30/12/2010

Cheers

Today I checked all the links in the sidebar and updated or deleted wherever needed doing. New year's cleanup. My office is still in shambles and I haven't unpacked my suitcase yet since getting home on Tuesday but I do feel a wee bit better. There are so many things on my To Do list at the moment but at least I am picking at if from the edges. It's a start. I can't think about it too much or I will sag back into inertia so here's to baby steps and re-beginnings. Cheers.

29/12/2010

Lost, one mind

I can't get going. The only thing I did today was cruise the thrift shops for a new old low to the ground plastic lawn chair for my office, for morning offline writing sessions. Oh and buy some apples for the birds. My head is still out on the road somewhere between Florida's gulf coast, Costa Rica, Montana, San Francisco, Southern Oregon and Portland. Probably it's in Portland. In spite of the rain and Baby Thea dominating the landscape as she dashes headlong on her new bright red Christmas tricycle into the terrible-twos with all the drama and aplomb of a natural born vaudeville trooper, I am comfortable and very much at home in Portland.

28/12/2010

Local news at 10:33


Today marks the end a three month period during which we've been gone more than we've been home. At the moment I don't feel like I live anywhere in particular but the 7 o'clock magpie will be happy to find the peanuts I scattered around the Bird Park this evening. She is faithful. It will take the others a few days to catch on. Until then, she will have them all to herself.

24/12/2010

Merry Christmas

2010 Dec 25 7:58 UTC
Christmas eve

Hello from the shadow.

20/12/2010

Happy Winter Solstice


And if you live in the Western Hemisphere, don't miss tomorrow's winter solstice (7:22 p.m. EST ) full moon eclipse which will reach totality at (2:41 a.m. EST - 11:41 p.m. PST). It's a very rare event. The last time these three events occurred simultaneously was over four centuries ago.

18/12/2010

See You on the Moon


Winter solstice - full moon - full lunar eclipse
- Monday, Dec. 21, 2010. Lucky us! The last time this happened was nearly four centuries ago, on December 21, 1638.

Lunar eclipse over Budapest, 2008.

The eclipse will be visible in the Western Hemisphere. The first definitive change in the moon's appearance will come on the moon's upper left edge. At 1:33 a.m. EST (10:33 p.m. PST), the partial phase of the eclipse will begin as the Earth's dark shadow – called the umbra – starts to slowly creep over the face of the full moon.


At 2:41 a.m. EST (11:41 p.m. PST) the eclipse will reach totality, but sunlight bent by our atmosphere around the curvature of the Earth should produce a coppery glow on the moon.


At this time, the moon, if viewed with binoculars or a small telescope, will present the illusion of seemingly glowing from within by its own light.


At 3:18 a.m. EST (12:18 a.m. PST), the sun, Earth and moon will be almost exactly in line and the light of the moon – assuming clear skies – will appear at its dimmest.


Totality ends at 3:53 a.m. EST (12:53 a.m. PST) and the moon will completely emerge from the umbra at 5:01 a.m. EST (2:01 a.m. PST). About 15 or 20 minutes later, the last vestige of the fainter penumbral shadow will disappear from the moon's upper right edge and it will return to its normal brilliance.

Source

And this excerpt from an email on the solstice that I got this morning from a friend, more chatter about 2012, the Mayan calendar, harmonic convergence and all that for your entertainment.

It seems that some interesting astrological things are happening on the Winter's Solstice and also something else. The Sirius is sending a "test pulse" on that day, as a forerunner to the 2012 harmonic completion on the Winter's Solstice of that year. It should be something gentle and a fairly usual day, entering through the crown chakra, more easily felt if we are receptive at 3rd eye and heart. It is to help the Earth move into more balance so that the latter date will have smoother transition. Depending on what ripples happen on Earth, other test pulses may be happening at key astrological junctures. It is to help balance the five elements. Nothing to worry about.


Naturally all this fits into my personal cosmology but that's a subject for a different time. For now, suffice it to say...

Happy upcoming Solstice!

Exact moment of solstice (sun stop):
7:22 p.m. EST - December 21
, 2010


11/12/2010

Baby Gaga



What was I thinking? Here I am picking out youtube videos of kittens, puppies, elephants and giraffes for Baby Thea but she likes to watch Lady Gaga concerts. Silly me.



10/12/2010

Morning walk




I've been in Portland for the last week, hanging out with the indomitable Ms. Thea Bella and family. Man oh man... toddlers.

04/12/2010

Prostitute Mickey 3


It has come to my attention that a friend at the other end of the rainfuckingbow is having a bad day. Cheer up. It just got worse. Shuffle on over to the morgue and see why...


(Note: If you haven't met Prostitute Mickey, it's better to watch parts 1 & 2 first.)

Prostitute Mickey 3



Local news at 11:49



Got home last week and leaving again on Monday. I am totally dazed but no matter. I must do it. Must get to Portland to visit Baby T before she leaves for college which, at the rate she's growing, is coming up waaaaaaaaaaaay too fast.

But the birds in the Bird Park are none to happy about my travels. I've been gone most of the time since September but the 7 o'clock Magpie faithfully continued checking in. She's been doing it for years now. The gulp of magpies only figure out that I am home several days after my return. Until then, she pretty much has the place to herself although no one seems to be suffering without me. Even the one legged magpie is fat. They all have stomachs somewhere between the size of a large navel orange and a small (okay very small) grapefruit.


The latest Bird Park sensation has been blobs of sugar free cherry jam. Yum. And leftover oatmeal. Not so yum but gone by noon. Oh and apples. Everyone likes the apples. Magpies hog them so I have to put several out to keep everyone happy. As is their fashion, the quail share. Seems the Bird Park has settled into being their wintering ground and spring hook-up scene, the quail version of Maui at spring break. The evil neighborhood fat cats make it a less than hospitable place to bring the family, at least when the kids are still the size of golf balls. The cats eat them like popcorn. I should put a sign on the fence like the ones you see at carnivals. You know the kind only it would read... YOU MUST BE AS TALL AS AN APPLE TO ENTER.


02/12/2010

And so

Hexagram 58
THE IMAGE

Lakes resting one on the other:
The image of THE JOYOUS.
Thus the superior man joins with his friends
For discussion and practice.


Along came a spider


Little Miss Muffet got it all wrong.



The spider was just a happy little dude checking out the world.