Wordless... Monday?

Okay, I feel TERRIBLE about having no time to post (or read others' bloggings). And I still don't have time to post (or read). But here are some pics. (I'll be posting more about the rat in a post coming this weekend, I promise!)




I was playing with my macro on the next two pics.





I just snapped this pic randomly but I absolutely LOVE how it came out.

Magic

Over the last few months, I have been working towards being a more of a practicing Witch. I've said in previous posts that "I don't DO magic. I'm a religious Pagan." And, well, that was true. But I've always felt a little... I dunno. Bad about it, I guess. Magic was something I always intended to do, but I always had trouble with visualizing what I needed to visualize or feeling what I was supposed to feel. It always felt like I was just going through the motions of the spell, with none of the power. I couldn't feel or see or comprehend the energy being raised. It's funny, because the spells I cast usually worked. But I felt so incompetent during the casting, that I just decided to lay off. But I'm trying to get back into the habit. I'm trying to make my life magical. :)

I've been thinking about how magic works. How my magic works. I've been doing a bit of study on psionics, or energy manipulation. I can raise energy between my hands (like I'm holding a ball with two hands), but the moment I take one of my hands away, the energy seems to dissipate. (I do this mostly by feel; I can't see the energy structures.) But in general, my magic requires props. Rocks, or bottles, or a twig, or chanting, or a bit of string, or whatever. I guess, I need something to focus on, something through which I can channel the energy/magical intent I raise. And of course, magic through actions, or living with magical intent: rather like a domestic or kitchen witch, but without the fancy title.

Okay, this is scattered... And not particularly well written. I'm just trying to get my thoughts down. Maybe I'll come back and make it more coherent. Or I won't. ^_^

Four years

Four years ago today, a new life came into this world. This life came into the world with the name Camden Zachary Taylor M. The life was beautiful (and still is) and shone with the pure light of miracle. He is a blessing. He is a trial. He somehow strengthened my belief in myself and in my religion. He allowed me to be fully myself. He made me whole. Rather, he somehow allowed me to find that part of myself that I was missing, so that I could be complete and happy within myself. I am a better and happier person today, four years later, than I would be if he had not come into my life. And that's the honest truth.

I am glad you came into my life, Camden Zachary, my beautiful son; my son, my sun, the light of my life.


(Pic is from Cam's party we had at my parents' house over Labor Day)

You are not little because you are already grown, playing among your lifetimes as do we all, for the fun of living. You have no birthday because you have always lived; you were never born, and never will you die. You are not the child of the people you call mother and father, but their fellow-adventurer on a bright journey to understand the things that are. Every gift from a friend is a wish for your happiness. . . . Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, and we'll meet now and then when we wish, in the midst of the one celebration that never can end.
--Richard Bach

Great assignment

I want to teach elementary music. Unfortunately, I'm going to a school that tends to cater more towards high school band directors. Which means I have to take some classes that will, in all likelihood, be completely useless to me. One of these is a class on marching band techniques. But despite that fact, I rather enjoy the class. Largely in part, because Pete is helping us to find our "style" with very non-musical assignments. Our first was "What car would you be?" (I chose an orange Dodge Charger. One of the older variety, not one of the newer ones.) But the one that I really liked was "design your logo." A logo for a letterhead, website, etc. A pictorial representation of ourselves.

This is what I came up with:


The mother/child are self explanatory, I think. The spiral is a less in-your-face symbol of paganism than a pentacle would have been. The dandelion is for whimsy and child-like abandon. And the fact that the seed-heads are music notes... well, that's just an amazing coincidence. (All these images are very much stolen and likely copy-righted. Oops)

I spent maybe a grand total of 45 minutes on this assignment. The majority of that time was spent looking for the images, with about five minutes for putting them together and making the spiral blue. Despite the small amount of time I spent on this project, I feel a connection with it. Because I think it DOES accurately portray who I am. I don't think a person could look at it and go "That's Sydnii." without knowing what it is. But I think, if I said, "This is my logo." the person would GET it.

So the moral, I guess, is that I should be glad for taking classes that teach me nothing useful as a teacher, and instead help me grow in my understanding of myself. :)

Computers

I think, if the Christians are right and some of us do end up in Hell, while others go to heaven... I think Hell would be an eternity of fixing computers. Just think: when your computer is broken and you have to send it off to get fixed, where does it go? Obviously, to the bowels of the Earth, where all those poor souls are doomed to an eternity of dealing with broken computers. Or when you're having technical issues, the people you call are probably sitting in cubicles in Hell, doomed to help you with your computer issues.

If that's the case, then my labor day weekend was spent in Hell. lol My parents' desktop stopped working a while ago (something wrong with the internets, so they said) so they bought a new one. And kindly gave me the old one. (Which wasn't working, did I mention?) After around 6-8 hours of face time with the machine, I finally managed to reinstall Windows on it and get everything working.

As if that wasn't enough, the parentals asked me to do a few things with their new computer. And then they were having issues with their digicam.

I'm gonna start charging them for this! Geez.

Side note: School is keeping me MUCH busier than I anticipated. But I'm still hoping to make it around to post once a week. Not getting much blog-reading done, though.