Hi Everybody...
Been MIA for awhile. Sure have missed you all. But I've been going through some weird times, and have been swamped by the doldrums. But Cthulu willing (all hail Cthulu), I may be perking back up again. Probably best not to go into too much detail, as the story gets pretty feculant. So in brief...
My hiatus began with major glitches in my BroadBand provider. After 3 weeks of non-service, they finally found the problem (theirs), and I got back up and running. But by then, I was slipping into a malaise brought on by my sojourn in retail perdition and bizzare things going on with my roommate.
On the roommate front... she's a wacko. I've had to have her committed twice. She's also very sickly, willfully I think, so she can get sympathy. All of her friends are mental patients, 4 are institutionalized at the moment, 2 for attempted murder. The rest... should be. She is also a xtian... subject to biblical style plagues. She always has a plathora of infections, parasites and home infestations, but in the last year things have escalated. What is odd, is that these maladies never come to affect me directly, or the room I rent. But I always wind up having to deal with her problems.
Lately her problems include parasites that are mangling her arm, and an infestation of rats. I have bought her and made for her numerous remedies for the parasites... she won't use them. Now it's so bad, no one will let her touch them, their kids, or their pets. On the rat front... I tried using live capture traps in accord with my vegan sensibilities, to no avail. So when the rat family became a colony, left their droppings almost everywhere, infested my roomie's room (even using her as a playground while she slept), I had to resort to killing. And when even that wasn't enough to keep up with their breeding cycles, now even eating holes in the walls to make nests, and when I got bitten by a flea from a rat I killed (causing a hellatious infection)... we called in a professional. Enter... Mighty Hunter.
Mighty Hunter informed us we had a major infestation (ya think?). I just stared at him blankly, awed by his comprehension of the problem. But Mighty Hunter had a solution... traps (wow... that's why he gets the big $$$). So he bought (at our expense), those big wire-type rat traps that I had at 1st tried (with no success), and baited them with peanut butter. They licked the traps clean, without triggering the traps. We called, and finally after 2 weeks, he brought the jaw-type traps I had been using with success, and baited these with peanut butter... with no effect. So last night I baited them with cheese and nailed a varmint this morning. That makes 11 kills for me... 0 kills for Mighty Hunter. I'm at wit's end on this. The traps don't keep up with their breeding cycles, poison is unworkable (and cruel)... I'm about to give up and just torch the place.
Work has provided it's own source of stress. My sojourn in retail perdition has gone from arduous to absurd. I started as the photo manager of this drug store. But now because of budget cutbacks, there is no photo dept to run, and I am now lead cashier (imagine my joy), and now only working 3 days a week. $$$ tight, and Rite Aid is just dumping more and more stress on us. They are currently mad at me, because I won't pimp their flu vaccine. Sorry, just don't believe in those. And I'm also aware the the N1H1 vaccine was the cause of the N1H1 outbreak last year, that killed hundred's of people in Mexico. So when the budget gets cut in Jan, I might be out of a job.
I also received news that my book contained numerous spelling errors... and that it could be rejected for publication because of that. Seems "editing" doesn't include fixing my mistakes, so I have to now go back through the book, fix those errors and resubmit it. Guess that's what happens when you write a book using an old version of Photoshop. And this now brings me to The Project.
Some of you have asked about The Project. This is something that has consumed a better part of a lifetime, and the book is an extension of it. There is a lot of background to this... but I'm hesitant to discuss this, because it sounds kinda "out there," and it gets pretty damned involved. And if you've actually read this far, I'm impressed with your attention span, as I'm not a particularly interesting blogger.
The project began with trying to formulate a new system of Tai Chi. The systems available to the public, are for the most part crap... and the Temple System (of which I am an adept), is just not workable outside a monastic setting. So I begun the task of formulating a new system of practice, specifically geared towards people wanting to cultivate an experiential orientation towards spirituality (as opposed to religious dogmatism). But events would lead me into circumstances of limited space... and time. My Tai Chi form had to alter to reflect these changes, and ultimately, I lost interest in Tai Chi altogether.
When I started writing my book, I began to reformulate my tradition's practices, which are more Yogic Chikung and do not include Tai Chi. My tradition is an ancient and obscure school of Goddess-oriented Taoism, which emerged in 500bce, but has roots going back 10's of thousands of years, and has remained hidden from world view since the fall of the Chou Dynasty in 256bce. In most ways, we do not resemble the modern forms of Religious Taoism, and either do our practices. We cultivate experiential spirituality, artistry and sexual practices. And we orient toward a nudist/naturist lifestyle. It is considered a form of Sexual Mysticism.
Taking on this task, at the Elders' behest, proved as arduous as writing the book... working to combine ancient and modern practices, and orienting them towards modern lifestyles. But with the completion of the book, I had not only established a new initiated system of practice, but introductory practices as well.
But with this completion, also came events that have severely impeded reconstructing a social life. My self imposed hermitage has now become a circumstantially imposed hermitage... complete with financial constraints. And there are of course the weirdities I've related above. And so with this, I have been slipping into a malaise. But within this malaise, I began to revisit my old Tai Chi form, which had started this whole process. And as of a few days ago... it is finished, complete with all the elements and corrections I had originally sought. And able to be performed in the confinement of a 10' x 6' space. It has been added to my introductory practices.
Now I seek to get through the trials of the xmas season in retail perdition. My main goals now are to get back to my photography, my flute, and re-establish a social life. On a side note... I haven't had a uh "date" in almost a year. That's the longest I've gone since I was 11 (yeah that's right, 11). I think my sailor needs to enter port for some R & R...
For those who read this boring novella... thank you, I promise not to do that to ya'll again.
I'll make the rounds later tonight.
Love & Light
AmLt
Been MIA for awhile. Sure have missed you all. But I've been going through some weird times, and have been swamped by the doldrums. But Cthulu willing (all hail Cthulu), I may be perking back up again. Probably best not to go into too much detail, as the story gets pretty feculant. So in brief...
My hiatus began with major glitches in my BroadBand provider. After 3 weeks of non-service, they finally found the problem (theirs), and I got back up and running. But by then, I was slipping into a malaise brought on by my sojourn in retail perdition and bizzare things going on with my roommate.
On the roommate front... she's a wacko. I've had to have her committed twice. She's also very sickly, willfully I think, so she can get sympathy. All of her friends are mental patients, 4 are institutionalized at the moment, 2 for attempted murder. The rest... should be. She is also a xtian... subject to biblical style plagues. She always has a plathora of infections, parasites and home infestations, but in the last year things have escalated. What is odd, is that these maladies never come to affect me directly, or the room I rent. But I always wind up having to deal with her problems.
Lately her problems include parasites that are mangling her arm, and an infestation of rats. I have bought her and made for her numerous remedies for the parasites... she won't use them. Now it's so bad, no one will let her touch them, their kids, or their pets. On the rat front... I tried using live capture traps in accord with my vegan sensibilities, to no avail. So when the rat family became a colony, left their droppings almost everywhere, infested my roomie's room (even using her as a playground while she slept), I had to resort to killing. And when even that wasn't enough to keep up with their breeding cycles, now even eating holes in the walls to make nests, and when I got bitten by a flea from a rat I killed (causing a hellatious infection)... we called in a professional. Enter... Mighty Hunter.
Mighty Hunter informed us we had a major infestation (ya think?). I just stared at him blankly, awed by his comprehension of the problem. But Mighty Hunter had a solution... traps (wow... that's why he gets the big $$$). So he bought (at our expense), those big wire-type rat traps that I had at 1st tried (with no success), and baited them with peanut butter. They licked the traps clean, without triggering the traps. We called, and finally after 2 weeks, he brought the jaw-type traps I had been using with success, and baited these with peanut butter... with no effect. So last night I baited them with cheese and nailed a varmint this morning. That makes 11 kills for me... 0 kills for Mighty Hunter. I'm at wit's end on this. The traps don't keep up with their breeding cycles, poison is unworkable (and cruel)... I'm about to give up and just torch the place.
Work has provided it's own source of stress. My sojourn in retail perdition has gone from arduous to absurd. I started as the photo manager of this drug store. But now because of budget cutbacks, there is no photo dept to run, and I am now lead cashier (imagine my joy), and now only working 3 days a week. $$$ tight, and Rite Aid is just dumping more and more stress on us. They are currently mad at me, because I won't pimp their flu vaccine. Sorry, just don't believe in those. And I'm also aware the the N1H1 vaccine was the cause of the N1H1 outbreak last year, that killed hundred's of people in Mexico. So when the budget gets cut in Jan, I might be out of a job.
I also received news that my book contained numerous spelling errors... and that it could be rejected for publication because of that. Seems "editing" doesn't include fixing my mistakes, so I have to now go back through the book, fix those errors and resubmit it. Guess that's what happens when you write a book using an old version of Photoshop. And this now brings me to The Project.
Some of you have asked about The Project. This is something that has consumed a better part of a lifetime, and the book is an extension of it. There is a lot of background to this... but I'm hesitant to discuss this, because it sounds kinda "out there," and it gets pretty damned involved. And if you've actually read this far, I'm impressed with your attention span, as I'm not a particularly interesting blogger.
The project began with trying to formulate a new system of Tai Chi. The systems available to the public, are for the most part crap... and the Temple System (of which I am an adept), is just not workable outside a monastic setting. So I begun the task of formulating a new system of practice, specifically geared towards people wanting to cultivate an experiential orientation towards spirituality (as opposed to religious dogmatism). But events would lead me into circumstances of limited space... and time. My Tai Chi form had to alter to reflect these changes, and ultimately, I lost interest in Tai Chi altogether.
When I started writing my book, I began to reformulate my tradition's practices, which are more Yogic Chikung and do not include Tai Chi. My tradition is an ancient and obscure school of Goddess-oriented Taoism, which emerged in 500bce, but has roots going back 10's of thousands of years, and has remained hidden from world view since the fall of the Chou Dynasty in 256bce. In most ways, we do not resemble the modern forms of Religious Taoism, and either do our practices. We cultivate experiential spirituality, artistry and sexual practices. And we orient toward a nudist/naturist lifestyle. It is considered a form of Sexual Mysticism.
Taking on this task, at the Elders' behest, proved as arduous as writing the book... working to combine ancient and modern practices, and orienting them towards modern lifestyles. But with the completion of the book, I had not only established a new initiated system of practice, but introductory practices as well.
But with this completion, also came events that have severely impeded reconstructing a social life. My self imposed hermitage has now become a circumstantially imposed hermitage... complete with financial constraints. And there are of course the weirdities I've related above. And so with this, I have been slipping into a malaise. But within this malaise, I began to revisit my old Tai Chi form, which had started this whole process. And as of a few days ago... it is finished, complete with all the elements and corrections I had originally sought. And able to be performed in the confinement of a 10' x 6' space. It has been added to my introductory practices.
Now I seek to get through the trials of the xmas season in retail perdition. My main goals now are to get back to my photography, my flute, and re-establish a social life. On a side note... I haven't had a uh "date" in almost a year. That's the longest I've gone since I was 11 (yeah that's right, 11). I think my sailor needs to enter port for some R & R...
For those who read this boring novella... thank you, I promise not to do that to ya'll again.
I'll make the rounds later tonight.
Love & Light
AmLt
VIEW 18 of 18 COMMENTS
annalee:
Thank you so much, your words are so thoughtful and you're definitely right about what I must remember. I'm lucky to have such a good example to try to follow. Wow this journal of yours was quite a read! I wish you luck with your novel and getting back to the things you love, I'm trying to do the same with painting and guitar. I hope you can get rid of the pests too!
chie:
thank you! () thank you!