in a very small nutshell, Haiti is on the western half of the island of Hispaniola, originally a holding of Spain, the island was split into western and eastern colonies held by the French (Haiti) and Spain (Dominican Republic) respectively. The French imported African slaves from many different tribes and areas of Africa with the hope they would be unable to communicate and stage any type of uprising. To make a very long story short, these languages along with a large influence from the national French language, combined to create a language of the masses which we now know as Haitian Creole.

Haiti has two national languages, French and Haitian Creole. French is more or less the language of the higher class and educated populus while Creole is the language of the majority of the population, lower classes, and uneducated. For many of these reasons there aren’t a lot of resources available to learn Haitian Creole, and it’s structure and vocabulary are more susceptible to changes.

Hi. I’m Evan Wyloge. I’ve spent most of my life in Arizona, but I’ve always had a weakness for travel. While studying Political Science and French at Northern Arizona University, I was fortunate enough to be able to travel through parts of Europe. To say it was enriching is a gross understatement. Getting to leave one’s familiar domain and see how people live in other parts of the world is, in my opinion, one of the greatest experiences one can have.

I’m wrapping up what’s been an incredible 16 months at the Cronkite School. What better way to finish my time here than to take part in an trip half-way around the world, practicing the skills I’ve honed while in grad school?

I’m thrilled to be traveling with such a dedicated and exciting group of people to Dubai. With a little luck, we’ll make lifelong memories and produce some work that we’re all proud of. Here’s to anticipation!

I moved something like fifteen times while living in Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa. I’ve travelled in the united states from Miami to Seattle, and I’ve had the unique opportunity to visit China. This year, when I moved to Phoenix with Rebekah, it finally became obvious to me that if I ever had roots, they had long since evolved into wheels, wings or some other mode of transport.

In kindergarten, when my class was standing and sharing with each other “what we want to be when we grow up,” I said “I want to be a philosopher.” At that time I hadn’t realized yet that most past “philosophers” were thought to be crazy by their peers, if not still today.

I learned a lot in the three states and five school systems I went through before graduating high school, but unfortunately I never found out what I most like learning. That there are plenty of things that I enjoy doing and learning about only makes it more difficult to pursue a specific career path. Several example topics I find enjoyable are technology, photography, science, and heuristics (the way things are learned). I find things like computer networks, electric cars, and space exploration to be fascinating, in part or in whole due to the multi-disciplined knowledge that makes them possible.

So, while I’ve tentatively decided to pursue deeper knowledge in IT for the sake of moving forward, my mind is constantly looking for directions I can take to broaden my fields of knowledge as well.  I’m really excited to be participating in this great learning adventure, and I can’t wait to share the experience!

What’s this?

Stormcastle’s favorite chocolate bar, that’s what!

Seriously… I’ll whore my blog out for some of these, LOL.

How’s that for journalistic integrity?

Christmas is coming up… so now you know what to put in my stocking, Santa!

I used to have a Spanish blog (Chineando), but it died a long time ago, mainly because  I don’t like Fotolog format, and Facebook, Twitter, Douban, etc. have filled almost 90% of my time online.

I open this blog because lately I feel like writing again, so let’s see if I’m not too lazy to continue with it, hehe.  I will write in English although my English is so-so, so please excuse my poor English and grammar mistakes.

Welcome to my life.

I’m so pleased to welcome you to my virtual consulting room.  Here you may bring the vexing questions and daily perplexities which plague all of us who labor in the vineyards of the Academy.  No problem is too small, too complicated, or too embarrassing for Dr. Decorum–and her services are truly pro bono. 

If you don’t quite know how to decline an invitation to a spouse-swap at the Dean’s house, or which side to take in the annual literature v. rhetoric death-match, or when to offer a signed offprint to a colleague, Dr. Decorum is here to help.  Submit your questions to drdecorum@gmail.com, using whatever pseudonym you please.  Any potentially compromising details will be altered at Dr. Decorum’s discretion, and should questions flag, she will contribute edifying anecdotes from her own career.

Again, welcome!

I have set myself several challenges to be completed over the next decade.  Why?  Well I want to be able to look back at those years and think..wow did I really do all of that?

Now one of my challenges is to keep a daily blog, every day during that time.  To try and post photographs of what I see around me, what I am doing and where I am going.  To keep that record so that, when I look back, the memories are there, are still flush.

I am not going to promise that every entry will be great, full of wonderful insights.  Also, some may be very short, but I will try to post at least once a day.  Some days it could be more, just depends how the mood takes me.  My initial aim is to make 365 daily posts over the course of 2009/2010.  But by the time I get there knowing me I will just keep on going.  Will anyone read it?  Who knows?  Hopefully, but we shall soon see

For those of you who don’t “get” my blog’s name, here’s your explanation:

One of my favourite quotes is “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade, but unless life also gave you water and sugar, your lemonade’s gonna suck”. I’ve interpreted this quote to mean, Sure, life’s going to give you lemons, that’s what it does. It’s what you bring to the table that counts.

Sugar…

You’ve got to alter your attitude about what life throws at you. It’s no secret that I’m a strong Christian, which has a lot to do with my outlook on life, but philosophically, I’ve got a “What happens, happens” or “C’est la vie” outlook on things. All we can do is try, and what happens next is going to happen whether we like it or not. It’s your positive outlook on the situationt that’s going to sweeten the deal, if you get my drift (it’s not an innuendo, regrettably, just what it is).

Water…

Just having a positive outlook isn’t going to turn your lemons and sugar into anything drinkable. You could eat it, sure, but hello, gross! You’ve got to be willing to go with the flow. I’m a fairly laidback person, which ties in a lot to my “sugar”. I’m not saying just sit back and let life hit you, but you’ve got to accept that eventually it’s going to. Another great quote is from Eric Foreman on That 70’s Show… “Y’know life…is like a train. It’s bearing down on you, and guess what?…It’s gonna hit you! So you can either start running when it’s far off in the distance, or you can pull up a chair, crack open a beer…and just watch it come!” While I obviously prefer lemonade to beer, the point remains. You can’t escape life, but you can Deal with it. That’s all I’m saying.

So there you have it: my philosophy. It’s not technically new, but I couldn’t resist the “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” reference. And this is where I came up with the name for my blog. This blog is going to chronicle ME. It’s for everyone, my friends, family, business contacts, you name it. Anybody and everybody is welcome to pull up a chair, crack open a lemonade, and watch life hit me at 180 mph.

The main event I’m preparing for right now is my internship in January. I’ve been given an excellent opportunity to intern with Tubefilter.tv for Jan term, in Los Angeles, CA. The problem? I live on the east coast. There’s a big old country in there somewhere. But I’m working and praying and hoping on finding a place to stay (by Monday, no less, no pressure). I’ve just got to believe that it’ll all work out somehow.

So there you have it, my current lemons. Bring it on.

Anime is a cartoon depiction of a story. It orginates from Japan, which is one of the world’s largest fan base of anime.

Here are a few people who obviously enjoy participating in Anime Conventions in Japan.
It is widely celebrated all over the world, and is drawn quite differently. As you watch anime, you can see the different styles of illustrating anime and you can decide which is your favourite.

Goes in this order from top-left to bottom-right: The movies/TV series “Dead Leaves“, “FLAG“, “Gurren Lagann“, “Serial Experiments Lain“, “Cat Soup“, “Monster“, “Lucky Star” and “Mind Game“.

As you can see from the picture above, there are many different ways to how anime is drawn.

Hello world!

I suppose if we’re going to be spending any time together at all I should introduce myself.

My name is Ruby. I’m a girl, in my twenties. I work in the arts. I love being creative. I have a weakness for chocolate bars and chai lattes. I love reading and nighttime walks in the fog, and I’m quite shy.

And this moment – right now – albeit behind a veil of anonymity that the dear internet provides, I am coming out as an collared and owned submissive.

There. I said it. That wasn’t so bad.

The purpose of this blog is to document my continuing journey as a submissive girl in a judgmental world.

There. I said it. Now we can move on to the actual content.

So, now that I’ve made my foray into the world of the outed kinksters, a little backstory would probably be useful, yes?

Okay.

The very short version is that about ten years ago or so, when I was in my first relationship, I discovered that I liked rough sex. I was introduced to the world of very elementary rope bondage and I acquired an interest in piercing. Once I left home for university, I started exploring all of the things that I could never have gotten away with under my parents’ roof. Over the next few years I had: put a total of 14 extra holes in my body (including four in my nipples and five in my genitals), had sex with a lot of people – men and women -, and had entered into a loose open relationship with someone who was willing to explore all of my kinks. What I discovered over that time was that I craved being used, in a consensual fashion, as a service slut. I had found my niche at a fairly young age. I was definitely not lacking in the sexual confidence department.

Almost two years ago, I made a decision that would change my life. I was talking online with someone I had worked with back in 2006. After a few days of talking about our fantasies and lots of building tension, he asked for my phone number because he wanted to hear me orgasm. He called and listened intently. He then asked if I wanted him to come over. That night was one of the most erotic of my life. Without going into too many details (yet), within two minutes of his arrival, my head was on the floor under his foot and we were quickly discussing boundaries for the night. We did not sleep at all that night and had to work the next day. I was sent to my job that morning with giant bruises up and down my thighs and ass, my jaw aching from holding it open, and my cunt and ass throbbing from being thoroughly used. It was the start of a beautiful relationship.

Now, on another note, I have read enough on the internet to know that very often, especially in people whose lifestyles are primarily played out online, subs and slaves will refer to themselves in lowercase, and sometimes in the third person. I do not. This is not about me defying any kind of system; I asked early on in our relationship if, when we would speak over the internet, I should follow those guidelines. Sir told me that he would much rather read something that looked normal and educated than lowercase and lazy (his words). Sir is proud to have a sub who is smart and driven and can think for herself. So, I write as a proud girl who seeks self-improvement through an unconventional means.

I will dive further into the details as this progresses, but for now I will say that starting this blog was prompted by a wonderful session we had last night. Our play and our dynamics have slightly fallen by the wayside as real life threw both of us some curve balls in the past season or two. It feels wonderful to get back into the groove. More about that tomorrow. Thanks for listening.

<3 Ruby

Welcome, minions.

This isn’t going to be much of anything, I just want to get back into comedic writing, or what I thought was funny at least.  For starters let me introduce myself so that you’re not left sitting there and wondering if I’m a boy or a girl.

I am in fact a woman, a mother, sometimes a bitch. Okay, all of the time, would you leave me alone already?

I don’t have much reason for this other than to get my thoughts out where some people can see them, and believe me, I have a lot of thoughts.

To describe myself would be egotistical, and man am I full of it! So let’s get started!

I’m a nerd/geek and computers are definitely my thing.

I play games (PC only with a little bit of PS2 gaming thrown in there)

I’m a total and complete tech snob, I don’t run out and get the latest and greatest software or tech gadgets. In fact I just recently (as in a week ago) got a QWERTY keyboard cell phone, and it was a free upgrade, a cheap LG. I don’t have a silly iPod, or anything related to APPLE in any way. I don’t own an Xbox360 or a PS3, either. The only thing that I like to keep up-to-date is my computer, and even then I’m slow at that.

Most of my friends are comic book type nerds, or movie nerds, or “reviewers” that bash on games and movies, and other such things.

But I am completely different from them, a whole different type of nerd. Next to none of them know a thing about computers, so I end up being the tech support for everyone around me. Which is fine, most of the time, because I love that shit. Yes, I said shit, you wanna fight about it?

I don’t care for TV or movies (I do watch them, but I’m not one to really pick them apart). I love to read, but I read mostly computer-ish type books.

On top of it all, I have two children. However, I’m not one of those mothers that talks constantly about her kids and what they’re doing. It’s not that I don’t love my children but my love and affection for them is a given and I don’t feel I need to express it to others who don’t even matter. Even though I’ve been a part of parenting boards and even ran a couple, I’ve never been one to talk about my kids much. I dote on their achievements here and there and that’s about it. For the most part, I am a selfish bitch and I want to talk about me and what I see in life, dammit. My online time is about me!

For cash, I am a freelance graphic and web designer.

I also do photography, 3D modeling, and animation (those last two I rarely do, I really need to get busy!)

I have a degree in Multimedia, and I’ll let you figure out what that means .

And finally, WHY Biscuit?

Some people think it has to do with the food, like Biscuit’s and gravy which would be the URL of my blog.

But, it doesn’t. It’s still a food, yes, but the name is  a nickname for me from my wonderful significant other.

His nickname (amongst the many we have for each other) is Gravy, and mine is Biscuit. And this derives from a couple of stuffed animals that we have, his being from childhood.

A more in depth explanation will follow some time in the near future, but for now, you suffer!

On a side note, I am a truly honest, harsh, red headed woman and I say some offensive things. I’m not your typical female, nor mother.

Soccor mom? Please, I eat them bitches for breakfast!

As a brief introduction to myself and my situation, I have to mention that I am an unemployed 28-year-old male living with his parents.  Not in his “mother’s basement”, haters, but in a very moderately-sized room with a door and carpeting and a walk-in closet.  This room houses most of my earthly possessions which consist primarily of digital versatile discs and paperbacks.  As a jobless cine-audio- literophile (“nerd” in layperson’s terms), I spend most of my time devouring my way through a vast and endless buffet of movies, books and albums.  I’d be remiss if I failed to mention my burgeoning video game habit.  The sum of all those wretched parts is that my once Pantragruelian physique is now something much more Gargantuan, much to my dismay. 

Having said that, things are not so dire.  Not yet, at any rate.  I’ve spent an increasing number of my free hours attending to more active pursuits and, due to a nasty case of gall stones, I have cast nearly all fatty food completely asunder.  Gone are the days of eating whatever or whenever one wants.  Doctor Atkins would shudder in his grave if he knew with how much rancor I now direct toward meat, both white and red.  If not for some of the more healthy poultry that I enjoy, I would have become a full-blown pescetarian.  All of this frightening change to stave off the exponentially more frightening inevitable for, hopefully, decades to come. 

I’m learning to embrace the change.  All in all, it feels nice to exercise and eat more for sustenance than for pleasure.  Sometimes I even browse the interwebs for places in which I am encouraged to be more active. 

I was doing exactly that when I stumbled upon an exercise program for children in my general vicinity.  I couldn’t help feeling envious of the children who take advantage of such a great program.  Before I continue, let me reiterate much I believe that these opportunities are exemplary and genius.  How different would my life be if my childhood had been more centered on fitness.  Sure, I played rec soccer and baseball from first grade to middle school, but I can’t claim to have been much of an athlete.  An adequate role player, for sure, but I wasn’t much for running, an attribute that lingers on to this day.  Luckily, on and off for the past 3 years, I have felt the various benefits of personal training.  I applaud the people who promote healthfulness in our society. 

It’s just…couldn’t they come up with a better name than Fitness for Health? 

I don’t mean to demean the nobility of their mission or sully their collective reputation, but come on…Fitness for Health?  What does that even mean?  I don’t think it’s my inner sloth rearing his ugly head when I point out that, in most circles, fitness is synonymous with health.  Even if the two words are slightly differing in meaning, they are two twigs on the very same branch.  Furthermore, why else would someone want to be fit?  Every benefit, whether becoming more acceptably attractive to the mainstream or just being able to move with more fluidity and ease, falls into that general “health” category: so much so that one would be completely well within their faculties to say that fitness is health and vice versa. 

Fitness for Health.  Pssh.  Why not Fitness for Cake?  Or Fitness for Yellow?  Perhaps the underlying lesson of this unfortunately-named fitness company is that my time reading books was time well spent. 

Signing off from the dark of the matinée.

And welcome to Want To Learn, a know-it-all’s repository!

I’ll be your host through this madcap adventure of information, science, politics and pop culture.

So sit back and enjoy the ride; because it can only get better from here!

Its funny how an ultimate team seems to attract those foreign bodies. It all started with a Thai-American who knew her right from her left better than her real origins. She was such a world traveler that by the time she was done telling you “where she was from” it was time to blow out another candle. It also seemed that all this travel made her mightily hungry, for she ate more than any other her size. This girl, seemingly named after your favorite Japanese cartoon where Bulbasaur happened to be the perfect fusion between plant and dinosaur, was given a mighty nickname for her play on the field. It was so given for her amazing 0 to 60 power and precision cutting. Motor was the first of our “foreign” players.

This year a whole new breed of foreign has come along, in fact we are still searching for her documentation. It became clear within minutes of meeting this immigrant that something was different. As soon as she began to speak with an accent akin to that of an Alaskan politician combined with someone from Minnesota, we began to question her roots. It took a while to uncover her true identity, but after much research into Nordic languages it became quite clear that this rather tall, dark haired, freckled body could come from no where else but Sweden.

For those of you unfamiliar with the lovely Nordic country of Sweden, allow me to paint you a picture. Think Sarah Palin turf sansconservatives; with bone chilling temperatures, long periods of sunshine extremes, average tax rates of 28-59% and the presence of our holiday favorite: reindeer. Its most redeeming quality…basically considered pacifistic…at least they haven’t gone to war since 1814.

Our dear friend Kelli came to the US of A in search of sunshine and friends. While her height and inability to say much else than “jaaa” marked her as strange in much of the Elon community, the ladies of Elon Club Ultimate Frisbee welcomed this foreigner with open arms. Free 2 Lay has high hopes for this unique addition to the team, and are hoping that her Swedish citizenship will earn them a bid to the WinterTrofen tournament in Göteborg, Sweden, next February.

Congratulations Kelli, and Välkommen till Amerika.

Sweedish Fish Eating Contest

My name is Moneil Abu Speitan (on the left in blue), I am a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences studying Economics.  I am from Syracuse, New York.  Some interesting facts about me are that I have never been west of or south of Syracuse, New York, so I am super excited to go to Omaha, NE.  Also anyone who does decide to come on the trip to Omaha will be able to celebrate my birthday with me over spring break (March 8th)!  I am so excited to go to Omaha over this winter, the past two years I have wanted to volunteer for ASB, but it just has not happened and this year it finally worked out.  Omaha is an affordable housing trip through the organization Rebuilding Together, so we will be building housing for the elderly, people with disabilities, and low-income families with children.  Some cool facts about Omaha is that it is the host of the College Baseball World Series in June.  Omaha also boasts one of the nation’s best zoos.  The Henry Doorly Zoo is home to the nation’s largest indoor rainforest, it is also home to the world’s largest indoor desert, the largest glazed geodesic dome and also the world’s largest nocturnal exhibit and indoor swamp.  We will be getting free passes on one of the days we are at Omaha to visit their amazing zoo! (Mike: wait, seriously?? I didn’t know that. That’s awesome!) Omaha is an amazing trip and we are both so excited for the trip in March, we hope you decide to choose to join us for an amazing time!

Hey guys!  My name is Michael Bruffee (on the right in yellow), I am also a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, studying Biological Anthropology with a minor in French.  I am from Brooklyn, New York (holla!), I really enjoy a good cup of tea (no kidding), and am really excited to celebrate Moneil’s birthday in Omaha over spring break (mine’s not until May 23rd)!  I also bike around campus a lot, so chances are you’ve seen me go by many, many times wearing my bright yellow hoodie on the street.  I went to Greenville, SC last year for ASB as a volunteer and had two amazing Coordinators, and staffed FYSOP this fall, so I was inspired to be a coordinator and help make this year’s Alternative Spring Breaks happen! Some more cool facts about Omaha, Nebraska: it’s nickname is “the Gateway to the West” due to its proximity to the Missouri River; it is host to the largest privately owned bank in the United States (First National Bank of Omaha); and is the birthplace of our 38th President, Gerald R. Ford, as well as civil rights movement great Malcom X! I am really looking forward to working with Rebuilding Together to help provide affordable housing to those in need in Omaha, and I can’t wait to meet all of you who decide you want to come with us!

Thanks to everybody who commented on my last blog post! I really appreciate you sharing your playlists with everyone and introducing us to some great new music!

As I was responding to your comments, something hit me. You guys have shown us an incredible ammount of support over the last few years. You’ve called your local DJs to request our music. You’ve come to our shows and purchased our CDs. And your votes have caused us to win more contests and get onto more playlists than I could count. Each of you has helped make what we do possible.

Last week was really cool because we had twenty people contribute to our post! But, our anlaytics show that hundreds of people read it. Why is that? I’m not sure. But I feel that it is – at least in some part – due to the fact that so often the creation and delivery of art is a one way street. I want to change that; so I’d like to invite you to take a moment to do three things:

1. Visit atris.wordpress.com (This will be more fun if everyone goes to the same page.)
2. Scroll down to the comment box and introduce yourself. Write a few words about anything you’d like. How did you first hear our music? What city are you from? What are your favorite movies? Pretend we just met at a coffee shop. If you’d like share your blog address, Twitter ID or someplace where we and other people can learn more about you that would be great too!
3. Check the box that says Notify me of follow-up comments via email.

Please don’t do this for us, do this for yourself and for everyone. It takes a certain amount of bravery to put yourself out there; but it’s worth it. We love to get to know people with similar interests, ideas, and opinions. And it’s really cool when group discussions are started. If you have something in common with someone who posts, let him or her know! It makes me feel great to see people responding to my comments, and I love to chime back in to share my thoughts.

Looking forward to meeting you!

-Mason

Figured I’d start a microblog about toys OUTSIDE of Twitter. I won’t be covering all toys in general and will only note the toys that I could be bothered to buy as well as those that would fall in my wishlist. Also, when I mean toys, it doesn’t necessarily mean that in the absolute literal sense. Some people may consider tech gadgets as toys and I’m one of them. So if we share the same interests, you might want to hit this place up every now and then.

Here, we are looking now at a philosophical approach to science…the question of scientific attitude is the underpinning of what is possible when we attempt to grasp the biosphere/biota/ecosphere/inset favorite synonym here…and by grasp I mean simply dance with…hold on loosely…because after all is said, science is about what works or more precisely (to quote Eugene Gendlin)  ”what makes science so compelling is that it actually works…”

Goldstein: http://www.natureinstitute.org/about/who/goldstein.htm

Hunderwasser is someone you might want to know a bit about as well.  It is the spirit of the child lived until death.  Many compare him unfavorably to Gaudi (a pale theft); perhaps it is a fair accusation (and it is emotionally couched in ‘artistic’ criticism).  It makes little difference in the end.  His was a singular vision and not repeated often.  It begs the question: what is it that we are achieving (psychologically) with our mainstream architecture?  Is it (the gesture and the result) intentional, practical, realistic, or none of that at all?

Wiki:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser

I won’t waste time pretending I can tell you about him better than his most avid fans.  I will say only that he was a world class singularity; the sort that is a manifestation of the myth of the American Individualist.  In our case, he also was a visionary un-bested in the field.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller

Website: http://www.bfi.org/

This is the first of a series of articles aimed at those new to astrology: most people have ever only encountered sun-sign astrology as entertainment in newspapers and magazines, but there is a lot more to it than that! I hope that this article, and the rest in the series, will provide the curious with information to the contrary.

So, what is astrology all about? Astrology is primarily an art of observation and the skill of being able to put together many small parts to form a single picture of a person, an event, a question, or a timeline. It is often referred to as a ’science’ by some of its practitioners, but what does this mean? The science of what? ‘Science’ is a word that can mean anything the person using it wants to.

Scientia literally refers to a body of knowledge which can be applied over and over reliably – in this, astrology can be considered a science. However, it is not a science as we currently understand the use of the word – it is more akin to a mixture of art, psychology and topography. The reason I do not refer to astrology as a science, but rather, as a discipline, is to distinguish it from the material sciences that we are familiar with. Astrology cannot be compared to these.

Astrology is bound up in technical, practical, intuitive and spiritual practises. Some practitioners divorce it from the latter, which is unfortunate. Most Continental and Indo-European cultures have astrology imbued into its spiritual, religious, medical and philosophical fibre. Have you ever heard someone described as ‘melancholic’ or ‘jovial’? What about ‘venereal disease’ or ‘martial’? These are all terms derived from astrology. The motif of the four fixed signs of the zodiac is common in old churches – the angel, the eagle, the winged bull and the winged lion often seen in cathedrals originally referred to Aquarius, Scorpio, Taurus and Leo (with all four images linking, way back, to Sumerian iconography), but were assigned the names of four of the apostles to Christianise them.

Nearly everyone these days knows their ’sign’ – their sun sign, which is commonly understood as being that you are born at a certain time of year, and hence fall into one of twelve categories. Many people find their sun-sign to be reasonably accurate…about just as many find that is means very little to them and has little descriptive property, and some actually find their sun-sign qualities seem antagonistic, and may even hate their sign!

In Classical astrology, the Sun is not the sole deciding factor in determining a nativity – all seven of the celestial bodies (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) were involved, and any one of these might be the ruling planet in a person’s psychological and physical make-up. Typically, when someone learns what their ruling planet and associated sign is, the world of astrology opens up and for most, suddenly makes perfect sense.

Astrology is more than what most people understand it to be, both in terms of depth of meaning and in technical complexity. The basic elements are the planets (7 classical bodies, a total of 10 if you count Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Chiron), the Cardinal Points (Ascendant, Midheaven, Descendant, and Imum Coeli), twelve signs, and twelve houses (the sectors of the Celestial Sphere). If you include other chart elements, you can have up to 20 points…taking just the basics mentioned up there, you end up with 2016 possible combinations – and that isn’t counting things like aspects (the links between planets – there are 6 commonly used aspects), midpoints, Arabic Parts…you get the gist.

This study of the planets and their motions within the signs and houses is far more than just the one determining factor, and every natal chart – like every person – is unique and reflects the complexity of the universe in which we live, and the one that we carry within ourselves. Astrology is not only used for nativities, or birth charts – it can be used for questions, the placement of events, locating lost objects, predicting the weather and watching historical events unfold. The planets have an every day effect on our lives, physically and metaphysically. We are cocooned within the protective Heliosheath produced by our Sun. The Moon effects the tides, the growth of plants, and the cycles of many women. Jupiter has an active role in shielding the Earth from large meteors. And for some reason, the planets seem to correlate to events which happen here, from the smallest to the largest. Whether a woman in New York has lost her keys or a city falls to war, the incident is reflected in the motion of our solar system with uncanny accuracy.

How does it work? I have my personal theories, and there has been much speculation over the centuries as to how astrology is so effective. It does not respond well to (materialist) science’s attempts to apply statistics to it, for the same reason that statistics cannot be used to track every woman who loses her keys across the world – the variety of subjective experience remains outside any ability to normalise it. Every nativity, horary (question), electional (event), mundane (global events) or decumbiture (medical) chart has meaning only for one given subjective experience, whether it be the formation of a personality or finding your lost dog.

Astrology is a deeply profound study, and this is only the briefest introduction to what is involved in it. There will be a full series of Beginner’s Articles written for those interested in learning more about the Art – the Planets, Signs, the role of the Houses and Aspects, the Arabic Parts, and the History of Astrology. My next post will be an introduction to Hermeticism, and the links between Hermetic philosophy and astrology. Make sure to check back regularly!

I almost sent him a long SMS today but I decided against hitting the Send button once I was done with it. In the end, I discarded the entire thing. He’s on holiday right now. I don’t want to spoil his mood the instant he returns in a few days.

Perhaps…it doesn’t really matter after all. I might just be over-reacting. It’s his life and he’s free to choose who he wants to hang out with. If he wants to walk that path, I can’t stop him.

Who am I to stop him from doing what he deems is right anyway? Trying to force my views on him is unfair to him because he has the right to do what he wants and hang out with who he chooses.

I don’t want to stick my hand into his friendships. I don’t want to care, even. After all, it’s his life, not mine. I’m tired. Have you ever tried spinning the same thoughts in your mind, hour after hour, day and night? It’s probably better for all of us if I wash my hands of the matter and delete those thoughts from my mind.

I don’t like the idea of him being with them but what can I do? I can’t change his mind at all. I can only detach and leave him be.

That said, I’m finding it hard not to lose faith. It’s the beginning of the end.

And getting tangled up with them is definitely the worst thing I’ve done this year. I’ve never been more stupid.

I’m saying no more about this matter. I’m just taking it one day at a time from now on.

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I’ve since come to the realization that I might not be homosexual at this point in time. It’s funny how my sexual orientation never seems final, but I guess it’s just as what they said after all: at this point, nothing is final regarding one’s sexuality. While I don’t deny that I still am capable of feeling physical, emotional and sexual attraction towards males, I have recently found that it is not impossible for me to be drawn towards females too. There is a caveat, however – I admit that I am more likely to be attracted to a male than a female, at least at this point in time. Frankly, it would not be too outlandish to suggest that if given a choice with two equally attractive people with similar attributes, I would prefer a same-sex relationship. The only difference would be that I am also able to have some interest towards females where I felt total indifference before this. That said, I’m not losing sleep over it. These things change all the time without prior notice and like many things in life, I’m dealing with my sexual orientation issues as they come. It’s no longer such a huge thing in my life now, and I firmly believe that others like me can still lead happy lives being just the way they are, regardless of whether they end up in a same-sex relationship or a typical male-female relationship.

I know some of you who just finished reading the previous paragraph would be a little confused as to why my sexuality(or what I think it is, at least) always changes, since most of us are comfortably heterosexual and have no need to contend with an “unstable” sexual orientation, for lack of a better word. But some of us are in such a position where we find ourselves subconsciously showing signs of homosexuality, yet there is definitely no conclusive medical test to prove whether it is just a phase. I guess I am in that position where even I am unsure of myself at times. I guess sexual orientation does take time to settle down after all. But regardless of what my sexuality is, I’d like to bring the point fully across that it probably won’t matter to most readers here, so I would not want anyone to see it as a problem or become unable to see it in a less-critical light-just an area that when put together with other aspects of my life as a whole, make up my personal identity. That’s really all it is when it isn’t blown out of proportion by some overly-imaginative minds.

In fact, the only time it should matter to you is if you are trying to date me

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I’ve only briefly covered my change in stance towards being in solitude and I think that this is the perfect occasion to properly address this issue. I guess everyone should know by now what the effects of my openly-gay status was-it brought many consequences but the biggest result by far was that I was socially rejected by many people, with friends walking away and acquaintances keeping their distance, causing me much emotional hurt as I felt totally left out, friendless and alone. I even wrote about it in the FYE; the topic on fear in EL Paper 1. I wrote about the fear of loneliness, a large part narrating my own experiences and feelings upon the matter because I was, at the time, dealing with this issue myself. I hated the fact that they were all keeping away from me as if I had contracted HIV. These negative feelings became rather overwhelming at times and I could not find any solution to this particular issue. In fact, of the four main reasons why I was clinically depressed earlier this year, this was the only unsolved issue that still bugged me after it was all over.

At the time, going out to make more friends was not a feasible solution as my social life was in such shambles that I simply could not help myself. Moreover, with the reputation I had acquired, forming new relationships would be a really difficult process and whatever I did to that effect had not resulted in much success. Solving the issue in this manner would not only require much effort, I could be ultimately unsuccessful in the end.

Throughout my dissatisfaction with the state of my social life, I forgot one essential fact that was relevant in many ways to the issue at hand. Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I had never been a really popular person and I never really had many friends throughout my 9 years of formal education. I was always quiet and introverted and never really spoke much to those around me. I guess old habits die hard; it’s been always more natural for me to listen much more than speak. Since I had never really been all that popular or made many friends, why was I craving for popularity right now? It did not seem logical for an introvert to be craving popularity and a large social circle all of a sudden.

What I really wanted was acceptance, and I was apparently not going to get that, not from everyone at least. But that was okay. Throughout my time spent figuring out why all my friends were walking away from me, I had always thought that I needed a large number of people to talk to and be with all the time; perhaps this was because I was never really lonely at the beginning of the year, which is perhaps a positive effect of what I got myself into at the time. I never realized that all these years, I had been just fine being on my own.

It was fine for me to be alone. This realization probably resulted in my coming to the conclusion that I probably would not like to have such a large social circle anyway. I have never really enjoyed being in large groups – it is often rather suffocating for me to have to interact with so many people in one sitting. I have never really been anywhere near being an outgoing person, so why should I be lamenting about being in solitude for most of the day. In fact, solitude is just what many people crave-the chance to just be alone, observing the surroundings go by, without having the need to interact with anyone else. There would then be no need to fret about being alone, since being alone was actually better for me. It’s perhaps just like they say – for some, having the company of a few close friends is a whole lot better than being with many acquaintances. And my mates from the D.S. are really great, especially M and T. Thanks guys! =)

Hence, I no longer took my being alone as an issue. And I never fretted over losing friends again. After all, it’s their choice who they want their friends to be, and if the friendship was on its last legs, it would always be more beneficial to let it die off on its own than to revive it with a one-sided effort. And I don’t blame them for walking away. They just could not appreciate the friendship enough to stick around. Ultimately, it’s their loss. Friendships are always great…while they last, and when they are gone, the void would definitely be filled sooner or later by other people who would be more deserving of one’s concern.

Being in solitude can be very rewarding too. And I’m none the worse for it.

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Reading my blog this weekend, you would have found some changes that I decided to implement the previous day – a new title, subtitle, theme, header, a few more sections in the sidebar as well as a couple new additions to the site. Some time ago, I also changed a large part of the content on the About page – if you haven’t seen the new writeup, it’s shorter, cleaner and places more emphasis on what this whole thing is about, unlike the previous text. I chose a more visually-exciting layout to the site after noticing how dull the previous style looked, together with a refreshed title and subtitle to communicate the content of this blog better.

Seeing as I neglected to introduce the websites and blogs I enjoy reading and follow regularly, I created a new section to display the websites and blogs which are worth a visit in my opinion. The page will be regularly updated with new picks. Apart from that, I also added a page where I display media that is related to the content of a particular post, usually a music video or podcast in order to reduce the amount of time needed to load the homepage, instead of having it bogged down by all that Flash content. More developments are to follow, so do watch this space.

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I must say the flaws, both in terms of physical flaws as well as software flaws, are starting to show up on my 5800XM. None of them are serious drawbacks or dealbreakers though, and I’m still loving the device a great deal. I’ve been using whatever opportunity I have to capture photos with the Tube’s camera, in both indoor and outdoor conditions, but seeing how miserable the weather has been these few days I’ve had not much choice but to postpone my camera test. My preliminary conclusions: The 5800XM does manage to impress with its results in good outdoor conditions, but indoor shots are rather disappointing, being rather noisy and grainy due to a small aperture and sensor. This certainly isn’t an imaging-focused device by any means!

More on the 5800XM’s imaging capabilities tomorrow. I’m off to play another round of Sky Force on my little red and black Tube!