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Monday, May 31, 2004

Esbat 

I am so very proud of my students. The movement Esbat was fantastic! Very inspiring! Very "moving"... Congrats to all!

Rogue 

Well that was a LOT of fun! Dressing up! And seeing everyone else dressed up. What a great SuperHeroes Party. THANX C&S!!!

I promise pictures to those who ask for their own... and will try to post a pic of me here when I get one.

Thursday, May 27, 2004

Fest Medic 

I met a friend yesterday. He was the medic for many of the Pagan Fests. Unfortunately he has been battling cancer and not been to fests for the past couple years. He was in Montreal on a last minute notice from his specialist for an appointment. SO I got to see him. He is doing relatively well and is glad his hair is growing back. I think he looks good without any. I hope he has a safe trip home to Niagra today!

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

My New Addiction 

Welcome to Star Wars Galaxies. If you follow the link, you will find out all kinds of stuff about the PC game. I have been drooling over it for ages, watching the updates from the Beta testing. Now I own a special edition copy! I am having a blast. This is the first game I have competely and thoroughly enjoyed!

I spent most of my day off yesterday playing. I did some cleaning in the morning and early evening. Then played some more. It was my day off! It was sceduled to be a ME DAY. Fun fun fun!

If you join come find me, Fyrshka, on Tattooine!

I am so relaxed today and ready for the world! Later all, Off to do errands and work!

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Star Wars Galaxies 

I have a new persona... and a new addiction. (Star Wars Ever-crack)

I am Fyrshka Shikhara Scout... picking up some medic skills today. I practices some markmanship and staff fighting yesterday. I also met some great people! This is way too much fun!

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Nexcite 

NEXCITE Love Herbs drink:

Well... Damiana infused energy drink from Sweden didn't make me all horny.

Happy Birthday Erika!!! 

Today my niece is 14 years old! WOW... a real teenager, heck mid-teen practically!

Happy Birthday!!!

Chaos Update 

Well, last week chaos ensued in my life! Monday, Concordia called and told me I could not grad as an Honours student due to an "F" in my summer despite that they put me in Honours only in the Fall. So this week, all week, I have been in meetings with academic advisors and department chairs and finally on Friday delivers a request for a late DISC (late discontinue) of the offending course (which is not necessary for me anyways). Now I wait with crossed fingers!

Tuesday morning I find out that my paycheck from the week before of $76 was taken out of my account by the bank... right before payments were about to go through my account. The reason was that my boss had missed signing it (I didn't even notice and deposited it anyways). So I had to go get another check (signed this time) and discovered it was to be $57 not $76 as there was an error in my hours. All fixed now...

I had an MPRC Board meeting and a meeting with a CMS teacher this week.

It has been BUSY!!! I don't seem to have a peaceful week till June. Ugh.

Saturday, May 22, 2004



find out more at witches.meetup.com

Sucked in... and addicted 

I am now a comic addict with a running membership at Astro. I have been sucked in. Damn Superheroes party. I am hooked on the New Mutants / New X-Men Academy X series. This is so bad for my budget.

Thursday, May 20, 2004

What Tea am I? 

HASH(0x84f4f9c)
Earl Grey: Classy and smooth.


What kind of tea are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Battle 

I am off to do battle for the right to graduate with Honours and not just a Major in Religion. Wish me luck!

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Triskele 

I got my Triskele tattoo filled in today and the top curve corrected. It looks great!

Monday, May 17, 2004

Movies I just saw 

I rented Peter Pan, you know, the one that was just in theatres... well... sorry all... it sucked.

This evening I rented Honey. It was good. I like movies like that. Dance, music, story (not like Moulin Rouge which felt like condensed chaos)... but then again, I like dramas and I like Fame.

Snarl... BAD ADMIN!!! 

Concordia administration will not let me grad with honours because of an "F" grade in last summer's courses. That was due to my grandfather being ill and dying. At first it was a problem for my honours, then it was not as the processing didn't happen till after the summer. Now they are saying that the acceptance was before the summer even thought the processing was after the summer and they do not want to give me my Honours degree but switch me down into the Major. I am VERY ANGRY!!!

I have an appointment to fill in an emergency request for with my department on Wednesday. This must be sorted out soon.

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Super Heroes Party 

Well... I plan on going as Rogue from X-Men Evolutions. Scarlet... in near goth. This will be an act of bravery.

M-SB plans on getting me into funky boots and a short, preferrably leather, skirt.

We found the boots for $5 at the Sally-Anne! And... they are actually comfortable. I may wear them after the party... once I stop falling over in them. Now I have to find the overshirt of green mesh, a studded collar and bracelet (she has 2 and I own one from my tougher days... don't ask), the skirt, and gloves. I will make a silver X-men pendant to hang from the studded choker. OH and I have yet to cut my hair. And no, Ceri, I am not cutting it just for the party. I have been planning to cut it for several months. This is just a great opportunity to do so.

Gods, knee-high heeled "speed-lace" zippered boots... and eventually a short(-ish) skirt. This girly thing is very wierd for me. I grew up with boys. I never did the skirts and make-up thing.

Thursday, May 13, 2004

WOW... long day! 

I was up early to look at a potential place for CMS today. We are growing and really need exclusive space. Well I looked at an office building owned by an accounting firm. Not bad... but too expensive.

Met with my thesis advisor... the A- was a gift. I knew I didn't really deserve it. I want to fix up the thesis and improve it. Then I will self-publish it for certain groups. I will first need to take some time away from it. I will consider it sometime in July or something.

Today we transformed the MPRC a bit. The windows got cleaned, the plants got repotted, the collected crap got tossed. It looks great! More cleaning to come.

Lastly, I taught a class on beginners Tarot. Normally I will not teach a class for just two people. Last time I did that, one didn't show and it was a waste of both our time and energy. This time both students were there. It was dynamic with great questions! They were great students. I had so much fun teaching, I forgot to pick up my pay!

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Troy 

The movie Troy Was awesome. Yes, it was WarnerBrothers... and a movie and didn't adhere to the complete story. But it was still very well done! There are some great movie names and faces involved. For a moment I was having LOTR flashbacks in it. Legolas is Paris! Boromere is Odysseus! Then there were many others. Oh I am going to go see this one again in theatres!

Now I need to dig out my Illiad and reread it!!

Survived 

Yesterday was... interesting.
I showed my snake to grade 1 and then it puked in the car ride home. Poor thing. It survived though and is happy to be home.

I was SOOO exhausted yesterday. I wanted to sleep in and sleep all day. But couldn't.

I went to the dentist and had 3 fillings done (one was a replacement). I had to be frozen twice and then a third time in the nerve of one tooth. So, by the time I went to Hurley's to celebrate finishing my thesis and to celebrate M-SB's chosen birthday date (he wanted a different day because his B-day is Yule and he was tired of being lost in the shuffle). I was still frozen and couldn't truly enjoy my meal. And by 9:00PM the ache of the dentistry hit me as the freezing wore off. I hurt too much and had to call the night to an early end. SORRY!!! Took pain killers and slept early.

I survived. I am alive and relatively well this morning. And yes, awake early!
"Early to bed, early to rise..."
Now my jaw muscles ache, but it is tolerable.

M-SB got Last Samurai for his birthday from close friends. We listened to the CD all night. It has some tracks that are too active for sleeping to. But it was good just the sam. When we both get home from work today, we will watch the DVD.

Monday, May 10, 2004

DONE done done done DONE! 

I am FINISHED school. The thesis is done and handed in. My grades are in.

B : Religions of the 21st Century
B+ : Methodology of Religion
A- : Anthropology Fieldwork - Qualitative Methods - ethnography
A- : Religion Honours Thesis

I am SOOOO done. My Thesis advisor wants a copy of the thesis. She gave me all kinds of improvement suggestions. I want to fix it up and then give her a copy.

WOOHOOO! 

I am at the end of my Thesis AT LAST!!!!! I have sent my last section to be edited. I will grab a nap while it is being edited. Then I must reread the whole thing from the beginning, since I forgot what I wrote at the beginning and need the conclusion to reflect it somewhat. Then the bibliography needs to be written and an abstract (groan). Abstract: Summary of the entire 40 pages in 5 sentences. UGH! Well, maybe I will do the Bibliography before I nap.

Sunday, May 09, 2004

Happy Mother's Day 

To my Mom, who on the rare occasion surprises me with having read this blog!

Have a wonderful, blessed, and loving (and beautiful) Mother's Day. The day is gorgeous, and I know you will walk along the Lakeshore. I am on my way over with a small surpise. See you soon! XXOO

And to all this non-mothers out there, you are "mothers" to your pets and they love you!

Done Part V 

4:00AM and I am finally done Part V of this Thesis!!!
There is HOPE! I may actually finish in time!
Tomorrow after teaching CMS-L3 and speaking with a L1 student, I have to visit Mom. It is Mother's day.

Then, oh then, I write the last Part about Canadian Pagan Views. Here I will look at how government is involved in religion and how Canadian pagans feel about this. I will also look at what some major issues and concerns of today’s Pagans are in regards to legality and recognition of their religion.

Tally so far:
37 pages written
9375 words written in total
1402 words written today
5.5 pages written today

Awesome Day... though tired 

Well, I was productive at the vet clinic and manages to scrwl out in my notebook the rest of the Marriage rights section of Part V. The CMS-L2 class was absolutely awesome! Everyone listened to the lectures with interest and participated in discussion. Everyone tried green tea, with mixed feelings about its taste ( :-) ). The art projects went VERY well! They enjoyed making Adinkra Cloths and Australian Aboriginal Dot Art (although they worked on square wooden coasters instread of boomerangs). Everyone was so involved in their work we finished class later than expected!

By the time I got home and had supper... the 2.5 hours sleep caught up to me and knocked me flat at 9:00PM. So I went to bed. Now I up again (1:00AM) and tackling Part V with the goal to be finished it before the owlie who edits my work awakes looking for it to edit in the morning. I have 6 paragraphs left to write for this Part.

Here is an Exerpt:

Legal Handfasting, Recognizing ReligiousInstitutions & Official Clergy

Here is an anecdote regarding my own marriage experience. My fiancé and I went to the Montreal Palais de Justice to apply to have a legal marriage service for the signing of the marriage certificates. We could not be married in a religious service because there are no Wiccan clergy recognized by Quebec who can perform a legally binding Handfasting. So, we chose to have the civil marriage performed and later hold our own personal religious (Wiccan) ceremony later. When we met with an official to make our application and pay for the service, the older service clerk asked if we would like a religious person present, and that the Montreal Palais de Justice could provide one for us. I boldly asked if he had someone Wiccan or Neo-Pagan. He gave me a look of utter incomprehension. My fiancé and I decided it was not the time to dispel this man’s ignorance and promptly followed the question with, “Never mind. No, we would like to keep this simple. No clergy is necessary.” Thus went the application process on September 30, 2003. We then had a quiet service with a few friends and a woman Justice of the Peace reading the legal rights associated with the laws of a binding marriage on October 14, 2003. As demonstrated by this experience, Wicca is not at all a consideration in regards to religion or clergy in Quebec and a Handfasting is not legally binding. Marriage is a legal contract between two people (or families); religion is the flavour and decoration we wrap around the signing of this contract.

Joy Ferguson, a Canadian author, wrote a book about Handfastings called Magickal Weddings. In it, she reminds us that Canadian Handfastings are not legally binding and that “a legal union is the essential basis for resolving such key issues as the division of property, child custody, taxes, and inheritance.” The laws regarding marriage vary from province to province. At the moment, the clergy from only three organizations have the right to perform legal Handfastings. These organizations are: the Aquarian Tabernacle Church in British Columbia (BC), the Grove of Danu Pagan Church of Alberta, and Ontario’s All Seasons Church (which has three Neo-Pagan clergy on staff). The PFPC has been hard at work researching further information on the rights of Neo-Pagan clergy in Canada and how such clergy can become legally recognized by their province to do such things as Handfastings.

-----END EXERPT-----

Saturday, May 08, 2004

Look a that... sleep... sorta... 

I fell asleep this morning to the sounds of the morning birdsong of cardinals and light creeping into my bedroom window.
That was about 6:00AM.
The alarm went off at 8:30AM.
I am up.
I am disoriented.
I am nausious.
But I am up.

GAK!!! 4:30AM 

I went to bed after my last post. HONEST! I did!!!
I tossed and turned, stared at my walls, ceiling, pillow, M-SB, the cats...
I shut my eyes and cast circle, I meditated.
My body is rested... but I am AWAKE!!!
The alarm goes off in 4 hours.
GAK! Why am I awake!?!
I am not even constructively awake, too tired to write and think, but way too awake to sleep.

I was asleep 

Well, maybe not. I had stopped writing at around 1:00AM as my head was starting to droop towrds my keyboard. So off to bed I trundled. While there I read a chapter of Contemporary Paganism by Graham Harvey and started to read the third book of the Mage Wars trilogy: Silver Gryphon by Mercedes Lacky. At 2:00PM I set the book down to sleep and as I ran through my head the things I want to do when I wake up, I was startled awake. I suddenly realized I forgot some crucial things. First I had forgotten to cut potatos in half for my CMS-L2 class tomorrow. Second, I completely forgot to address the issue of the influence of media on the rise if Wicca in North America. So... I got up, cut my potatos, and wrote my media insert as a seperate document.

Wow... I am going to be so messed up at the Vet Clinic tomorrow. And I have a fear-biter dog there to care for in the kennel, who already bit one of the stagieres. Joy. I am all alone tomorrow at the clinic, no vet. I will bring my paper info with me and scrawl in my notebook what I want to write for the Law and marriages section of my thesis. I have to wait for the edits anyways. Must remember to make photocopies for my students tomorrow and bring home money to pay for my car.

Friday, May 07, 2004

And I was worried 

Update in the Thesis:
I am on page 29 and still writing. I am working on Part V - CANADIAN RECOGNITION OF WICCA AND WITCHCRAFT. It is going well. And I was worried I would not be able to write 30 pages. I will definately surpass 30 pages... tonite/early tomorrow morning. I had a mental and emotional conniption early in the week and took day off writing and got some much needed sleep. Now I am just humming along in this paper. I am approahing 7000 words. I wrote 2580 words yesterday and then sent it off for editing. Once I got back the editing, and finished running my errands, I tackeld more writing. I have written 779 words so far. Gak. I prefer counting pages. I am on page 29!

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Thesis update 

I am now on page... 20 and feeling like I am writing another Drawing Down the Moon book at the moment as I write the section on the Rise of Wicca and Witchcraft in North America. I have a list of key organizations in US and Canada that I am exploring for this section. It is actually fun, now that I had some sleep and sorted out the viruses my computer decided were necessary for my trials. My Yahoo and Sympatico are still having fits. Will sort that out next week after the paper is done. I lost 4 hours today just loading McAffee and banishing the virus worms.

12 paragraphs then a colnclusion to complete this section of the Thesis... then tie it into the next section. I need a binder. I have an enormous Appendix series containing copies of the historical laws, contemporary laws, info on organizations, major Canadian issues, and interview transcripts. I also think I will surpass 30 pages. This current section will take me to page 24 or 25.

Perhaps the CD I am playing is helping. I am listening to Loreena McKennitt's Mask & the Mirror CD.

Maybe it is the spell I cast in my astral temple for progress on my thesis.

Who knows!?! Either way, I am grateful for the energy and focus and interest driving me to progress well today.

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Stupid Yahoogroups 

Morning all.
Yesterday was emotionally bad. Pretending it never happened.
I trained a new volunteer for the Montreal Pagan Resource centre. She is wonderful! I am glad to see it will be open again.

Yahoogroups... Grrrrr...
I am not receiving ANY email from the groups I actually OWN. Everyone else's groups are fine. I even went to see if I was "bouncing" but nope. My other email account is likewise not getting every message. I am not sure if this problem is a Yahoo problem (their help section was not helpful) or a Sympatico problem. I suspect Sympatico. I can send from Sympatico account TO the e-lists, but I am just not receiving.

I am on page 17, nearly 18 of my thesis paper. I expect to be on page 20 by Thursday noon.

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

FREEZING 

It is FREEZING in my office. This sudden drop in temperature from 24C to 4C is ridiculous for 24 hrs. It is hard to concentrate and to type when I am constantly distracted by my own shivering and teeth chattering. I even have a sweater on and coffee with me. Grrrr. I DO NOT LIKE THE COLD. (nor do I like extreme hot either)

Monday, May 03, 2004

Progress 

I have finished Part III of my thesis and started Part IV. I am now off to drop off the progress to my advisor. My goal it to be done by Thursday.

Lost Time 

My late night Vet work meant getting to sleep very late. I was so tired this morning that I forgot to wake up with M-SB and move my car. Now I have a ticket. GRRRRR. I was woken by the phone at 9AM where I got hung up on. I crawled back to bed. Then got woken again by someone who needed a payment confirmation number. After accommodating, I crawled back to bed tired and cranky. I woke on my own at 1:30PM. Crap. I did NOT want to sleep that late. I figured i would wake at like 11AM or noon at the latest. I lost time.

Well... back to my thesis.

That was interesting... and annoying... 

Today I hosted CMS L3 in my home. Autumn taught the class, giving me a chance to write another couple of pages on the thesis. Canadian Criminal Code laws are VERY frustrating and confusing and CONTRADICTORY!

Unlawful Assemblies and Riots
63. (1) An unlawful assembly is an assembly of three or more persons who, with intent to carry out any common purpose, assemble in such a manner or so conduct themselves when they are assembled as to cause persons in the neighbourhood of the assembly to fear, on reasonable grounds, that they
(a) will disturb the peace tumultuously; or
(b) will by that assembly needlessly and without reasonable cause provoke other persons to disturb the peace tumultuously.

This means that Pagans may meet for a religious gathering, but if someone (neighbour) get scared about your gathering, then EVERYONE gets arrested if they do not disperse.

Then...
Obstructing or violence to or arrest of officiating clergyman
176. (1) Every one who
(a) by threats or force, unlawfully obstructs or prevents or endeavours to obstruct or prevent a clergyman or minister from celebrating divine service or performing any other function in connection with his calling, or
(b) knowing that a clergyman or minister is about to perform, is on his way to perform or is returning from the performance of any of the duties or functions mentioned in paragraph (a)
(i) assaults or offers any violence to him, or
(ii) arrests him on a civil process, or under the pretence of executing a civil process,
is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.
Disturbing religious worship or certain meetings
(2) Every one who wilfully disturbs or interrupts an assemblage of persons met for religious worship or for a moral, social or benevolent purpose is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
(3) Every one who, at or near a meeting referred to in subsection (2), wilfully does anything that disturbs the order or solemnity of the meeting is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

The laws state that if anyone disrupts your religious gathering they can essentially go to jail for up to 2 years. There are more ambiguous stuff and laws and whatnot that are equally confusing. Needless to say... I will never write another thesis involving legalese again!

Anyways, I later took the CMS L3 students on a hike about NDG to some great energy sensing places that have good and bad energying (some of which may attack) and let them practing their centering, grounding, shielding, and energy senseing. They did a great job, even if they cannot appreciate silence and distract each other with conversation.

I then did more walking for dinner and ice cream, sat and chatted on my balcony... and then watched X-Men 2 (X2) it was fantastic. I cannot wait for the 3rd to come. It was then 12:30pm and I was about to get into bed when I suddenly remembered I had to go back and finish the kennel! walk and medicate the dogs and clean up after the cats. MESSY dogs! GAK!!! I only just got back. NOW, I am off to bed.

Thank the Gods I do not work tomorrow. I sleep in and work on thesis and print a draft to hand in before 4pm.

Sunday, May 02, 2004

I am this kind of Jedi 


:: how jedi are you? ::

Good morning! 

Nearly 3:00AM... and yes, I am still awake. I was too hot. So, I sat with my beanbag and a book (The White Gryphon) and a little black cat, Salem, on the frint balcony where it was blessedly cool. After reading a chapter, I reflected on the Beltain I celebrated. Bland. It dawned on me how BLAND all my holidays are! ACK! I am not celebrating life and its festivals. So I have decided to change that. I have also been a bit of a slump with the Thesis. Tomorrow (or later in the morning, rather) will be a fresh new day. I will tidy the Livingroom and make it ready for CMS Level 3 to have class, that Autumn is teaching. During that class, I will work on the rest of Part III of my Thesis. Then we will take the our students to the park for some energy work. While we do that, M-SB will bring the bicycles from storage. I think we will tune them after dinner and go cycling in the evening. Then I will continue on my Thesis.

May 9th is Mother's Day. I have a gift to get for my Mom. I think I will bring it to her after my class. M-SB will have to go out and do something special for his Mom during the day.

I hope to have my first three cavities filled by then too.

I also have my Grad Photos. I will send out my printing of them this week. I didn't look scary in them.

Saturday, May 01, 2004

oh groan 

I am so F***ing tired. M-SB's alarm woke me up. Normally I would be up by now and in the vet clinic working, but today I am being replaced so I can work on stuff. So I had hoped to slepp till 10AM.

I am busily planning today's amazing class for CMS Level 2: Asian Cultures and Religions

My edited thesis should be back to me sometime this morning. A Little Owl is editing it... but her new computer is... having a fit of some sort. We (me and M-SB) were over last night for about 4 late ours trying to fix it. In retrospect, I should have just driven home and gotten a copy for her to edit and brought my laptop back with me to do 4 hours of writing. The time was not productive. Oh, well. The Gods wanted me to "do nothing" for 4 hours obviously.

Now I am up, so I will busy myeslf planning class.