Isn't Life Crazy?

Yesterday the East Coast of the US got slammed with a storm that they were calling Nemo. So, a small fish that has delighted children for years will now be associated with traffic accidents, loss of power and long hours of shoveling and snow blowing. Well done, whoever thought of this name for the storm. You have warped children's thoughts of "Finding Nemo" forever more. I hope those of you affected by this storm are safe and warm today.

But this wasn't the only news of merit for the day. Friday was also the day that sentencing came down in the Amish beard-cutting trial. Now, for those who might not be aware of this particular crime and those affected, let me give you a bit of background.

There are Amish communities throughout the US, so

I'm not guaranteeing that every pic below is from this

particular Ohio community, but the lifestyle of each

group is quite similar.

The Amish people are a pocket religious group who live several places in the US including this community in the state of Ohio where this crime took place. They are a Christian-based group who eschew modern inventions and try to live in rhythm with and close to the land. They use horses for transportation and in their farming, and they don't use the telephone or other modern electronic technologies. This particular group believes that women should leave their hair uncut (and covered) and men should grow their beards when they marry. Beards are one of many outward signs of the Amish (their clothing is also quite distinctive).

Samuel Mullet, Sr.

Samuel Mullet, Sr. was accused of running a cult because of the extreme control he held over hisfamily and extended family. He was the patriarch of the family and his word was law, at least for the fifteen people named in the court case with him. Those in the family who have already been tried received sentences ranging from one year (the women) to up to seven years (the men). Not all trials in this case have been completed yet. But Samuel Mullet, Sr, a 67-year-old deeply religious man who was accused of a hate crime was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for the crime of cutting the beards off several community men.

Samuel Mullet, Sr and the other defendants in the case.

The prosecutor and Justice Department presented this case as a hate crime based on religious differences between two splinter groups. The government said the attacks were retaliation against Amish who had defied or denounced Mullet's authoritarian hold over the splinter group he started in 1995. The government asked for a life sentence for Samuel Mullet, Sr., the defense asked for two years. Because this was a hate crime and presented as such, the jury agreed that religious differences were the reason for the attack which made this a First Amendment case.

Amish women entering the courtroom.

Do I agree with this sentence? Whether I agree or not makes no difference. What is important is one statement that the District Judge said. He stated "The victims were terrorized and traumatized," and noted that the same constitution that exempts the Amish community from jury service and gives them the right to pull their children from school when they reach age 14 was turned against the victims. "Each of you has received the benefits of that First Amendment."

The Amish lifestyle can be hard, but there is joy in

jobs performed well and the surrounding family and

faith. Those members I've met in my life have been

respectful and friendly.

Turning his back on the fact that the freedom to practice his faith allowed others in his small community to practice theirs as they also saw fit has now caused Samuel Mullet, Sr to be sentenced to a crime that will likely see him die behind bars. A simple crime of cutting the beards of those men who spoke against him has ended his freedom completely. Freedom is a bell that swings both ways and which has a clarion call spreading out throughout this nation. Something to think about on this snowy day.

Hunker Down and I Got Cards

Today starts nasty weather time, especially on the East Coast of the US, but we'll get our next storm on Saturday/Sunday/Monday. The East Coast will be slammed beginning this afternoon, receiving a speculated one to two feet of snow depending on location. That's a lot of snow for anyone, so my thoughts go out to them, especially those who are still impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Hang in there, spring will come eventually.

We'll get our next snowfall beginning Saturday afternoon, moving into Sunday. The forecast is for a total accumulation of a bit less than a foot over 24 hours. Because it will be over a period of time we'll be able to keep up with it (since I still don't have the snowblower that I was promised years ago - sigh). I guess we'll get our exercise, but I think that most of the action will be on Sunday which is my day off in any case. I can work with it if I have to.

The Gilded Royale deck is just scrumptious. It is

beautifully illustrated, heavy stock, with a full

CD-rom accompanying it. I'm really happy with it.

I now have five wonderful Tarot decks in my possession. I'm very happy :-) They are varied and each one is beautiful in its own way. I opened two of the decks and have started shuffling and getting them tuned. It's rather amusing - I opened the largest and the smallest decks that I have. I have very small hands so shuffling larger decks is very hard for me. But I figure if I really work at it I'll manage to work it out.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I adore Ancient

Egypt. Although there are many decks with an

Egyptian theme, the Ibis deck was the one I chose.

The Vanessa deck is purely for the fun of it. It's

a small deck in a tin container, so easy to carry

with me, and the illustrations are campy and fun.

February Scheduling - It's Working Out

Today is the seventh of February, leaving me three weeks in the month. I restarted my o-fic for Untold Press with a completely different theme and it's working much better. I should have things at an edit stage by the end of the weekend. I have decided to shelve my LOTR Community story for February, the topic and my assigned elements just aren't working for me and I have too many other things on my agenda to spend the time with something that doesn't bring me enjoyment. And I have decided that the remainder of the month (aside from several more edits of my o-fic) will be devoted to illustrating CB's Big Bang story. What fun!

I just love the layered detail in the hair here...

so very well done!

I am not an artist who works quickly. In fact, compared to my writing, my artwork is downright pokey. But I've now read the story twice and have started collecting the images I want to display. Soon I'll be adding my travel easel to the items I'll be carrying back and forth to the shop with me each day. Once I get the inking done, I'll begin overlaying the pastels. I have obtained all of the colors I'll need (and many more - I'm a bit pastel crazy right now) and I look forward to playing with them. I'll have to double-check the deadline, but I am planning on having things wrapped up by the end of the month, optimistically.

During our regular weekly phone call, Aearwen and I discussed writers boards. They are so incredibly useful, but only when people feel comfortable posting there and are happy with the level of critique that they receive. When I first started writing fan fiction, I had already been involved as a beta reader on a writers board called Lizard Council. An amazing array of writing talent was gathered on that board including Darth, Pande, Surgical, Randy and many more. It was a safe place to post and receive feedback and the things I learned there I carry with me every time I settle down to edit my own work or help friends with theirs. A writers workshop can be invaluable and impartial input from the members of a good one can make a good story stronger.

Over the past year I have found that I hardly visit LC any more, and I miss it in so in many ways. The level of trust that I had felt there disappeared, at least for me, so I pulled back from the group although I stayed in contact with many of the people I had met through its boards. But I miss it; at least I miss the interaction and the give and take that a good writers board can offer. It was extremely pleasant to speak with Aearwen about this because she is in the process of starting a new writers board that will be open to any fandom and even to o-fic. I'm hoping that it will get off the ground successfully and be a worthwhile project and board to participate in. When there is concrete information about the new board, I'll share with all of you who might also be searching for a new home.

Revisions, Retrenches, Rethinking

So yesterday I posted about the difficulties I was having with my newest o-fic story and how it just wasn't working. I put more thought into it and decided to scrap the storyline completely and begin again with a different story track. Now the story is flowing and I see where it is heading. Since today is my "day off", I'll continue working on it between shoveling more snow, shopping for groceries and doing laundry. Tonight I want to work on some beta work that I owe to Lai, so I'll be at my keyboard for the rest of the day, at least as much as possible.

I ordered several different Tarot decks on Sunday night that are on their way to me now. In the interim I've been playing with a daily free reading on facade.com to get a basic feel for the cards again even though I'm not holding virtual cards in my hands. I've got to say that I've never had such negative readings in my life and it makes me wonder if I'm such a horrible person.  I know I'm selfish and can be single-minded and overly focused in my endeavors, but the virtual cards have really been kicking my butt (even though they have chosen some interesting decks.

Yesterday's random deck chose the Voodoo Tarot of New Orleans for a Shadow Truth 5-card spread, supposedly chosen to illuminate things I would be hiding from myself. The first card, the "Attitude You Assume" was "The Tower" - unforeseeable catastrophe. I usually associate The Tower with throwing out elements that don't work - a psychic cleansing, but decided to go with their definition for this spread. The 2nd card was for "Underlying Thoughts and Feelings" and was the Nine of Cups (reversed) meaning vanity, conceit, smugness and overindulgence. Ick! I don't want to be perceived as smug!

The New Orleans Voodoo Deck is one I would never have chosen.

Card #3 was for "Evolving Attitudes" and the card was a Wild Card (reversed). This is a non-standard card unique to this deck so I have no equivalent in other decks. Their interpretation was "The most extreme of unexpected events, leading to shock and humiliation. The invasion of everyday life by forces primal or transcendental. Sex, violence, and regret." OK...Double ICK!!  No...really don't want this!

Appropriately for New Orleans, the Tower

card is actually called the Deluge card.

So working through to the last two cards, #4 was for "Perception of Others" with the Ace of Swords standing for meeting a challenge and new ideas and information. This was MUCH better. The final card, #5, stands for "What I am Hiding From Myself" and that toppled right back into the negative personality aspect with the Nine of Disks (reversed). This card implies elitism, snobbery (here I go...a snob again), a lack of discipline and contempt for labor. Oh dear...I guess I have to get back into the groove again to get this better.

The Ace of Swords card is rather bizarre in this deck.

So...if others do perceive me as a snob, how best to change that? I'm not saying I'm not one - I can be high-handed and have a delusional sense of self-importance and I am well aware of that. I also know that this is armor that I have carefully crafted year after year that I place between myself and my dark sides of depression and suicidal thoughts. So, maybe I'm not too willing to give up the plate armor just yet. I built it for very good reasons.

It is a little elaborate for my personal armor...but so pretty!

So how would you do? The website is facade.com. Go take a look under Tarot and see what you get for your daily free reading. It can be illuminating, although it may also cause you to think thoughts that might be uncomfortable.

Leaving Tracks

It's snowing...again...ICK! I knew we were supposed to get another 1-2 inches overnight, but it decided that overnight would be right when I would normally shovel the drive before going to the coffeeshop and then to the shop. No, the snow today started about 2:30 am and it is still coming down (a second front is coming through now) and I can shovel, but I won't really accomplish much by doing so. So I'm torn - if I shovel before I leave, my tire tracks will be minimized - an important consideration. If I hold off because it is still snowing, I'll have serious tire tracks and my poor DH will be stuck with a lot of shoveling today since I try to do the house when I can to save him some effort. But...it is his day off... I'm very tempted to be bad!

My tracks would be much less visually interesting...

I haven't written in my o-fic story for several days now and it'[s bothering me. Normally if I'm writing on a story my fingers itch and I can't wait to get back to it. I get bogged down here and there, but usually I see light when I look up and I struggle, climbing the rough walls of my mental prison, to break free into the sunshine of clarity of plot and character device. That isn't happening this time.

Writing can sometimes be serious labor.

I'm making an assumption that clarity of action isn't coming to me because the story has to be a retelling of something already well known. When a tale is well known and established and an author is attempting to change it in one significant way, sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. I'm almost at a point of deciding that this one may not work and I would be better off choosing a different tale. If so, then I would have wasted some serious working time and have a deadline suddenly breathing down my neck.

The best of characters can be dusted off to sing again.

So today will be a decision day for me. One way or another I will move forward with this task during my writing time tomorrow. If I decide to continue, I'll see what I can do to outline where the plot will go today so that I will know if I am comfortable with it or not. If I decide I have to change stories, I'll need to examine which story to switch to and I'll shelve my current one and it's main character to be dusted off another time for another tale. Characters can jump stories if they are strong voices and I think he could have legs in a different universe. Time to think...

Monday - Time for Pretty Things

Mondays can be hectic. I know that today will be for me. My Chiropractor is in a new office now and it snowed overnight, so I have to build in snow shoveling in my morning schedule and still not be late for my 6:30 am Chiro appointment. It's not a hard snow, but it's still 20 minutes or so to shovel the driveway and walks and I have to make sure I get it done timely. So I'm pushing through today's blog post.

Since Mondays are so stressful, I wanted to share beautiful pictures. Below are several tree tunnels from around the world that are famous for very good reasons. I'll put one above the cut and the rest below. May looking at these help make your Monday a bit better.

A tunnel of wisteria in Japan.

Oh, and Superbowl was wonderful! A great game with entertaining commercials, good munchies (too many of them) and time enough to get several Tarot decks ordered that are currently on their way to me. It even had a bit of extra drama with the power outage after the start of the second half. I would have been happy with either team winning, although I was leaning towards the Ravens. So...all things good!

A tunnel of blooming cherry trees in Germany.

Gingko trees outside Tokyo, Japan.

This Yew tunnel, looking rather spooky, is in England.

This avenue of beeches, very spooky and looming, is in Northern Ireland.

So there you have it; a grouping of amazing tree tunnels around the world for your enjoyment on this Monday morning. Time for me to run outside and start shoveling. Have a great day!