tinhuviel | Entries tagged with earth

So here am I, spooning tiny bites of Stove Top Stuffing into my piehole, and trying to watch Boogie Nights for the umpteenth time around Smidgen’s wide, hairy butt. Another Thanksgiving winding down.

After Halloween, Thanksgiving was always my favourite. It seemed less stressful than Christmas. I still feel that way, even though I really don’t do anything, and haven’t since 2011. But I do want to send some shoutouts of gratitude into the aether, so here goes.

I’m thankful for my friends. You all know who you are, both old and new Tribespeople. Those of you who have been with me for a while have stuck by me when even some family chose not to. You’ve been with me longer than anyone else in my life now. And my new friends, though thin on the ground, have opened up new avenues to experience, exhibited goodness and decency that threaten to prove my theories about our species dead wrong. All of you: Despite my dedicated misanthropy, you still love me just as I am, and I am happy to reciprocate. When we are facing the Alpaca Lips, I hope we get to do it together.

I’m thankful for the Earth. It has been quite a year, as far as space exploration has gone, but I find it incredible that we still have so much about our home planet that needs to be discovered, explored, and possibly explained. With every dim twinkle of light far beyond our comprehension of just how really fucking large the multiverse is, there is an equal twinkle far beneath the churning seas, something we’ve never been able to see, something even the angler fish, who can twinkle themselves, would be afraid to examine too extensively.The Earth is where we open our eyes each day. Instead of casting those eyes to your feet as you go through the motions that are expected of you, cast them outward. Not upward, but around you. Everything that you are is star stuff, yes, but that stuff chose to touch down on a world that both nurtures and destroys us. We owe it to ourselves, to one another, and to our home planet to try to find out why, before it’s too late. Even if it’s all a hologram and we are not truly physical entities on the surface of a planet, it’s all we currently have, and it is a wondrous construct, so full of mystery and music. I’m glad to have been able to see what I have of this world.

I am thankful for the music. It has been a truly resplendent year in music for me. I got to see Jeff Lynne get his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and watch him perform live (on TV) for the first time in over a decade. I’m foaming at the mouth to get my ears on the new ELO album. Then there’s Shriekback, who has dominated my musical choices for yet another year, giving fans both old and new, the triumph that is Without Real String or Fish, not to mention all the rarities, reissues, and side-project material. I have long contended that, as long as the Shrieks make music, I will be “doomed” to write, and my friends will be doomed to read, or say they did! Even earlier today, I was constructing a possible chapter in the WIP, based on a Shriek rarity, ‘Shake the Big Tree’.

I am thankful for laughter. As all my older friends know, I’ve been a bit of a laughter junkie since 2011. Laughter is the human purr. It’s present when we’re happy, and it can heal when we’re sad. Being a devout believer in Jessica Rabbit Syndrome, I would have to say that laughter is the most important thing in this reality, especially when you are more than underwhelmed about trudging forth, but trudge nonetheless because you have responsibilities. If something makes me laugh, its therapeutic qualities are far from lost on me. So, to all the things and people that have gotten me through 2015 by making me laugh like a demented Vizzini, I am quite grateful for it all.

And there you have it. Short and simple. I tried to be as upbeat and uncomplicated as possible. I gotta go outside for a few minutes, ‘cos it’s raining, and that shit’s rare here. Happy T-Day, freaks. May the Dark Side of the Force Be with you.

Mood: grateful
Where? the house
Music: Shriekback - Sea of Vapours (Mare Vaporum)

About an hour or so ago, I came across the best Creepypasta, as well as one of the very best short stories, I've ever read. I chanced upon it on You Tube, listened to it, then had to go to the original Pasta to read along as I listened for a second and third time. It's both a disturbing and beautiful story. The poetry of the fiction's language wraps around a visceral tale that will linger in the peripheries of your subconscious. If you like horror and/or science fiction, you'll love this.

For the best experience, I suggest you listen to the narration, which is flawless, whilst reading along. It makes for quite the unsettling experience, which means the insanely talented writer and the subsequent skillful narrator achieve what they each set out to do. I'm embedding the You Tube narration along with a link to the short story. You need only click the passage I copied from the story to be taken there, so you can read along. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. I've bookmarked everything, but wanted to make sure I would know where to find the story when I want to revisit, because I know I will. Often!

It's talking to me. Cooing sing-song layered words packed with image and smell and sound. Destruction, charred flesh, crying babies, the static deafening, holocaust fast and slow, some die in flames, in quakes of reality, in molecular disease while others die in camps, farms, zoos and labs. There are holes in the sky. Out of them come exterminating angels, servants of a distant and inconceivable Lord.

Also, have a picture of a cube UFO, as allegedly witnessed in El Paso, Texas, in July. I'm including it because it just adds to the creepiness of the above passage, and I won't be happy until you are as disturbed as I am!

Mood: impressed
Where? the house
Music: Peter Gabriel - I Don't Remember

I got to thinking about this after reading a news story about a park ranger who got suspended without pay for refusing to kill two bear cubs. The reporter used the word "destroyed" when mentioning the mother bear. Such language diminishes the gravity of what happened to this bear. She had gotten in the habit of raiding a freezer full of salmon, so she was murdered. Plain and simple. Afterward, the media reduced her to an it that was "destroyed". You destroy buildings, you destroy works of art. These are things. Destroy is a word better suited to inanimate objects. The bear was not inanimate at the time of her murder. So, I bit the bullet and took the plunge into Change.org. Here's what I wrote, along with the video I added. Click the bear pic to go sign my petition, if you feel the call to do so.

Language matters. Language is how we exchange information and share common experiences. It helps to form our worldview and even how we see ourselves. It is also used as a tool of propaganda to sway the opinions of millions, a perfect example of which is its use by the Nazis, which resulted in the agony and death of countless millions more, either in the Holocaust or many battles of World War II. The language our officials and media outlets use when referring to non-human animal deaths at human hands is done so to keep us ignorant of, or complacent regarding the methods used to increase profits for industries dependent on such practice. Words like "destroy", "put to sleep", and "process" are examples of this. We are more comfortable with these words, because it paints over human complacency and disregard of other life on Earth. As long as we remain comfortable, however, the more lives will be lost. The media and government need to stop propagating such language when talking about our fellow Earthlings. The three aforementioned terms should be replaced with more accurate expressions of human/non-human lethal interaction, such as "murder" or "mass murder" instead of "destroy" or "population control", "euthanized" or "executed" instead of "put to sleep," (dependent on if the animal were ill and near death, or an inmate in a pound that engages in supposedly unwanted animal executions), and "slaughter" instead of "process." In just one generation, such changes would produce more empathy in humanity, not just for non-humans, but toward one another and toward the planet we all call home, as well. The sanitization of our language has blinded us to how brutal nature is and, indeed, how much more vicious we ourselves can be to everyone around us. Because of the shift of opinion based upon the language we use, we would take a longer time to decide to wage war or not be so complicit in the Prison Industry. By simply replacing a few little words with more accurate and honest ones, we could put ourselves on the road to a better and more sustainable way of life for all Earthlings.

So there you have it. If enough people sign the petition, hopefully it will bring the suffering we inflict on others to fore, and eventually make life on Earth better for everyone.

Mood: pensive
Where? the house
Music: Cypress Hill - Hits from the Bong

There may be people out there who have the impression that I’m a misanthropic asshole with no sense of gratitude.

It’s true, I am a misanthropic asshole, but I am grateful for a lot of things and beings, including people. I thought it might behove me to step out of “character” for a few minutes and make a list. So here we go.

( cut for courtesy )

1. The Mother Unit - for rescuing me from myself last year, and having more patience with me than I ever would with anyone, including myself.

2. My friends. Even though I’ve lost a few since 2011, I’ve retained many very important souls in my life, many of which I met here on LJ. Despite my general dislike for our species, I harbour much fondness for my Tribe. Many of you stuck with me through the darkest period of my life, often saving my skin and literally saving my life and sanity when I did nothing to deserve such kindness, and there’s really no way I can ever sufficiently repay you for that. I just hope that I can do something for each of you someday, that might properly express how much you mean to me.

3. Smidgen and Toby. They cradle my soul like no one else would be willing to, or could. The unconditional love cats and dogs give us may well be the primary way god/dess is trying to tell us that we aren’t alone, that we count in some way. Despite my agnosticism, Toby and Smidgen are the ones who keep me from full-on atheism.

4. Music. Music is the closest thing to the concept of Force that we can get. I’ve long believed that the multiverse in which we dwell is a song that is still being composed. It is the purest form of communication, and it is something that every living being expresses in one form or another. We are all songs, we are the music of creation, we are the mathematics and art of dreams and concepts.

5. Fey Publishing - for taking a chance on me and my strange tales. My third book will be available soon, thanks to Fey’s original owner, Sophie Childs, and its current sovereign, Kristen Duvall. Click on their names to learn more about these brilliant women. I owe them both a great deal, for their initial and continued faith in me, and for their patience as I struggled through my own personal bullfunky to finally get the third Vampire Relics book to Dark Fey’s door.

6. Shriekback, in particular Barry Andrews, for letting me have a ringside seat to their ongoing awesomeness. Since 1990, they’ve been an almost constant source of inspiration and comfort, soundtracking my life’s highs and lows, and everything in between. If we lived on Arrakis, I would owe Barry a huge water-debt.

7. The Impractical Jokers and The Epic Rap Battles of History. My entire life, I’ve been a huge supporter of all brands of humour, but my quest for things that would make me laugh became a desperate effort following Aunt Tudi’s death. Of all the things I explored in my quest for laughter, The Tenderloins (Impractical Jokers) and the guys behind The Epic Rap Battles were the only ones who never failed to bring me a joy that was otherwise almost impossible to find.

8. You Tube and Netflix. When you don’t have a TV, these two wonderful services are a wonderful, and often preferable, alternative.

9. Dr. Harrington. Of all the therapists I’ve had over the years, this is the only one I’ve ever felt actually listens to me. His wry wit, proclivity to play devil’s advocate, and his willingness to swear are just three of many things that impress me about the man. And he’s a good person, a genuinely good person.

10. The Internet. When someone asked me how I felt about the Internet back in 1998, I told them that the Internet was the universe’s largest library. You could find out anything by exploring the endless halls of virtual books. You need only be aware of the pervert at the end of each aisle and act accordingly to avoid them.

11. Sleep. When you’re a chronic insomniac, the value of sleep increases a thousandfold. I was never one of those kids who balked at bedtime; I was always a fan of slumber, mainly because of my vast dreamscape. Being able to achieve lucidity at times only added to the wonder of it all. After I began suffering from insomnia, those rare occasions where I’d achieve a few hours of really good sleep with a possible bonus of now rare dreams, reached a level of miraculous for me. I am never not profoundly grateful for sleep.

12. Drum circles. I’ve always been fond of them, but rediscovering drumming and, in particular, trance drumming, has reconnected me to deity on a level I thought was no longer possible. There’s something about surrendering to a group rhythm that is both spiritual and therapeutic. Thankfully, drum circles in San Diego are never on short supply, unlike the Upstate of South Carolina.

13. Earth. I try to never take my home planet for granted, especially now that my species seems hellbent on destroying the only home we’ve ever known. In vast expansiveness of the multiverse, this magickal sphere upon which we all live makes it seem more likely than not, that life is more prevalent than we can imagine. And Earth is teeming with it, in mind-boggling varieties throughout an inconceivable history. This “pale, blue dot” may be tiny in the scheme of everything, but the planet is unique and precious, a work of divine art, from the towering trees of the Amazon to the majesty of the Smoky Mountains, all resonating with the subtle song of water, that which gives life as we know it. We have no right to visit so much suffering upon the body and spirit of our galactic mother. Throughout every day, I am stunned by the miracle of our home, and I grieve for everything that has lost in the wake of our destruction. I walk through life, grateful to Earth for her presence, and therefore ours, and I hope that my fellow humans and I can find some semblance of forgiveness for our transgressions.

So there it is. Thirteen things for which I am very grateful. I’m sure there’s more, but these are the Big Ones in my life, at this moment. What do you treasure? For what are you grateful?

Mood: sleepy
Where? Home
Music: A Elbereth Gilthoniel - LOTR Elves

Carl Sagan is one of my lifelong heroes. This is but one reason why.

Mood: peaceful
Where? home
Music: Peter Murphy - Huuvola

There was a rash of shows on volcanoes last night on Discovery. (Oh, how I love Discovery! Aunt Tudi asked me the other day which channels I'd pick if I could only keep five. I told her Sci-Fi, TNT, TBS, USA, and Discovery). After I went to bed Aunt Tudi taped this show on Krakatoa for me. Wow, what a story! I really feel for the folks who went through that. Over 36,000 died when Krakatoa exploded. And now Anak Krakatau (Son of Krakatoa) has grown steadily since 1927, like a giant Earth pimple, set to pop at any time. It's gonna happen again.

I never really gave much thought to volcanoes until a few years ago when, once again, I was watching this show on Discovery about how the Earth replenishes herself. Part of the show focused on this black sand beach that had been pretty much destroyed by human presence (big surprise there) until the local volcano erupted and destroyed the entire tourist region. In the destruction of the human presence there, however, the volcano also replenished the black sand beach, restoring it to its former glory before humanity infected the area.

The brought me to the conclusion that volcanoes are wonderful things. They sit on the threshold between the realms of the Crone and the Maiden. In destroying, the Crone enables the Maiden to make things new again. The Earth is truly a magnificent organism. She just a has a few billion parasites that need fumigating is all.

Mood: hot
Where? hut sweet hut
Music: Sabretooth on Sci-Fi (ugh...)