Blessings Darlings!
Book reviews are coming - but life's been busy lately. Very busy. My husband has a new contract that's a bit of a death march on timing (so much to do, so little time to get it done) - so I'm doing all the housework except the bathrooms (our spawn does those.) I'm also doing a lot of support work on the project, since, after all, I am the co-owner of the business even if I don't do the programming. And then there's the keeping him fed/coffee'd, etc...
Meanwhile, I've got a butt-ton of my own goals that I'm working on. Not just the reading, but increases in magical practice and ... there are a lot of health goals in play. So the rest of this post is going to be whining about problems manifesting the sometimes contradictory actions to reach an assortment of health goals. Just ONE part of ONE thing I'm doing - getting at least 10,000 steps a day - takes me a lot of time.
Still with me?
Okay.
I'm old, chubby, and out of shape. Actions are underway to work on those things. Part of the problem is insulin resistance due to metabolic syndrome. For that - increase exercise, reduce weight, reduce carbs in my diet (especially highly refined ones.) Being a woman over 60, I'm also supposed to get 21 grams of fiber a day. That's the fiber in about 4 cups of cooked broccoli - one of the BETTER vegetable sources of fiber. A cup and a half of salad mix has only 1 gram of fiber. The double serving of spaghetti squash I had for breakfast had only 2.2 grams of fiber!
The only good food sources for fiber are ... starches. Sweet potatoes. Cooked dry beans. Cooked barley. Exactly the types of food I'm trying to reduce in my diet. The foods I was heavily relying on (and getting heavy from!) during the last decade of Broke Ass Eating.
I feel personally betrayed by this, even as it makes clear what I'm going to have to top my salad with. And I might end up buying some fiber supplement to add to water/coffee/whatever. Because I'd really like to have fruit as my carbs - I really like fruit. I don't mind beans, but fruit is, well, sweet.
Yeah. First world problems - losing weight and making sure I poop regularly as I age.
Frondly, Fern
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
More Book Review Criteria!
Blessings Darlings!
Having consulted with others, and thought about it myself - there are more things I'd like to see in Wicca/Pagan 101 books.
Let's start with ... footnotes for history claims, and suggested reading lists! And the authors need to have their facts right. "Truthiness" is not an option tho' LABELED UPG (unverified Personal Gnosis) is fine.
That you should pay attention of all sorts of spirits, not just the Gods.
THAT THE PAGAN COMMUNITY HAS PREDATORS.
Witch books better include the concept of raising, shaping, and sending energy - not just 'put up mirrors to block negative energy.'
Rede Thumping along with the Rede.
That Karma isn't what most Westerners think it is, and that Dharma matters.
How well the book is edited, spell checked, etc. No book is perfect, and I know that it's HARD to get Kindle editing to do what you want, but a good-faith effort should have been made.
I fear that expecting them to NOT go on about Christianity is too much to ask ... but I'm asking it anyway.
More criteria might be listed later, as things bug the shit out of me.
Frondly, Fern
Having consulted with others, and thought about it myself - there are more things I'd like to see in Wicca/Pagan 101 books.
Let's start with ... footnotes for history claims, and suggested reading lists! And the authors need to have their facts right. "Truthiness" is not an option tho' LABELED UPG (unverified Personal Gnosis) is fine.
That you should pay attention of all sorts of spirits, not just the Gods.
THAT THE PAGAN COMMUNITY HAS PREDATORS.
Witch books better include the concept of raising, shaping, and sending energy - not just 'put up mirrors to block negative energy.'
Rede Thumping along with the Rede.
That Karma isn't what most Westerners think it is, and that Dharma matters.
How well the book is edited, spell checked, etc. No book is perfect, and I know that it's HARD to get Kindle editing to do what you want, but a good-faith effort should have been made.
I fear that expecting them to NOT go on about Christianity is too much to ask ... but I'm asking it anyway.
More criteria might be listed later, as things bug the shit out of me.
Frondly, Fern
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Wiccan Book Reviews Coming!
Blessings Darlings!
I'm going to be doing a bunch of reviews of 'free for kindle' Wicca 101 books (When I told a friend this, she asked me why I was going to torture myself.)
So now, before I start doing the book reviews, I'm going to be up front about what I want to see in any Wicca 101 books. So here's the list:
HISTORY OF WICCA
WHAT YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE TO BE WICCAN
WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO BE WICCAN
SABBATS
ESBATS
LETS TALK INITIATION
THE WHEEL OF THE YEAR
QUARTER CAST CIRCLES
WHY/WHEN TO DO CIRCLES
ELEMENTS
ELEMENTALS
DIRECTIONS
WATCHTOWERS
IF YOUR CIRCLE TAKES YOU TO A TIME THAT IS NOT A TIME, A PLACE THAT IS
NOT A PLACE ... HOW DOES THAT WORK WITH THE CIRCLE OF THE YEAR AND YOUR EVER SO CAREFULLY DECORATED SEASONAL ALTAR?
DRAWING DOWN THE MOON AND POLARITY-BASED MAGIC (THE ONLY TYPE OF MAGIC THAT I FEEL CAN BE CALLED 'WICCAN')
YEAH, THROW IN SOMETHING ABOUT GROUNDING AND CENTERING
THROW IN A TINY BIT ON STUFF YOU MIGHT WANT ON YOUR ALTAR.
Now you know what I'll be looking for when I do book reviews. Gods help us all.
Frondly, Fern
I'm going to be doing a bunch of reviews of 'free for kindle' Wicca 101 books (When I told a friend this, she asked me why I was going to torture myself.)
So now, before I start doing the book reviews, I'm going to be up front about what I want to see in any Wicca 101 books. So here's the list:
HISTORY OF WICCA
WHAT YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE TO BE WICCAN
WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO BE WICCAN
SABBATS
ESBATS
LETS TALK INITIATION
THE WHEEL OF THE YEAR
QUARTER CAST CIRCLES
WHY/WHEN TO DO CIRCLES
ELEMENTS
ELEMENTALS
DIRECTIONS
WATCHTOWERS
IF YOUR CIRCLE TAKES YOU TO A TIME THAT IS NOT A TIME, A PLACE THAT IS
NOT A PLACE ... HOW DOES THAT WORK WITH THE CIRCLE OF THE YEAR AND YOUR EVER SO CAREFULLY DECORATED SEASONAL ALTAR?
DRAWING DOWN THE MOON AND POLARITY-BASED MAGIC (THE ONLY TYPE OF MAGIC THAT I FEEL CAN BE CALLED 'WICCAN')
YEAH, THROW IN SOMETHING ABOUT GROUNDING AND CENTERING
THROW IN A TINY BIT ON STUFF YOU MIGHT WANT ON YOUR ALTAR.
Now you know what I'll be looking for when I do book reviews. Gods help us all.
Frondly, Fern
Monday, February 18, 2019
Cause? Effect? Random?
Blessings Darlings!
I've had more energy and less executive dysfunction lately than I've had in ... ages. This is WONDERFUL when you've had various types of depression, well, pretty much all my life. Therefore, I'm trying to figure out 'what I did' that caused the change.
I'm doing this even tho' I fully realize that I'm not actually in full control of my brain chemistry. But I REALLY WANT TO BE fully in charge of my brain chemistry. I like feeling good. I want to stay feeling good.
So, I'm reviewing what I've been eating, drinking, exposure to sunlight, the changes I've made in the offerings I'm giving to all sorts of Spirits, the bed board I've added to the bed so the mattress is firmer, improved sleep, reduced caffeine, exercising, etc.
But ... I can't tell what might have helped CAUSE the improvement from what was CAUSED BY the improvement. I've no idea what came first amongst the variables. And there are SO MANY variables.
I want to be in control, while realizing that I'm never going to be in full control. I'm doing factor analysis, laughing at myself for doing it, but continuing to contemplate it.
That said - I'm happy with what's going on.
Frondly, Fern
I've had more energy and less executive dysfunction lately than I've had in ... ages. This is WONDERFUL when you've had various types of depression, well, pretty much all my life. Therefore, I'm trying to figure out 'what I did' that caused the change.
I'm doing this even tho' I fully realize that I'm not actually in full control of my brain chemistry. But I REALLY WANT TO BE fully in charge of my brain chemistry. I like feeling good. I want to stay feeling good.
So, I'm reviewing what I've been eating, drinking, exposure to sunlight, the changes I've made in the offerings I'm giving to all sorts of Spirits, the bed board I've added to the bed so the mattress is firmer, improved sleep, reduced caffeine, exercising, etc.
But ... I can't tell what might have helped CAUSE the improvement from what was CAUSED BY the improvement. I've no idea what came first amongst the variables. And there are SO MANY variables.
I want to be in control, while realizing that I'm never going to be in full control. I'm doing factor analysis, laughing at myself for doing it, but continuing to contemplate it.
That said - I'm happy with what's going on.
Frondly, Fern
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Pinterest Pagans
Blessings Darlings!
This is a continuation of last Wednesday's blog "Consider the Source!"
There are some Pagans/Witches/Magic Users who violate my "Sources Matter" rede all the fucking time. They see something that tickles their Elmo in some way, and NEVER checking to see what the source is or even checking to see if it's total nonsense. They just add it to their Pinterest/Tumblr/spam it in FB groups immediately. They don't care if it's true or false, or if it's plagiarized, or if actually followed it can be dangerous. The best that I can say is that they have their feelz going, but not their brains (or ethics in the case of plagiarism.)
I'm calling them Pinterest Pagans because I really like alliteration. In my never humble opinion, they are the Becky and Chads of the Pagan/etc community.
I've posted before about folks who try to 'buy' paganism/witchcraft by buying craploads of tools and oils and other 'stuff'. This is another form of that - collecting random stuff from the Internet most of which they don't use. Judging from what I've seen - 90% of the witch/pagan stuff they share is shit. Just ... shit. Shit with no sources cited. Because apparently they think that everything on the Internet is true.
If they share spells and are asked details about them, it's usually clear that they never did the spell. They can't tell you what exactly occurred when they did it. They can't give you success/failure rates, they can't tell you why any specific item is called for. They can't discuss the magical theory behind the spell. They can't tell you a specific statement of intent that they used.
IMO, Pinterest Pagan are, for the most part, uneducated and not willing to do REAL work to educate themselves. Not willing to even investigate what they read for veracity or intelligence or reality. They clearly don't believe that the sources matter. To quote Isaac Asimov, they believe that "[their] ignorance is just as good as your knowledge," or equal to the knowledge of folks who have made deep study for years into what they are posting memes about. I'm not saying that *I* am an expert that they shouldn't be comparing themselves to - I'm saying that the sources I quote are the experts, in case anyone was wondering about that.
I weep for the human race.
Frothing Fern
This is a continuation of last Wednesday's blog "Consider the Source!"
There are some Pagans/Witches/Magic Users who violate my "Sources Matter" rede all the fucking time. They see something that tickles their Elmo in some way, and NEVER checking to see what the source is or even checking to see if it's total nonsense. They just add it to their Pinterest/Tumblr/spam it in FB groups immediately. They don't care if it's true or false, or if it's plagiarized, or if actually followed it can be dangerous. The best that I can say is that they have their feelz going, but not their brains (or ethics in the case of plagiarism.)
I'm calling them Pinterest Pagans because I really like alliteration. In my never humble opinion, they are the Becky and Chads of the Pagan/etc community.
I've posted before about folks who try to 'buy' paganism/witchcraft by buying craploads of tools and oils and other 'stuff'. This is another form of that - collecting random stuff from the Internet most of which they don't use. Judging from what I've seen - 90% of the witch/pagan stuff they share is shit. Just ... shit. Shit with no sources cited. Because apparently they think that everything on the Internet is true.
If they share spells and are asked details about them, it's usually clear that they never did the spell. They can't tell you what exactly occurred when they did it. They can't give you success/failure rates, they can't tell you why any specific item is called for. They can't discuss the magical theory behind the spell. They can't tell you a specific statement of intent that they used.
IMO, Pinterest Pagan are, for the most part, uneducated and not willing to do REAL work to educate themselves. Not willing to even investigate what they read for veracity or intelligence or reality. They clearly don't believe that the sources matter. To quote Isaac Asimov, they believe that "[their] ignorance is just as good as your knowledge," or equal to the knowledge of folks who have made deep study for years into what they are posting memes about. I'm not saying that *I* am an expert that they shouldn't be comparing themselves to - I'm saying that the sources I quote are the experts, in case anyone was wondering about that.
I weep for the human race.
Frothing Fern
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Consider the source!
Blessings Darlings!
As all y'all know - my blog isn't scholarly. It is full of my opinions, UPG, and a lot of rants. That said - if I cite hard numbers, info on Paleo Pagan stuff, etc - while I often give the references, if I don't I'm still able to cite my sources if asked. As often as possible (paywalls get in the way) what I have are PRIMARY sources (or translations of them) for all of them.
In other words - the material I comment/rant about/share is from a primary source. My commentary is a secondary source of information. And I TOTALLY encourage all y'all to ask me for sources if you want to check things out/look further into the issue/etc. I don't bogart my sources.
Online, if I share things from sources other than 'me' - like art work, quotes, etc - I will ALWAYS give credit to the person who created them. If I think that art is good enough that others should enjoy it, too, then it would be a shitty thing to do to NOT give credit to the artist, and not let folks look at more of the artists work, and make it harder for folks to actually BUY things from the artist so the artist can keep creating.
If I share stuff from a Blog, there will be a link back to the blog.
Okay - if I use a commonly quoted line from a movie, I don't usually use citations. "Bye Felicia" doesn't get a (from the movie "Friday", <year of movie> written by <etc>) citation.
Citing sources matters. Because as all y'all say you know already - not everything posted online is true, or comes from a source other than UPG. And some folks' UPG is stupid. By the way - you can quote me on that. And I can provide examples. The examples will be Primary Sources.
Knowing the source of any material - whether it is a primary source of ancient lore, a primary source of scientific research (hard to get - often behind pay walls, best accessed at college libraries, and may have the holy grail - the raw data! - included), a secondary source like something written by someone who read the article, a tertiary source like someone who read a press release about the scientific research then wrote a newspaper article about it, etc lets you know how many times the information could have been misinterpreted and how many times there could have been important things left out.
More on this - the really RANTY part - next blog!
Frondly, Fern
As all y'all know - my blog isn't scholarly. It is full of my opinions, UPG, and a lot of rants. That said - if I cite hard numbers, info on Paleo Pagan stuff, etc - while I often give the references, if I don't I'm still able to cite my sources if asked. As often as possible (paywalls get in the way) what I have are PRIMARY sources (or translations of them) for all of them.
In other words - the material I comment/rant about/share is from a primary source. My commentary is a secondary source of information. And I TOTALLY encourage all y'all to ask me for sources if you want to check things out/look further into the issue/etc. I don't bogart my sources.
Online, if I share things from sources other than 'me' - like art work, quotes, etc - I will ALWAYS give credit to the person who created them. If I think that art is good enough that others should enjoy it, too, then it would be a shitty thing to do to NOT give credit to the artist, and not let folks look at more of the artists work, and make it harder for folks to actually BUY things from the artist so the artist can keep creating.
If I share stuff from a Blog, there will be a link back to the blog.
Okay - if I use a commonly quoted line from a movie, I don't usually use citations. "Bye Felicia" doesn't get a (from the movie "Friday", <year of movie> written by <etc>) citation.
Citing sources matters. Because as all y'all say you know already - not everything posted online is true, or comes from a source other than UPG. And some folks' UPG is stupid. By the way - you can quote me on that. And I can provide examples. The examples will be Primary Sources.
Knowing the source of any material - whether it is a primary source of ancient lore, a primary source of scientific research (hard to get - often behind pay walls, best accessed at college libraries, and may have the holy grail - the raw data! - included), a secondary source like something written by someone who read the article, a tertiary source like someone who read a press release about the scientific research then wrote a newspaper article about it, etc lets you know how many times the information could have been misinterpreted and how many times there could have been important things left out.
More on this - the really RANTY part - next blog!
Frondly, Fern
Monday, February 4, 2019
My Body is Wiser Than I am.
Blessings Darlings!
So, yeah, as previously blogged, I had a cold. Of course, the symptoms sucked - my throat was sore, I was tired, I had serious nasal congestion, my sinus' threatened to close, I was blowing my nose ALL THE DAMN TIME, etc. I REALLY wanted to get rid of all the symptoms.
HOWEVER - most of the symptoms (not all of them) were caused not by the virus, but were part of my body's strategy and tactics for fighting off the virus. I was tired because my body was putting energy into cranking out white blood cells/antibodies specifically targeting the virus. The congestion, and the mucus, was because my body made the mucus membranes 'leaky' so it could get the antibodies to the virus infested areas easily. If I had had a fever - that would have been because antibodies aimed at some virus'/bacteria raise the body temperature, too, because those 'bugs' are temperature sensitive. The sneezing ... okay, that was probably the virus taking advantage of nasal structure to send itself out to infect others.
It was hard for me to not take OTC meds aimed at quelling the symptoms and let my body do its thing. Taking decongestants and/or antihistamines would have let me breath thru' my nose, etc. However the impact on actually getting over the cold would mean that I'd actually HAVE the virus longer.
Instead, I relied on hot herbal teas to help flush debris from the war into my kidneys, napped, ate well (tho' I could not taste ANY damn thing), used saline nasal spray to help keep my sinus' open, etc. My husband couldn't eat the canned chicken soup that I added garlic and hot sauce to - it was way too spicy for him. I couldn't taste any spices in it. Once I was less sick I used my returned energy to make a batch of home made chicken soup and he carefully and Virgo-ly supervised the seasoning of it.
It was HARD to honor my body over my hatred of the symptoms. I had to - gasp - ADULT. I had to differentiate between 'getting better' and 'feeling better'. I had to very narrowly focus parts of my healing work - that herbal tea was given specific target of 'keeping the sinus' open' not 'reduce all inflammation'.
I'm back to my usual level of health now. I had to miss the local Woman's March huddle so I couldn't infect anyone, but I won't infect anyone at work tonight. Tomorrow I get back to full exercising (which I should have stopped doing earlier in the cold - I did NOT honor my body that way at first.)
Frondly, Fern
So, yeah, as previously blogged, I had a cold. Of course, the symptoms sucked - my throat was sore, I was tired, I had serious nasal congestion, my sinus' threatened to close, I was blowing my nose ALL THE DAMN TIME, etc. I REALLY wanted to get rid of all the symptoms.
HOWEVER - most of the symptoms (not all of them) were caused not by the virus, but were part of my body's strategy and tactics for fighting off the virus. I was tired because my body was putting energy into cranking out white blood cells/antibodies specifically targeting the virus. The congestion, and the mucus, was because my body made the mucus membranes 'leaky' so it could get the antibodies to the virus infested areas easily. If I had had a fever - that would have been because antibodies aimed at some virus'/bacteria raise the body temperature, too, because those 'bugs' are temperature sensitive. The sneezing ... okay, that was probably the virus taking advantage of nasal structure to send itself out to infect others.
It was hard for me to not take OTC meds aimed at quelling the symptoms and let my body do its thing. Taking decongestants and/or antihistamines would have let me breath thru' my nose, etc. However the impact on actually getting over the cold would mean that I'd actually HAVE the virus longer.
Instead, I relied on hot herbal teas to help flush debris from the war into my kidneys, napped, ate well (tho' I could not taste ANY damn thing), used saline nasal spray to help keep my sinus' open, etc. My husband couldn't eat the canned chicken soup that I added garlic and hot sauce to - it was way too spicy for him. I couldn't taste any spices in it. Once I was less sick I used my returned energy to make a batch of home made chicken soup and he carefully and Virgo-ly supervised the seasoning of it.
It was HARD to honor my body over my hatred of the symptoms. I had to - gasp - ADULT. I had to differentiate between 'getting better' and 'feeling better'. I had to very narrowly focus parts of my healing work - that herbal tea was given specific target of 'keeping the sinus' open' not 'reduce all inflammation'.
I'm back to my usual level of health now. I had to miss the local Woman's March huddle so I couldn't infect anyone, but I won't infect anyone at work tonight. Tomorrow I get back to full exercising (which I should have stopped doing earlier in the cold - I did NOT honor my body that way at first.)
Frondly, Fern
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