Clouds!

Today I discovered The Cloud Appreciation Society website. I could literally spend days on this site! If that makes me the biggest nerd on the planet, so be it! They have photos and educational references, and members from all over the world. You'd think thousands of photos of clouds would get a little old, but I was AMAZED at the variety.

Like this one, many of these photos were taken by pilots from their cockpits! Can you believe these clouds are REAL??? If you don't believe it, then check out the site. There are many other photos of these clouds from different angles and distances.

Be honest: If you looked up and this is what you saw, would you think it was the apocolypse? I think I would...

A lot of my favorite photos there were done by Marco Lillini. I've also added his site to my links. He is a pilot, so he has some great ones "from above". If you check out his site, he also has some great location shots, plus some portraits, etc. Be sure to check it out, even if ONLY for the photo on his main page.

Book Survey...

I found this on someone else's blog, but thought it would be fun to answer, so...

1. One book that changed your life. Am I Blue? (Marion Dane Bauer) This is a collection of short stories I stumbled upon quite accidentally in my teen years. I found it at the library, and liked the title. I had no idea until I started to read it that all the stories were about gay teens. At the time I had some huge questions in my head about my own sexuality, but like so many teens, the fear of it kept me quiet. This book was the first time I'd ever really read about homosexuality. It comforted me in so many ways - It told me I wasn't the only one who had questions. It told me I wasn't weird or gross or wrong for being open to the possibility that I might be attracted to girls.

2. One book that you've read more than once. I don't often read books more than once, because I know that there are SO MANY amazing books out there, that I might as well experience a new one. However, having said that - I have read most of Francesca Lia Block's stories more than once. Partly it's because her writing is so VERY different from other literature - it's like candy or something. Even if you've had it before, it's still SO tasty. Also, her books fall under "young adult", so they're pretty easy reads - short, and sparkly, with a sharp, dark edge.

3. One book that you'd want on a desert island. One book, hey? Hm... Something long. Or perhaps a survival guide of some sort would be more practical...

4. One book that made you laugh. I don't tend to read funny books, but I will fully admit that way back in the day (when I worked at Indigo, in grade 12), I LOVED Lemony Snickett's Series of Unfortunate Events. I think those books would have been wildly popular, except that they came out at the same time as Harry Potter. BAD timing. But I do remember laughing out loud throughout the entire Lemony Snickett series.

5. One book that made you cry. Loooots of books have made me cry. I've read a lot of books about dysfunctional families and scared, tormented children. Wars and terrors and pain. I dunno, man. I don't MEAN to read depressing stuff, it just... happens. Seriously, the more difficult question would be for me to name one book that DIDN'T make me cry.

6. One book that you wish you had written. This is a bizarre question with lots of possible answers. I mean, I suppose I'd love to have written any best seller that made millions. But in terms of a specific one... Are we assuming it would have come out the same if I'd written it? Because I'm not that great a writer. Or is this looking for a book I think I could have done a better job on? Hm... Or if you're speaking more realistically, I would like to write young adult novels someday...

7. One book you wish had never been written. Would it be controversial for me to say The Bible? I mean, imagine what a different world it would be if not for this ancient, mistranslated, rulebook. I'm not saying it would necessarily be a better world, but it would certainly be different. Though it's entirely possible too that if The Bible hadn't been written, something else would have been written in its place... But if you want a 'nicer' answer, I'll say Mary Queen of Scotts by Margaret George. Boring, boring, boring, pointless.

8. One book that you are reading at the moment. I'm kinda reading a few right now. I'm reading The Subtle Knife (Phillip Pullman), which is a young adult fantasy novel. It's just easy escape-reading, about a little girl on a magical adventure in parallel worlds. I'm also reading The Quantum and the Lotus (Matthieu Ricard & Trinh Xuan Thuan). This one is a far more difficult read, but hugely fascinating when I can focus on it. It's basically a conversation/debate between a buddhist and a physicist. They discuss similarities and differences between quantum physics and Buddhism - Kinda like where science and religion meet. I'm pretty fascinated by that whole area lately. I've been working on this book for a while, but it's worth the time it takes to digest. I've also just started a book by Francesca Lia Block called Wasteland, because it's small and it'll fit in my purse. It looks like it's going to be a horribly tragic story about young twisted love and sex and eventually suicide. How's that for variety?

9. One book that you've been meaning to read. There are SO MANY I've been meaning to read. I still haven't read any of the Dan Brown books, or The Celestine Prophecy. The Life of Pi, Hell - I even want to read The Bible one of these days. I want to read When We Were Gods, which is yet another story about Kleopatra. I want to read fact and fiction. Imagination and reality. Past, present, future. The divine, and the demonic. The twisted and inspired. I want to read every goddamn book I've never read.

:) And now I want to go curl up with a book and read for HOURS. Unfortunately, that's just not in the cards at the moment... Ta ta for now!!!

Merry Mabon!

Today (exact at 10:03 pm MST) is the Sabbat Mabon. What is Mabon, you ask? Mabon is one of the 8 points on the wheel of the year, according to Celtic tradition. I am not Celtic, nor am I a witch, but I like to follow the wheel of the year, because I feel it keeps me in touch with my environment, and sensitive to the changes of season. It makes me feel like I know the earth on a more 'personal' level.

Mabon is the second of the three harvest festivals, and is often thought of as Witches' Thanksgiving. Celebration of this Sabbat includes feasting and giving thanks. Many who acknowledge this day will go out of their way to do a favor for a friend or family member, or do some extra volunteer work.

In the wheel of the year, Mabon is the point at which day and night measure equally. For the next 6 months, the night will be longer than the day.

Though I don't practise very much magic any more, I do still tend to hold small, solitary rituals on the Sabbats. I will usually take a moment (15 minutes or so) to just acknowledge the moment in time. I will light two candles (one white and one black, to symbolize the balance between light and dark), and say a small sort-of prayer. I will look back over the last 1/8 year (since the last Sabbat), and look forward towards the next Sabbat, which is my favorite one of them all - Samhain.

Friesen Friday?

I was over at Moco Loco Art this morning, and my eye was captured by the photography of Jeff Friesen. I highly recommend you take a wander over there, and check out some of his other stuff. He has a really wide variety of subjects, and he is brilliant with light and reflection.

The Best Kind of Pain

Yesterday I attended the first yoga class I've been to in at least a year. And today I hurt like you wouldn't believe! But it's a good hurt. It's the hurt that lets me know I've pushed myself physically, and my muscles are rebuilding stronger than before - As long as I keep it up, of course. I'm pretty sure I will, though. It feels amazing.

Today it's mostly my arms/shoulders, thanks to those freakin' sun salutations. Even when I loved and adored yoga and practised it every day, I still wasn't a fan of the sun salutations - but I know they're an important part of the practise, and I know they'll keep me in shape. And I know they'll get a little less difficult as I do them more often again. There's also a bit of muscle pain in my abdomen area, but I think those muscles won't really do anything spectacular until I build up my core strength again in general. But holy crap, my arms!!! It hurts to raise my coffee mug to my lips to drink! Hooray!

And I'll be attending these classes every Tuesday and Thursday at lunch time. I'm so excited!

I'm also rather pumped about my ballroom classes - I know I've talked about those already, but I'm just - Very excited about all of it. Yoga+Ballroom= 3 physical classes a week. Hooray!!!

I think that's all I've got to ramble on about for now. Oh, and PS - I fully intend to post a personal little HNT pic tonight - So stay tuned. :)

The Green Man

The art theme for Burning Man 2007 has been announced already! It looks like it was announced almost immediately after this year's burn was over. Generally they wait until January to announce the theme for next year, but perhaps this year's theme is more important than past themes?

The Green Man

I am excited about this theme. It piques my interest. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do about it yet (of course), but I've got some good ideas swirling about in my head.

Even though I didn't get to go to Burning Man this year, I felt it while it was going on, in a way - I missed it. I tried to taste it or hear it in the air. I've been watching TV Free Burning Man. There were live broadcasts during the week of Burning Man, and now you can see compilation videos for each day - They're pretty great, and they make me miss it even MORE!!!

I plan to take a virgin or two to Burningman next year. My roommate Neil would like to come with me, and if there are other virgins interested, let me know! The more the merrier, of course. I am considering an art project, but I'm not entirely sure about that. We'll have to wait and see... Yup yup!

Ballroom Dancing!

On Sunday, I attended a ballroom dancing class. It was my first, and it was SO much fun. I was completely blown-away by how many people were there. 50? 70? Another amazing thing was that it was almost exactly half-and-half, in terms of men and women. In our first class (there will be 10 in total), we learned the basic ones - Fox Trot and Jive. My guess is that we'll go back to Jiving, because we haven't gone over any turns or anything like that - Just the steps. So far I'm keeping up juuuuuust fine. In fact, I would even go so far as to say I know exactly what I'm doing. But I'm sure I won't by like - next week. :)

We rotated partners frequently, which I thought was a good thing - Because then you don't get stuck with one guy who can't lead for long periods of time. And everyone gets a turn dancing with those who DO know what they're doing, ya know?

So, I just wanted to post SOME kind of update, and I'm pretty excited about my ballroom dancing classes, so there.

The photo I used is a favorite of mine. It speaks differently to me everytime I see it, but I thought it would work for the ballroom dancing post. Yay!

In other news:

1. My date with Rob on Friday was fantastic, yet again - We sat in a restaurant for 5 hours without realizing the time. We just looked up at some point and we were the ONLY ones left in the place, except for all the staff, who were sitting at the bar waiting for us to leave... Ooops. So we left fairly quickly - I apologized to them on the way out, but they were pretty nice about it. And then we spent at least another 15-20 minutes in the parking lot. Teehee. *blush*

2. I've been hoping to get back into yoga for some time, and I think tomorrow I'm going to actually take the plunge. During the 'winter' months, there are yoga classes in my office building on Tuesday and Thursday lunch hours. It's really cheap (works out to like $8/class, which is awesome for yoga), and I know most of the people there, and I've found I really like being active mid-day. This was how I got into yoga in the first place, and I was primarily shocked at how yoga both relaxed AND energized me, and then was completely wowed by how quickly I noticed a change in my body and mind. This class got me so interested that I joined a studio by my home and started attending 3 night classes a week. You can imagine what 5 yoga classes a week would do for someone who had previously had little to no regular exercise. I got into amazing shape, and stayed there for almost a year. Unfortunately when my mom died, I got back into old, lazy patterns. I've been working on changing them back for some time. But I can't afford my local yoga studio anymore, and I tried jogging - but it didn't stick. Tried weight training, but it didn't stick. Tried quite a few things... So that is why I'm going to do my best to get back into it the same way I was drawn-in to begin with. I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow afternoon... Probably. :)

On The Way To Work This Morning...

This morning as I was walking to my office building, I was noticing the beauty of the sun shining through the yellow leaves, drips of dew asparkle. The little curly golden leaves are starting to gather at the bases of trees, up against curbs, swirling with the wind.

I noticed a crow and two magpies fighting over something I couldn't discern.

Walking towards me on the sidewalk was an attractive (older) man in a suit. He carried a briefcase and looked very important. As we passed eachother, he made eye contact with me - beamed and said, "Good morning!". I smiled to myself and thought, "How lovely".

Then, as he passed the fighting birds, I heard him use babytalk to say "What are you guys doing, huh? What are you fighting over? Who's winning? Who's winning? Who's gonna eat this morning?". And I laughed.

You've gotta find joy in the little things.

RIP Steve Irwin

This is a horribly sad item to have stumbled across today. I've just heard that Steve Irwin was killed yesterday. It surprises me how sad that makes me. I mean, I didn't think I was THAT big a fan. But I truly feel in my heart of hearts that he was a GOOD person. And it is sad that he has been taken from the world, because we need all the good people we can have. I feel so sorry for his wife and young children - It's a loss none of them should have to go through. I can't even put words to this tragedy.

Maybe this is morbid, but whenever I used to watch Crocodile Hunter, I wondered if he'd be killed by a wild animal one day. I sort-of thought he would. He seems to come SO close SO many times. It wasn't a snake, it was a stingray. There was talk of releasing the footage of his death - I don't really know how I feel about that.

Sorry for the horribly depressing post. I hadn't posted anything since last week, so thought I'd better. I tried to come up with something cheerier to say, but it didn't work - And this was something that struck me, and I wanted to say something about it.