Oh, frightening!

Thoughts:

I'm drivin' in the big city with my shiny new toy today. Send safey drivey vibes my way.

Ranch owners tied to NY investment fraud
I think Leuschen should spell his name "Lucien." Or Lucifer. Whatever. (Is this a political/news blog now?)

I love Old Crow Medicine Show.

Drinking all this water stuff makes me need to pee. Strange.

Fashion blogging?

Yes, yes... you wouldn't know it to look at me, but I am, in fact, a rabid shoe girl. I'm coming out of the closet.

I'm particularly salivating over boots right now, which is strange, considering it's summer and I would have no interest in wearing them in warm weather. That being said, here's what currently has caught my eye:

Sofft Nordic

From Mod Cloth, some Figaro Boots and Oh Snap! Sandals

And of course some TOMS wrap boots and shoes



Now that I've contributed to commercialization and subsequent downfall of our society, I'm going to go read a book.

The problem with identity: A rant, by yours truly.

I burned out on feminist blogs, and there's a reason I don't spend a lot of time in the Wiccan/Pagan/What-have-you blogosphere. I call it the Fluffy Bunny Effect. Whether it's the feminists who've read everything ever published and recovered from the dusty attics of Simone de Beauvoir and bell hooks who tell the rest of us to go away and do some research before contributing the the "discourse" (Oh, the sacred word!!!!), or the Pagans who like to sneer from behind their piles of dusty tomes and accurate historical accounts about how foooooooolish it is to prefer to believe in a benevolent diety (oh ho ho hoooo what a disgrace! We shall have them put before an Inquisition. Oh, wait. That's what the CHRISTIANS did. You know, the people we loatheandhateanddon'teverechoinouractionswhatsoever....), or whether it's just your average pretentious douche trolling about the Interwebz...I get annoyed.

We're talking SEVERELY annoyed.

What I'd like to address specifically, however, is the concept of the Pagan Fluffy Bunny. If someone wants to explore their spirituality in a way that escapes from the more patriarchal traditions of Abrahamic religions, woohoo!!! Welcome to the world of Paganism! Pull up a chair! Wait, you believe WHAT? In absolute good and evil? In a form of GOOD magic? In a purely BENEVOLENT diety? To the fluffy bunny bin with you!!!

Now I realize there's nothing quite as annoying as the giant pentagram-touting teenager who's just out to mess with his parents. It gives the pagan community a bad name, right? Try holy wars, guys. Try child-abusing priests. I know a lot of Christians who for some reason have absolute heart attacks over Mormons calling themselves Christians. The fact is, it's all the same-old stuff, and a lot of it's semantics.

Seeking a spiritual identity? Feeling threatened by someone you deem totally different using the same name? I've got a solution, though you may not like it.

Get over it.

An angry teenager who's read one Wicca 101 book and wears a lot of black might call himself a Witch. A member of a coven who loves Aleister Crowley and has been practicing for 20 years might call herself a Witch. I can combine old and new, Pagan and Christian, and call myself a Witch. Don't like it? Too bad. The Church didn't care too much for Martin Luther either, and God forbid we act like those badbad "Xtians".

I'm a Catholic. I'm a Witch. I'm a Fluffy fuckin' Bunny.

Get over it.

Kitty Blogging!!

To ease my anger, I attended a very helpful session of kitten therapy.

Did I just dream about Magneto?

I've been feeling quite discouraged lately and kept my dear friend awake way past his bedtime with my complaining. The source of my frustration? An interview with four agents in a copy of Poets&Writers I plucked off the newsstand on Saturday.

The pessimists go on and on about how unrealistic it is to expect to get published or to actually make money as a writer, yadda yadda, and on to say how most writers (particularly those located at the Ends of the Earth, a.k.a. Wisconsin) would do well to just write for the sake of writing and forget about it. Until they reach 50 or so, I guess. (Okay, so perhaps I'm exaggerating. You can read the article for yourself here).

Here are my problems:

1) You can NOT assume that because someone is actively looking to get published, they are not still working on their writing. True writers are ALWAYS writing, publication or not, and there is ALWAYS room for improvement.

2) Writing for writing's sake is all well and good in theory, and like I said above: true writers are always writing. No amount of rejection is going to stop me from writing. However, most art is meant for an audience. If I spend my whole life in my basement reciting Julius Caesar, I'm not going to magically score the role of Brutus. Writers have something to say. They have messages. They long to be read as much as they are compelled to write.

and
3) Pul-LEASE. You're doing an interview for Poets&Writers. Get off your high horse. The magazine's tagline is "From Inspiration to Publication." Do you think the front cover features stories like, "Writing Because We Have To: A plunge into the poetic psyche" or "Don't Quit Your Day Job: How to keep improving and stay obscure"? Try: "Agent Action: How They Find You" and "22 Lit Mags That Do More For Your Work" and an overwhleming amount of MFA program and conference ads. Give me a break before you kill me with the irony, please.

dream journaling

I had a dream last night that there were a whole bunch of strange commenters on my blog nitpicking my grammar and being abusive. So... I guess dreaming about grammar nazis in the blogosphere means, "Tomorrow you will be a total shithead." 

Ebayin' it up, kiddos!!!!

Need to get rid of some books and the U bookstore isn't buying all of my stuff back. My astral projection book annoyed me with its obsession with being possessed by malevolent spirits. I don't need fear mongering in the spirit world too, guys. I get enough of it here. My new ageyness is limited to fluffy bunny stuff. Growth, happiness, peace of mind. I construct my own reality. No malevolent spirits, because I don't acknowledge their existence. So there.

And that weird Enochian Tarot book. Enochian magic just isn't my thing. Angels and watchtowers and cryptic diagrams and made up languages....too Jehovah's Witnessy for my tastes. :P Oh, man, I'm really being mean today, aren't I?

Sowwy.

Anyway, I'm sure there are plenty of people who will derive enjoyment out of my unwanted new age books, and if anyone needs a geology textbook or a linguistics resource for a good price...send 'em my Ebay way.