Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • Happy Sigrblot - Oath Updates 2

    Continuing, tonight I begin celebrating Sigrblot! I also have an update on the oaths I made during Winter Nights, which is linked below.

    [...]

    Sigrblot is essentially "Victory Celebration", and for some, the start of the Summer half of the year, in opposition to Winter Nights, which is the start of the Winter half of the year. For the way I calculate Sigrblot, I start at Winter Nights of the previous Gregorian calendar year from the year I want to calculate Sigrblot for, then I count up 6 full moons and celebrate during the 3 nights the moon appears fullest during that full moon.

  • silly questions

    When I was in fifth grade (1992), we were tasked with writing an essay about what we wanted to be/do when we grew up. I wrote that I wanted to be a writer. I was going to live in a little cabin in the woods, far from all people, and communicate with my editor via fax, phone, and maybe this newfangled "Internet" thing, since it apparently worked on phone lines.

    My teacher told me, quite sternly, that I needed to be "realistic" and that this plan was "not realistic."

    ...Fast-forward twenty years: my spouse and I lived in a little cabin on the edge of a woods. The nearest town was 20 minutes away and consisted of maybe 400 people. I communicated with my editors/clients entirely via phone and this newfangled "Internet" thing.

    My fifth grade teacher was right, though. The idea that I'd still need a fax machine in 2012 was pure science fiction.

  • Not dead, but sleeping

    A few years ago, a guest speaker from a Bible college visited our church. In Sunday School he gave an overview of the book of Mark. Afterward when he took questions, I took the opportunity to ask something that bothered me. Why, I asked him, in Mark 5, does Jesus say Jairus' daughter was sleeping?

  • Stench Of Death

    Yesterday, I ordered a takeway order from Nandos, a popular South African spiced chicken casual dining restaurant chain. They do a damn fine veggie burger with great spicing. The tongue demanded flavour, the belly wanted burger shaped delights. This time, the order was messed up and I was sent a chicken burger instead.

    I have not eaten meat for some 28 years or so. It makes me puke and have other digestive issues. My mum is similar. My dad and brother eat meat and I have no issues with people eating meat around me. Textures are a key part of not wanting meat. I dislike mushrooms thanks to the texture too. Same with tofu and meat substitutes. All leads to not going down the gullet without some gagging.

    I have had meat in this home. My brother and his wife have had meat in this house. Same with food for my parent's dogs when I have looked after them. This has lead to meat in the bin and that has not bothered

  • deadlines

    university deadlines creeping. a lot of coursework, i have done already. i am so tired

• Politics and World Events

  • Journal Entry: Conway Calamity

    Cold and wet with a chance of rain, and all I had with me was a five dollar bacon burger to keep me warm. The old lady and the man from India had sold them for a fair price at the First Stop Deli and Grocery down the street. It’s places like these that make me wonder where all the money from the damn DOGE is going into whose pockets.

    Franklin D. Roosevelt was right y’know? On April 29th, 1938 he warned the American Public about what happens when monopolies go unchecked and consumerism runs rampant. And wouldn’t you know it, what happened next was a sleight of hand. All they had to do was distract the American Public from its own history, like waving a carrot in front of a horse. And I should mention that putting profits before people is like putting the wagon before the horse. Who else is gonna pull the wagon, and who else is going to make the profits in the first place?

    This was just one of the writings I saw on many signs, carried by people who are all marching in protest against Trump and Elon’s monopoly on the entire country. I’m all for private property but by privatizing everything we have and marketing it as his own property, it carries a similar weight to when Joseph Stalin decided to hoard all the goodies from the food cabinet. Hedonism at its finest folks.

• Technology and Free Software

  • Internet/Gemini

    • interlude: 1988

      I published this on my blog a little over 20 years ago, reading it now it took me off guard because I was sure I didn't have the courage to share something like this when I was that young.