Blah, blah, blah, welcome to my journal, blah, blah.

All the deep-dark is friends-only.

The brooding blue man in the icon is Commander Shran from the show "Enterprise", because I'm dorky like that.

So - now that I have an internet connection - this is what the news is :)

Closing costs: a lot
Realtor and bank stuff: a lot of headaches
Plumbing and dry rot repair: a lot
First of Irukai's gardening tools: $1.79 at the thrift store
Primula plant which Irukai planted in backyard at base of tree: $1.50
New refrigerator (a mini, because of kitchen remodelling to come): $75
Playing with Sadie the Dog, in the back yard of our very own castle: Priceless.

We moved to a house, a little cottage, in need of some TLC. The house consumes much of our time!

Priestess of sacred sexuality names herself Inara and calls her temple Serenity.

At first, I wanted to laugh and point along with everyone else, but as I thought about it, it brought up another question.

The question I have is, why's this worse than a middle aged, blonde, well-off New Ager driving a beemer, declaring herself a tantrika and calling herself "Shakti"?

I've finally come to peace with this - after a life juggling between the two, like some sort of weird part-time mystic and part-time rationalist.

There's no conflict whatsoever, as long as I don't try to discuss the matter with members of the extreme perspective in either camp.

This is what I came to.

Trying to apply scientific theory to matters of "subjective reality", is like trying to eat music. Trying to apply the reverse rules to science (witness the confusing movie, "What the Bleep Do We Know", and its claims about quantum physics) in some cases is like trying to put a hamburger in a CD player and listen to it.

I can accept that certain things are completely made up by the human brain, but it only tells me what a wonder the human brain is, and doesn't make such things less real or valuable an experience in some cases.

It used to be that I sought cats out - scanning neighborhoods I was in for feline occupants, and the like.

Now they seek me out. In my neighborhood, I have made friends with several cats whom I know by name. On my walks, they come up to me.

Recently in a bookstore I'd never visited, I was standing there showing my used books to the manager and a few employees, when a large, fluffy cat came up and introduced himself to me. He must have been thinking, "Aha! New person whom I've never seen before! More attention!"

I'm not surprised anymore when strange cats appear in my path out of nowhere and practically leap into my arms.

I seem to have some kind of cat pheremones going on.

What movie is this?

It's from the 80s.

It's science fiction.

It takes place aboard spaceships.

There's a boy who I think was kidnapped, if I remember right.

Water is a precious commodity.

Everyone wears these dog tag looking things.

There's a spaceship that looks like a woman's torso.

This is going to drive me crazy until I know which movie this was.

Transformers was several dorky shades of gloriously dorky fun.

Poor reviews, but if you expect a movie about frickin' giant robots to be more than... a movie about frickin' giant robots, there's something wrong with you ;)

Then again, you could be this guy...

National Guardsman legally changes his name to Optimus Prime

I was looking for a picture of blond dreadlocks, for a Photoshop project.

I came across this guy's opinion:
http://angrywhitekid.blogs.com/weblog/2005/06/white_people_an.html

Something he forgets is that the Rastafarians aren't the only group that wears dreads... Indian sadhus and some Tibetan mystics wear them as well. OK, these people aren't white, but he makes is sound like the Rastafarians and the Rastafarians only, are the wearers of dreadlocks, and like dreadlocks are specifically and *only* a religious symbol of the Rastafarians.

This is not like a non-Jew wearing a yarmulke (outside of a synagogue, where all males Jewish or otherwise must wear yarmulkes) and side curls.

This is like saying, Westerners can't wear bracelets in general because Sikhs wear a steel bracelet as a symbol of their faith... a really ridiculous argument if you ask me. If they were wearing Sikh steel bracelets it might be said to be disrespectful... but you can't generalize the argument to bracelets in general.

Since dreadlocks are shared by several cultures, you'd be hard pressed to say *what* culture a white dreadlock wearer was copying. Furthermore, I don't like assuming that a person is appropriating something *just because they are white*... those kind of generalizations are racism, no matter who the target of the generalization happens to be.

I agree with the critics of cultural appropriation when it comes to symbolism that is more or less culturally "copyrighted" by a group, such as Maori te moko... but when it's something that's shared by several groups and has a different meaning in each, it gets a little ridiculous to say "don't do that". Or when it's something that's begun to have a multicultural context... such as using mendhi materials in the way Westerners do, which is to say, in a unique fashion that has nothing to do with the way the originators use them.

I think it's ok for cultural symbolism and "cultural property" to enter the collective multicultural heritage of all humans. Because of trade, practically everything came from somewhere else.

WATCH!! You know you want to. :)