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Considering how many of us read Penny Arcade here, it's probably not news to everyone that Child's Play 2009 is starting.I want everyone to know I will be donating again this year to Children's Hospital of Atlanta, and I want to strongly pressure you to think about doing the same, for your nearest hospital. And, yes, that word was correct. Pressure you. But, this is one of those things I can't just circumspect about. I don't want you to "just check this out". I want you all to seriously check your budget and find what you can to make a donation. No, I don't want you to not eat or pay your bills. But, there are all things we do that we don't have to do to help a kid feel better. Don't buy those shoes, or maybe pass up a concert, or fuck what ever.And I know there are a few of us from around the world that may be thinking "well that's a US thing". Don't. There are hospitals in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and even EGYPT.Do what you can, if you can. Just click the picture below.
Wow, I'd forgotten this thing was out there.... and then I was checking on my e-mail and there's a bunch of comments for me to post. It's been so long I had to get google to resend my stuff to me to even log in.
Apparently, when I wrote my little article about Samhien/Hallowe'en/Halloween/All Hallow's Eve it touches a few folks every year to comment on it. Hell, the last post at this Blog was January of LAST YEAR!?! Almost two years since ANYTHING happened, and people still get worked up about what I said four years ago now? I guess either I really touched a nerve, or I'm feeding the trolls. But honestly, all the comments I've gotten where (all in all) intelligent and rather well thought out, so I don't think it's trolls.
To answer some of the comments:
No, I don't feel I did anything hypocritical in that post. Every last word I said then, I still feel to be the truth. Did I bash anyone's religion? Nope. I did point out that some who call themselves Christians are not because they DO NOT follow Sacra Biblia. I kinda thought that was what I did there...but what the hey.
To learn about Angelology and Demonology, there is no single or even small group of texts to go after. Everything about this metaphysical study is contradictory and dispersed over thousands of years, dozens of cultures, and really is jumbled. Honestly, we have to look into mythology, comparative religion, philosophy, and all the traditional sources (The Encyclopedia of Angels and Demons, Biblical Text, Gnostic TExt, Zoristarian Text, the writings of Dante, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinius, et all) to really get even a vague grasp of the concept. Does this mean it's not worth learning? Not in the slightest, but it does take time and dedication. (And, no, you're not going to learn how to summon them; this is not what Demonologist do.)
Did the Catholic Church set the dates of major Christian holidays right on top of Pagan/Heathen/etc ones? Did they steal left and right for all their rites, rituals, beliefs, and symbols? Yep. Show me any religion in the world that did not do this. All religions are built on older religions' bones. Bhuddism right out of Hindu... Moslem right out of Christian.... Aegyptian right out of the previous Shamantics of the region. As one famous quote goes, "There is nothing new under the Sun."
Anyway, I'm happy to find out that I've made a bit of an impact with my words. We are nothing if we do not learn and grow. Discussions are healthy, for they help us in this task. (Of course, I do reserve the right to think you are a total moron, but I won't tell it to your face.)
May the many eyes of the Watchers be upon you,
D
Uggh!
I just had to move Serenity Sanctuary over to a new website. At the same time, we decided to change hosts. So... I went ahead and upgraded the ENTIRE shebang to YaBB 2.2. Damn, that was a pain in the ass. Not because YaBB2.2 is a pain, but because my coding ability is not a good as I would like. All in all though, it was a good move. A few minor tweaks and everything was done in a few days. Downtime of only 24 hours or so, as the DNS servers propagated the new pointers. I have to say, I seriously love HostMonster right about now. Built in FTP client? Nice. Works on Javascript, so you run it right inside their cPanel. Really Nice!
Anyhow, it's all set...pretty much. Just got to wait for the errors and bug report to come in now.
Well DragonCon was a much better experience for us this year. A lot lest stressful, some of which comes from having some experience, some from not having to deal with bullshit at the last minute. All in all it was a great time. Still, the wife and I would love to be able to actually see more of the Convention itself. This year, I watched one episode of an Anime series and quick walked the Dealer's Room. But, that's how that sort of thing goes, I guess, when one is a departmental director.
I've been playing a MMORPG lately, called Last Chaos. Normally, I avoid this sort of thing, because if I buy a game, I don't think I should have to pay to PLAY the game, which is the case in the traditional MMO business model. However, LC is completely free to download (no actual disks from what I've seen), and if you choose, completely free to play. The game is fully functional without paying a dime. If you like the game, and want to pay, they have an item mall where you can pay money for points and buy stuff you can't get in game or costs a fortune in game. But, here's the best part. Nothing in the mall is something you can't do without. Like armor skins, which ONLY change the appearance of the armor. Or Lucky Smelting Stones, which are guarenteed to give you a plus to your armor....something you can get through regular smelts or heaven stones, just with a risk if it not working. All in all it's a great game. But, just like all RPGs, leveling is monotonous after a while.
Onto a bit of a rant about unprofessionalism. I see it daily at work. We have a husband supervising a wife...the wife was hired two weeks after another co-worker was told they wouldn't hire his wife to work at the OTHER PLANT (in essence a different site entirely). Now, they are suprised the head office noticed this was happening and are taking steps to fix this fuck up? Please. Additionally, the Assistian Site Commander, who is a great guy and tries to fix most of the problems, is leaving. The husband is saying he's going to quit if someone gets that spot over him...the someone being a Sergent/Shift Supervisor, while the husband is a Corporal. I hate this job. I am trying to get student loans and such to pay my own way to the Police Academy. Maybe that will pay off soon.
I got rear-ended in April. Now the Insurance Company (the other driver's that is) isn't returning phone calls. Look folks, be professional. Return the call and give a final answer. Then, I can figure out what I need to do to finish getting the vehicle fixed.
Finally, I find out United Fan Con (UFC) is dropping Peter David as a guest after having used his name for months of advertising. Why? Because they didn't do their accounting right. All of a sudden, just before the Con, they can't afford airfare and the hotel room. I've been gifted with the time to sit down and chat with both Peter and his Wife Kathleen. These are two wonderful people, hard-working, and genuinely happy to meet-and-greet with fans! Gods above, this sort of behavior makes all Cons look bad. Big ones, small ones. The only thing I hope for is that UFC folds this year.
Wishing for Elohim to Show Me Patience,
D
Great...now that things are looking up, something start to act up. On March 1, a deer ran into our van. I do mean it that way. We humans didn't hit the thing; it charged at the van. It's done considerable damage. We've put it in the Body Shop, so it should be good to go in a few days.
However, the truck started running a bit roughly. I will have to see about figuring that out tomorrow or Friday. I hate loosing sleep, but I have to.
But, everything should be ok.
At least my wife listens to her feelings. Two days before the deer hit, she woke up in the middle of the night and put comprehensive coverage (covers hitting an animal) on the van.
Thankful the Angels watch over us.
D
It's been a while hasn't it?
What has happened since July of last year? A bunch.
First, I have a job. I finally got a company to hire me. I am now a "Security Officer" for a private firm. I am rent-a-bacon. However, I am not happy with this company. They don't treat people right. First of all, promotions are pure B.S. One gets a promotion simply because the Site Commander likes you. It doesn't matter if you do your job. It doesn't matter if you are not a discipline problem. It doesn't matter how long you've been there. Same thing with pay increases. One person was making more as a Sargent and single shift supervisor, than the Lieutenant/Assistant Site commander. That's pure bull.
Additionally, the Site Commander is senile. I gave him a list of the days off I would need for the rest of the year, in writing, back in January. I needed one day off just recently, and he forgot about it. I reminded him of it two weeks prior, and a week prior, but he forgot. He also has no backbone. The client company keeps adding stupid busy-work, which detract from our mission as Site Security. He hasn't demanded a pay-raise, increase in number of guards, or just told them "no, we can't do that".
So, what does that mean? It means I am looking for a new job, already, and I've only been with this company since October. I am going to try to get on with the County, so keep your fingers crossed.
Next, I'm in charge of a new pagan forum. A few folks I know have had problems with the pagan site I used to frequent quite often. I still go there, but not as often now. So, they chose to make their own. The problem? They didn't know anything about community building and only a basic concept of website building. What they created was WAY to big for a forum site. They brought me on-board to help figure out what they were doing wrong. After a little bit, one of the moderators made some suggestions for some minor changes (i.e. reducing the number of forums) and the big-wig went nuts. She ended up having to be removed, forcibly from the site. It was ugly. When all the dust settled, I became the big-wig for actual operations (the owner is paying for everything, I make it work). The link has been added over to the links on the right. Serenity Sanctuary still needs work, but I am slowly working on it. I will have it right eventually.
The kiddo is doing ok. She let her grades drop dramatically, so she's not allowed to watch TV, listen to the radio, and only use the computer for school work. It's helped. She signed up for JROTC when she starts High School next year. She thinks the added discipline of the program may help her. I think it's a good thing she's starting to think about her needs to help her make life better.
We are still Directing for Dragon*Con... and we are still trying to make things better for our department.
My Altanta Thrashers are the top seed in the Division. They've never made the play-offs, and there is a good chance they may when the Division championship. I am a happy panda.
I'm going to try to post more often.
May the Sword of Michael protect you,
D
I've been a bad blogger...I've not updated in a very long time. I know this has been a cause of pain and suffering; a cause of horrible self-doubt to my one reader (HI AUTUMN!). Now that we have completed our quarterly overbearing, egotistic arrogance quota for Summer of Two Thousand, Six, we can get on to catching up.
First and mostly, my time has been caught up with one of the vises I mentioned earlier. I volunteer way too much.
As you know, I am one of the poohbas at the RPGC, and well, I've been trying to get some stuff straightened out on my end to relate it the RPGC. Well, that project is in it's first draft.
On top of that, I (along with my wonderful wife) currently hold the directorship for Guest Transportation for DragonCon (link on the right). Earlier in the year, this meant mostly brainstorming and building up staff. Oh, and convincing my bosses to convince their bosses to give us more staff members. Prior to this year, GuestTrans had a staff of thirteen...including two directors. So, that meant 11 people to do the work. Well, four of them were driving vans. And the rest were needed in the Airport to track down the Guests. This meant it was difficult (read: almost impossible) to get the staffers breaks after a certain point on Thursday and Friday. Meaning people worked longer and harder than was really acceptable. Well, now we have nineteen staff positions...and I have more staff then slots...atleast right as I type this. This might change in the next few days though, so I will wait on my elation of having enough people to do the job.
Anyhow, the Con is now a very limited number of days away. Labor Day weekend is FAST approaching, so all of us Directors are trying to finalize all the details we can to make this year the smoothest show yet. At current, I have two major projects I am trying to get done. One, get the preliminary flight information, to set a schedual for the staffers. Two, to complete the offical GuestTrans Staff Badge for DragonCon 2006. After the Con is over, I might post the image....we will see.
Unfortunately, we will not be making the final General Staff Meeting this Saturday as it is my neice's birthday, and we are going to head down to Statesboro to hit the water park there.
Now, on top of all this, I volunteered again! Sorta. I kind of got drafted. A small group of freinds decided to open a small pagan forum site. The problem is the "Site Goddess" doesn't really know how to use the Bullitien Board Program, so I when a very good freind of mine asked, I troubleshooted the issues they were having. Somehow, I went from a temperary troubleshooter to a Global Moderator, the "Fourth Bouncer of the Apocolypse", a Saint, and the Angel of Death in one fell swoop.
It's rather fun to be an Angel on a message board again. You may recall back in the days of the Amethyst Alliance, I was The_Seraphim, leader of the netspies and in charge of the chat server.
Unfortunately, the job market in Augusta still is non-existant for me. Either I am over-qualified for the position, and they won't hire me because they "can't afford me"; or, I am no longer qualified/certified and it would cost me money I just don't have to reup said certification. I know this sounds amazing, but I would be happy with a job that pays $7.00/hr at them moment. It would cover the bills and groceries!
So, for the next month or so, I probably won't be posting anything new. Simply because I just don't have the time! So, see you when things get back to a more normal pace.
Watching the Angels gird themselves
D
