Please, when you friend me on livejournal, if you could shoot me a message and let me know privately who you are and how you relate to my life (If you do) I'd be most appreciative, or if you're a friend of a friend. 
That would be lovely.
You see, unlike facebook, I totally reserve the right to grant certain people different people different access to my psyche and innermost thoughts here. (That's why I don't post anything other than random on facebook.)  There are some that only get the first level.  There are some that get access all the way down to level 4, just like in real life.  I can count on two hands the number of people I will unreservedly talk about ANYTHING in front of in person, and I'm not about to change that just because I'm spewing those thoughts on livejournal rather than vocalizing them.
That may seem unfair to some. 
Like I care.  My journal, my thoughts, my intellectual property (such as it is), my rules.

I'm going to cross-post this to facebook, just so you all know in advance.
I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past couple of weeks about some of the stuff that people I like post on facebook.
I don't have an issue with political beliefs, or religious beliefs that are opposed to mine.  I can discuss anything for as long as you want, as often as you want, as long as you respect me as a person.
But what I'm seeing from both sides of the political aisle doesn't even come close to respect.  To be quite frank, to open up facebook and see some of the partisan vitriol poisons my day.  The ones that get me the worst are the ones that degrade not the idea, but the people who share the idea or ideology.  
Before everyone gets all het up with "Oh, but I'm not directing these links at YOU", or "I'm just reposting them because I think they're funny", let me ask you this... What if I posted something that was racist?  Sexist?  Homophobic?  Derogatory about another religion?
And what if I then used the excuse, "But I'm not talking about YOU" or "Hey... I just think they're funny!  Can't you take a joke?"
Would I be excused?  No, I wouldn't.  And I wouldn't expect to be.
Or what if I said, "This is MY RIGHT as an Am-air-u-cun to say these things"?  Well, I'd be right, but at the same time, it would be your choice whether you listened to or read the crap.
I'm making my choice to not read it.  I'm making my choice not to be exposed to it, not to be slapped in the face with the contempt and disrespect every morning.
So, although I care about everyone, I'm going to be taking the next couple of weeks to go through and seriously look at who is posting what.  And the ones that repeatedly post the political crap... well, I'm probably going to move you to the "acquaintance" list, or unfriend you altogether.  Not because I don't care about you...
But because quite frankly, I'm just tired of exposing myself to these kinds of attitudes from people I care about, no matter if they're aimed at me or not.
You have a right to say what you like, post what you like, and do it in whatever way you think is best.  I don't fault you for that.
At the same time, I have a right to mute the noise in my life.

The Letter of Intent has been sent, and we shall see if it's accepted.
The one sticking point may be my amount of travel over the past six months, but between Julia starting college, work stuff and a wedding, more travel wasn't feasible for me.
So now we wait.
If it's not accepted, despite the explanations, you know, I understand.  If there's a minimum, there's a minimum.

( On the first day of Christmas, Fionn gave me a rant of epic proportions.... in a pear tree. )
And a Merry Christmas to all, peace on earth, goodwill to all men.  I feel so much better now, don't you?  LOL

My mother called me about one today to inform me that my father's mother, Monetta, passed away around noon.
Please don't tell me that you're sorry for the loss of my grandmother.  There was a time in my life where that label would have fit her, but that was 26 years ago.  She had no use for me, and I had none for her.
They say that when you die, you have to live all of the pain that you have inflicted on others through your intentional actions.  You have to experience every interaction from their perspective.  That's what facing judgment is supposed to be... knowing intimately what pain you caused.  What the ramifications are of the things you've done.
If that is truly the case, then I pity her, for I have never known anyone so bent on inflicting pain on the ones she was supposed to love.  I have never known anyone else who degraded and abused her children so thoroughly, when she was supposed to uplift them.
What they were, what the ones living still are... she planted those seeds.
In some ways, I pray that God shows her more mercy than she was capable of showing her children and grandchildren.
So my lesson number 26:
If you die as an adult without grief from the people in your life, if few shed a tear for your leaving, chances are fairly good that your actions may have had something to do with the situation.

On Thursday night, I had my laptop stolen from my home.
As near as we can figure, when Victoria left for her father's house, the door didn't shut all the way, and someone pushed open the door and took it.  The door was open when Hans and I got home, but nothing else, not the Wii, the Play Station, the swords, nothing of any real value was taken but the laptop.
And it was broken and tricky to use, so I am rather enjoying the thought of the Thief trying to plug it in and use it.
Good luck with that, buddy.
May karma bless you as you deserve over that one.
But the laptop did have most of my pictures of work I've done over the years, so if you have any of my work, if you could send me a picture of it, that would be lovely.
Saturday night was the Shire Christmas party.  It was disappointing on one level, because Kaz and I have this unofficial competition as to who has made the better gift for the gift exchange.  Kaz didn't get his done this year, so I won by default, and I hate that.  Never as much fun.
We play dirty santa for the gift exchange, and this year we had something life 33 people active in the game.  Any item can be stolen twice,and then it's dead.  I had made a carved leather belt quiver, and that was the first item that ended up "dead".
I also got to participate in the most down and dirty swap ever.
I had opened this really awesome book on dark age gold hordes.  It is AWESOME.  Christean stole it from me.  I turned and looked at Alarich, beccalynnlaw's husband.  Our eyes met, and the evil min-meld commenced.  I stole his gift, which was a set of buckles and a cloak clasp that he had stolen from Osgar, which made the buckles dead.  Alarich stole the book from Christean, which killed that one.  Then Alarich and I swapped gifts... I got the book back, and he got his buckles back.  It was pure evil genius.  Christean was a good sport about it... I forget what she ended up with.
Today I haven't been feeling quite well.  I slept most of the day and let the kids put up the Christmas tree.
I haven't been in a Christmas-y mood lately... I didn't even want to mess with putting up the tree, so took a nap.
We purchased a new tree on Thursday night... I should have checked the box.  I thought we were getting the smaller 6 foot tree for 80 dollars.
When we got to the store and Hans asked me which one I wanted, I just said, "The one that was 80 dollars."  Well, I guess they mark down the trees the week before Christmas, because when I woke up from my nap, I have this ginormus 7 and a half foot tree dead smack in the center of my living room.  I think I could climb it if I were so inclined.

But other than that... not a lot going on.  As I said, just tired and not feeling too great.

Every once in a while the universe will throw a revelation my way.
Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're painful, and generally I always learn something whether I want to or not.
Lately that lesson seems to be focusing on contempt, and how I react to it, and how to NOT react to it.
The two definitions that apply here are these:
( Cuts to save the friends page. )

And it's about time, too.
First of all, I would like to apologize to everyone at TfT for my lack of engagement and coherence in any conversations I may have had with you.  The migraine continued to kick my rear well into yesterday night, and today was the first day that I had that I can say the hours of tolerable pain outnumbered the intolerable hours in about a week.
So I'm sorry if I was short, distracted, more bitchy than usual... I honestly couldn't concentrate for more than 20 minutes at a stretch, and I realize I honestly may have walked away in the middle of conversations without being aware I was doing it.
Please to be forgiving me.  I swear, the glazed look was from pain, not boredom.
And a big thank you and hug to mstress_elianor for hosting.

TFT... okay, despite the pain, being a part of Timothy MacAngus getting his huscarl was pretty bitchin'.  I love my brother-in-law.  :-)
Yeah, the scroll I did turned out well, but more awesome was beccalynnlaw's first official scroll text.  Since I am all the proud laurel, I post it here:

To the Rede by the Loch na Smiths came Timothy MacAngus, for the
great hosting to choose the next Rí.  Long had he travelled as a youth
across the seas before coming home to Calontir, and much skill he had
learned.  Still more skill he learned among the Fyrdmen of Ri and
Banrion, on Redes of battle and in tournaments of fame. 
Many did Timothy MacAngus fight that day, until only Iarla Ostwald
remained.  The two strove mightily, until at last Ostwald had the better
of Timothy.  He was loathe to kill so valuable a warrior, and widow his
wife, and orphan his ferrets, and so he asked instead that Timothy
might continue to stand, for the defense of the land and the people. 
And Timothy returned to his home , and kept safe the people, and
fought for his Ri and Banrion at the War of the Lilies that summer, when
the sun baked the earth and storms split the sky.  And Prionsa Ostwald
watched, and noted.
When Ostwald, iompróidh beag, and Kaye, cainteoir bog, became Rí and
Banríon, they looked to their warriors, and spoke of their merits.  They
spoke long of Timothy, and his speed in battle.  They spoke much of his
skill with sword and with spear.  And they spoke much of his honor and
the duty he showed them and all of their people, whom he strove to
defend.
And so, in the dawning of the
winter, Rí Ostwald and Banríon Kaye called a great tournament in their
Shire of Wyvern Cliffe, and bade the entrants to bring for the war chest
Toys for Tots.  And they did before all of their people, with support
of their tua loarcha raise up Timothy MacAngus to be a Huscarl of
Calontir.  This was done on 19th day of Samhain, in the year XLVI of the
Society, Anno Domine 2011, by their hand.

Well done, Aline.

And so we now look to preparing for Crown in January.  Last night I dyed someheavy duponi silk black for the overcoat for new Merovingian, and tonight I started a shoe pattern for leather slippers.  I'm not sure at this point if I'm gonna decorate them at this time or not... Maybe.  We'll see how the time goes.
And speaking of the black silk... so I had this thought as I was planning everything out and thinking of what all the women are going to wear.  We may end up looking like a Bene Gesserit Collective.

Just sayin'.  Minus the shaved heads and Tudor-esque headwear.
But I figure that voicing the comparison would tickle silk_noir and Alarich  (beccalynnlaw, you have to remember to tell him that.  Then he'll get that contemplative look on his face, lean back in his chair, steeple his fingers, and just... smile.  In that subtlely sly way that I love.).  Any other of my friends that are familiar with the Dune novels will probably enjoy it as well.  Funnily enough, if you read the philosophy of the fictional group, you find it isn't too far removed from some of the Merovingian Queens.  Which is really, really scary.  And amusing, as most scary things are, really.
So... the to-do list for Crown:
Shoes
coat
over tunic
undertunic
Arnegunde-style belt
leather winkelbanders
Silk banners
Painted Banners
Whatever else I come up with/have time for
So, that's about it, really.
Oh, and someone rifled through our vehicle tonight... nothing was taken, but it freaked Hans the hell out.  Once we figured out nothing was taken, I didn't really get too upset, because _*I_ wasn't the one who left the car unlocked.  **Insert smug blameless smile here**  I love my husband, but my overriding thought was, "Can't blame this one on me."  Which was petty.  But true. 

But you're stupid, too.
Just passin' it along.  Because we need something else to feel bad about, right?

And this, honestly, is one of the reasons I have a problem with Occupy Wall Street.
(And no, it's not a conservative article.  I intentionally avoided any blog, site or author that had any inkling of a conservative bent when I started researching this.  If I can't trust liberals to report on conservative movements, it seems only fair that I don't trust conservatives to report about liberal movements.  There's my balance.  If you disagree, bite me.)
Tell me... If you have to create safe places for one whole segment of the population, to protect them and ensure that they are not being denied basic human rights... you know, the right to decide who they will or won't have sex with, the right to their own bodies... Exactly why do you need them?  I mean, if they aren't even entitled to be able to walk around without an escort for fear of being assaulted, why do you need their voice to begin with?  They obviously aren't human enough to merit any concern on your part.
Funnily enough... remember the reporter that was beaten and nearly raped in Egypt?  Remember how outraged everyone was?
Dude... same shit, different language.
I'm sorry.
This can't be justified to me.  You can't justify it by the numbers, you can't justify it by the greater intention of the movement, you can't justify it by wrapping yourself in the sanctimonious cloak of "the greater good".
You can't tell me you are for economic equality for everyone and then treat a woman like she's chattel.
You can't tell me that your cause is for the betterment of society and then allow women who report assaults to be belittled and further shamed and degraded into keeping their mouth shut so your "movement" isn't sullied.
And you can't claim to support rights for women up until the point you get a hankerin' for some lovin', no matter if she's not willing.
You can't say you're a peaceful movement when you allow violence to be perpetrated upon the individual members of a movement by others in that same movement, or allow them to be so fearful of the threat of violence that they have to segregate themselves.  Remember "separate but equal"?  Didn't work so well in the south, either, did it?

More and more, I find myself becoming a feminist just to keep from losing my damned mind.

I am SO stoked for TfT you would not believe it.
Eleanor, Elesait, Jorunn, Mirabel, Aline, Sibilla, and Tamar all in one house... I do honestly think we may very well throw the earth's magnetic alignment off with that much concentrated energy.  LOL  This is gonna be FUN!  (Meli, I wish you were gonna be there.)
Working on a scroll that needs to be done.  It's been a while since I cut one this close to the wire.
Oh... and let's see....
Aline and I went to Crystal Mines as the "Grimfells contingent" to sit in on their business meeting and get some stuff hammered out for the joint Bardic Bedlam and Night of the Bonfires event.  Aline and I will be going back periodically over the next few months to build a working relationship that hopefully will last long after the event is over.  After all, you can never have too many friends who live near you. 
Henry Rollins will be starting another spoken word tour... I want tickets for me and Vic.
Black Sabbath's original members are getting together again for another album and tour.
Yeah... Tommy and Ozzy.  :-)
Work is work, and I'm dealing.
Rafe and Sawbina's wedding was lovely, and I hope they are fabulously happy together until the end of their days.
I REFUSE at this point to discuss politics or current events with anyone.  I don't care if you're in the 99%, I don't care if you're in the 1%.  I am just damn tired of everyone yelling at me trying to get me on their side.  I wanna say, "Look, guys... the way I see it, every last one of you is so self-involved and busy protecting yourselves and your own interests that there's really NO REASON I should waste MY time worrying about YOU."  I call this tactic "Peace through disconnectedness".  It's working WONDERFULLY so far.
:-)