Saturday, September 18, 2010

Gummy Bears Abound!


No, I'm not kidding. Would I lie about something as oddly trivial as Gummy Bears? I mean, they're nice and taste good and make a great serving suggestion with a cold drink or to be added to those annoying bags of treats you get at the end of a kids party.
But today was neither of these things. today was the Ostara Celebration at the Aurora Australis Wiccan Shrine, and our lovely circle caster did not use elemental symbols, nor call the elements in a general way that might be expected at a major Wiccan/pagan festival. no, Gummy bears of different colors were thrown in perspective directions to call them, and to summon Deity. it was rather amusing, I must say, and we got a small feast of gummy bears on an athame afterwards. Don't ask, just laugh!
that is the thing these days, people get too tied down in the rituals of life, even in doing it the old-school way. If you can show to the Deities that you can lighten up and have some fun with it, they will enjoy it just as much. It was a very enjoiable day all around, and I am deffinately looking at getting myself some proper clothing specifically for circle meetings. Or at least be more prepared next time. DEFINATELY wearing that nice purple velvet jacket I have, it has a lot of spiritual overtones to it, and it is pretty to boot.
I can also see that I am going to be challenged in the next few months to not only keep up my responsibilities to my work and education, but also to my friends as well. Even trying to organise my holidays has been fun, and I still haven't got a lot settled. I know the next few days are going to be focused on my assignments so that they are out the way and i can get on with seeing my friends and doing other things like housework and spiritual duties coming my way in the next while.
But the one thing i am liking right now is that my social network of friends is opening up and I have more people in my life that are honest to goodness like-minded and caring.
Well, now that I have seen enough Gummy Bears to alst my a while, I will sign off for a bit and hopefully hear form you all soon,
Pez

Thursday, September 16, 2010

School's Out!


I know it says Linda, but I couldn't fix it myself without making a worse mess of it.
Well, I am now officially on term break for two weeks. Thisa, however is not going to mean slowing down for any great period of time. Here is my to-do list.

*Complete Assessment 6
*Complete Assessment 7
*Make preperations for Practical placement in Oct
*Have friends over for a night or two.
*Visit hypnotheripist to quit smoking
*Potential trip to Geelong
*Potential trip to Adelaide
*Volunteer work 2 days a week
*Straighten up house
*Continue with standard social activities within week
*Catch up with friends that it is otherwise difficult to catch up with otherwise
*Start planning Christmas shopping

Think I got enough to do? I suppose it is a good thing, rather than having me sitting around on my arse doing nothing for two straight weeks. The fact I have been sick the past few days hasn't exactly helped. I've missed all my volunteer work this week plus class on tuesday, so I am feeling really bad about all that. So This weekend we make a big stab at the Assessments and start working out the papers for my practical placement. Once the major amount of my paperwork is done, a lot of it is really just social, it is just a long list of socialisation. I love it... if I feel well enough. Should be fine.
Aside form that, I've been doing a bit of back-tracking with music, listening to the music I loved from 1999-2001. The age when Pink came to life, music on the radio was worth listening to and you knew every song by title, artist and lyrics (full song if not chorus). Here are some of the ones I found. No sensoring, be warned.
Whatcha Gonna Do
Let Me Blow Your Mind
There You Go
Don't Wanna LEt You Go
Kryptonite
Why DOn't You Get a Job
Have fun!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Undead Overkill


This is a vampire! He is surrounded with darkness, a sense of ruling and power and bats at his call. He is clearly evil, nothing more, nothing less. He looks cool and creates a small amount of envy for one's self to look and be cooler. This man is a vampire!

This is Anowon the Ruin Sage, a powerful card from Magic; The Gathering. He is a Vamperic Shamon and a Ledgendary Creature to boot. He can destroy your enemies per turn and has a pretty good attack power. He is a vampire!

This is a Krovikan Vampire from Magic: The Gathering. He has the traditional power of a vampire in a game, in that any enemy creature it destroys comes under the power of the vampire until either the creature or vampire is killed. Being one of the oldest vampire cards in the game series, and clearly doing what Vampires do best, he is a vampire!

This is actor Christopher Lee, he is playing a vampire in a movie. He is clearly insane, finished feasting on some poor girl's neck and has a great amount of power from it. While he probably played the role to death, he is still playing a vampire.

This is a modern vampire, AKA: Edward Cullen. He sparkles in the sunshine, is a vegetaerian (doesn't feed off humans) and is emo. He is NOT a vampire. I mean come on, look at the other pictures again and then back at him. Surely you can see he is nowhere near a vampire. Scroll down and check out Alacard and look again. NO COMPETITION!!!! The only real power he has aside form the standard heightened abilities of strength, speed, etc is the ability to read minds, which is common amoung vampires anyway.
Let's put it this way, the idea of what a vampire is changes a little over time, depending on the rules of the author/director etc. But here are some general points to consider on what kills a vampire.

* Garlic: Vampires develop an extreme alergic reaction to garlic, causing either a severe nerve reaction or fatal reaction. (See: Blade)
* Silver: Same as garlic, but more effective. (See: Blade, Hellsing)
* Holy Items/People/Churches: Because a vampire is the living dead, it cannot enter/touch/feed form a holy source, as the goodness repels it instantly. While it is often displayed as a Christian symbol, it has been ruled in that Pagan things also do the same thing. (See: Buffy, Hellsing)
* Stake to the Heart: Wood, one of the natural elements of the earth, is effective when stabbed into a vampires heart. The pure element destroys the evilness in the heart and the being. (See: Buffy)
* Beheading: No one can live without a head. Only truly powerful vampires can regenerate this. (See: Blade, Buffy, Hellsing)
* Sunlight: It is symbolic that the sun, the symbol of living humanity, destroies vampires because they are no longer apart of the human world. Or you can go back to the same debate re: garlic and silver. (Buffy, Blade).
*Running Water: While a more outdated idea, running water (another natural element) stops evil from crossing because of its natural energies. However, this rule was laid down more for demons than vampires.
*Sword to the Heart: While the effect is debateable on effect, the general rule was that a swords metal, not as pure as wood, could paralyse a vampire until they were either beheaded or the sword was removed, bringing them back to life. (See: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.)

My problem is that now that Twilight is boardering on finishing its run at the movies and in text, I was kinda hoping to get a bit of a break from all of this shit! No such luck! Vampire movies up the friggin wazoo! It is beyond an epidemic, it is a conspiracy. What I really want to know is that between "Vampire's Suck", "Female Lesbian Vampire Killers" (which is a grammatical error) and other vampire movies right on their trial, how many are going to stick to the rules? Because from what I can tell, they are starting to slice away at them with a giant Masamone. Twilight completely disreguarded any rules except for the blood and the continuous struggle between vampires and lycanthropes, and just how many more rules are gonna get short down before the definition of vampire is "Glittering person with a medical condition requiring them to drink blood; be it human or animal" or "Medical condition for someone who is intolerent to sunlight but is extremely sexual and has weird fetish for blood-sucking"? Clue people?
I debate with anyone who enjoys Twilight for the actors, because they can't act, look bad and usually come across as either stoned or spaced (or both). These people are reffered to a Twihards. If someone can present to me three good reasons why I should read this book and like it, I am all ears. I did read 'Twilight' and I will admit it wasn't too bad, except that a lot of crap could have been removed and the characters more developed. But since Bella is a sue and Edward is a fruitcake, I won't read any more.
I want more home truths on vampires again. Buffy and Blade, although in two different worlds with differing rules, still stuck pretty closely to the genre of what a vampire is, gore displays being the only exception. Blade's vampire's couldn't stand garlic or silver, Buffy's couldn't stand a stake through the heart or holy items, and both sets weren't to good with sunlight or decapitation either. Hellsing (image below) wasn't too bad, but did make characters either too strong or immune to sunlight with no explanation, and there weren't enough episodes.
At the end of the day, I want to see some proper vampires on screen again. If I have to put up with this crap for a long while after the last Twilight film, I think I will kill a number of fans with the many means aforementioned and use their blood to write "This is how you kill a vampire". But that is just me. Chat soon,
Pez

Monday, September 6, 2010

Where Are They Now? TV and Movie Names


This is a fun game. Especially when you find out who is still standing and who isn't.
Today's movie of choice is the 1968 musical 'Oliver!" based on the book by Charles Dickins and the earlier stage play of 1966-7. Now, I could only find a limited amount of information, but here is the question of the day: of the actors who played the following characters, which one's are still alive? Hint: of the five, two are dead.

1)Mark Lester (Oliver Twist): Born of an Actress and a Director, This young man was introduced to his acting life even earlier than his role in Oliver!. His first role was at the age of 6, which was 4 years before Oliver was released.
Mark Lester was a close friend of Michael Jackson from 1982 until his death in 2009, and Mark was elected by Michael to be Godfather to Michael Jackson's children. This led to some scandal about who the father was of one of the Jackson children, which has no conclussion on record.

2)Ron Moody (Fagun): Not a stranger to the Oliver Twist story, having appeared as the same character in the stage play, Ron moody was brought to perform in the movie, which led to him being nominated for an Oscar and winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy.
In more recent times, Ron appeared in a recent stage play of Oliver Twist, made a short speech about the 50 years the play existed, and then revised 'Pick a Pocket or Two' with the cast.

3)Shani Wallis (Nancy): Despite the character's tragic ending, Nancy was one of my favorites. Shani made her theatre debut at the age of 4. She later studied theatre and earned a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Shani is a citizen of the United States and is an honored patron of the Music Hall Guild of Britain and America.

4)Oliver Reed (Sykes): Born Robert Oliver Reed, this actor has had a long and distingushed career in both film and stage, his role in Oliver no exception. But before any acting was done, Oliver served in the Royal Army Medical Corps before he became an extra in television and movies through the late 50's.
Oliver's love life was certainly one to note. married and then divorced shortly before the filming of Oliver, he then met one of the dancers hired for the film, and by the end of shooting, they were lovers. However, Oliver married Josephine Burge in 1985. His last film was the 1999 hit Gladiator, which became his last film before he retired.

5) Jack Wild (Artful Dodger): Born in England, Jack was pushed into acting at a young age to help pay his family's way. Jack was well known for his role in Oliver! but also for Children's television of the late 60's. His career moved down a road of theatre and television until the early 2000's where he retired, due to illness. But this was not before he appeared in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Theives. It was rumored that he was working on a Sitcom around the same time, but the plans never came to the surface. Jack finished his career with theatre performances.

So, who is still alive and who kicked the bucket?
Answer: Oliver Reed (1999) and Jack Wild (2006).
Oliver Reed died of a heart attack during the making of Gladiator and was either replaced with CGI or (at one point) a maniquin.
Jack Wild died from a long battle with oral cancer due to alcoholism and smoking. This put a stop to his career more than once, and was admitted to rehab several times.
So that is where they are now. I do have a few more films in mind as well as TV shows, but until I get around to them, I hope you enjoied your trivia for today!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

My Theory #1 The Collective Concious


I have a theory. It is about human thought, freewill and living.
Consider this: there are many forms of life here on earth, both in living things and raw elements and amterials. Each one of these is a form of life that, in its own ways, collects and retains knowledge. While for some people it may be hard to view the knowedge from either a scientific or mundane viewpoint, the knowledge is still there.
Now, if you buy into my theiry, it means that every thing and everyone that has lived has gathered information about its different aspects, and has a collection of thoughts, ideas, theories and facts about our existence. In humans, it is the retained knowledge of how to live and make the best of our lives through our mistakes. through something of raw element, like a diamond or a tree, it has the gathered knowledge and memories of everything it has seen and experienced throughout its existence, reguardless of its length of life.
In the mind of each person or thing, concious or subconcious, everything is gathered, and that every moment of our lives is recorded, in a form of a very long movie for living humans and animals, and in the form of energy for elemental beings. This collected knowledge on its own is a power to itself, a way to reflect upon things and to discover the best ways of living and educating. Understanding the world around us in all its forms is gathered in one place.
So what would happen if all these collective minds and memories were put together? let's break this down into two forms of time, the now, and the existance.
The now: In your mind, i want you to visualise everything that comes to mind when you read the above list of beings included in my list. Humans, animals, forces of nature, things that have no true substance such as air and gases, and things that have a very short life such as fire and rain. Each one a measurable existence, either brief or extended, with all its gathered knowledge and memory. Now, i want you to combine all that memory into one thing. All these thoughts, processes, energies and memories are now encased in one being, knownas 'Mega Concious'(MC). The MC is now one living thing. It has every thought lived by every person and animal, every energy recollection of every element and, if made into existence, is represented by a brain made up of pure energy without mass. unlike a human or animal brain, it has the compasity to store every thought of every living being in the here and now at this second. It has the memories of many years before, as long as it was a living force.
Inside this collective concious is the power to create and shape the answers to many things. Inside this mind lies all the answers that, if it had a mouth, could answer your questions. It has a long knowledge of history, science, math, mythology, spiritual understanding and political overview.
Once in creation, this mind debated with itself the best possible answers to everything and has devised an answer to every question of this earth. Now i want you to think to yourself what you would ask it.
My theory, in this aspect, is to show that in a collective place lies all the answers, like a giant encyclopedia with more pages than we have numbers for. But what my theory is to represent is that in this moment and in this place, everything that we have knowledge of would have an answer, or that very few questions would remain for us to need answers to. Before you read into the next part of my theory, i want you to honestly consider what you would ask the brain if it could give you answers. to limit the mass amounts of questions in your mind that relate between your sense of self-preservation, humanity and world issues, choose three questions. And be honest that you are asking these questions for the reasons you want.
The Existence Using the same theory on how we made the MC, I want you to consider every thing and everyone that has lived throughout the planets time and space. Depending on your beliefs, this will go back millions of years to when Dinosaurs weren't a universal thought, or back to when god created Adam and Eve.
This mind, the 'Time Collected Concious' (TCC) has a mass of knowledge beyond anyone's understanding, but also has a lot more to work out within itself. because, despite what we may know to be true, TCC needs to sort out a lot more to create one clear answer.
From here, we now have a generated history book and all the answers to the questions that we still have for the here and now. What's changed? has anything changed?
What we also have is a force that can tell us in no uncertain terms the best possible paths the world could have taken, the answers to generate peace. In accordance, we also have the worst possible outcomes, and how this world could have fallen apart many years before.
What would you ask the TCC? Are your questions still the same? have you had to consider your questions?
The reason i present this theory is because it demonstrates the power of existence, and the power of freewill. the collective concious exists, but beyond our understanding. MC and TCC can be expanded to a universal collective knowledge and existances collective knowledge. This is not an attempt to create and symbolise God/s, because this does not link into spiritual. This is an theory presented to test the human mind and to consider the truth of our world.
In writing out this theory, I discovered a few things that are bound to happen, should the collective conciousness be created while we as humans still lived.
1) the power of the collective concious, on the assumption it is accessable to everyone, would inevitably cause friction between many people from the foundations of religion, politics, viewpoints, understandings and science. The result would be destructive.
2) The need for survival would become non-existant, because the collective concious could reveal everything that is about to happen before it comes to pass, preventing war and crime. Humans as a race would become obsoleite.
3)The collective concious would be evergrowing, because if it existed while everything else did, it would learn as we lived.
And so, as humans without the power of one mind, we need to try and view the world form one conciousness; our own. Within your mind is the power of freewill and decission. Now, while many people will debate me on this point alone, buy into it for a minute to allow me to make my point. Within the limitless resource that is freewill exists the power to create and change the world. There is no one force that decides you, and you need to rule yourself. from your freewill you will find that you are challenged and come to various wins and losses. Within your own mind, take your questions again and ask them of yourself. have you asked for something you do not have the answer to? have you asked for the answer to something you can find the answer to yourself? have you asked something you could answer?
In conclussion, you will find that the collective conciousness is there and that it is accessable. We as a single conciousness are merely a gatheror and collector for the collective. The collective conciousness of either time or the now is a living thing that does not work in our world, because we are not prepared to share either our knowledge, or put too much value on how we see people. When we reach a state where just as humans, we can combine our minds and resolve the answers, we will have come to a place where there is n longer a world ruled by money, but by that of peace and acceptance.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

It Had to Happen


You hear the stories, you know that somewhere out there it is happening. What you really hope is that you will never see it. Well, I haven't been in my voluntary job 6 months, and I saw it, and I was disgusted.
Favershan House Retirement Home has come across as a really well run centre for both low and high level care. While a little short-staffed, it certainly doesn't fall below general expectations, and the residents seem really happy. Activities are run every week day and most residents seem to have something to do.
But what I saw today really made me mad. You'd think that a nurse/PCA would know better, but apparently not. My jobs on Wednesday are to move residents form the high care facility to a Church service, help with the High Care reminisense group and perhaps a few other minor things, depending on the day. One of the clients in high care needs to be taken in a wheelchair because her movement is slow and she can be hard to get around. So I asked one of the nurses to help me get her into a wheelchair. He said for her to sit in a polite manor, but she thought he meant sit in the nearby armchair. I was standing next to her and I told her not to sit, that we were going to church. Before I had a chance to get her going again, the burse grabbed her arm and, with more force than necessary, pulled her into position, and she nearly went crashing into the table. While this client is not totally capable of communicating her emotions or feelings, she became more and more adjitated as the church service went on and I finally had to take her back to her ward.
Later, while I was helping the high care residents down to reminisense group, the same nurse was trying to either move a client from her sitting chair to a wheel chair, or help her with something. She was making it quite plain that she wanted to be left alone, which he clearly wasn't hearing. She also did not wish to be touched. The nurse ended up grabbing her and she was next to screaming no. She even threatened to hit him if he didn't leave her alone. I feel really bad because I didn't intervene, as the nurse was clearly distressing her more and more. I did report him to my superior supervisor, who said she would take it to the person in charge of the ward. But seriously, what sort of behaviour is this? Rose, my teacher, is educating us in being very focused on what the client wants without becoming physical or confrontational. Clearly, what they are teaching us is not being taught to all nurses. Now, I could say a lot of other things about this nurse/PCA, but I don't want to come across from the worng point of view, or imply things I don't believe. What I do beleive is that his approach towards the people in his care is not as good as it should be, and that he either needs reeducation or removal. However, i could also be reading the situation wrong, and that he was in a position to need to be physical, but I somehow doubt it. At least not with the first insodent. The client only need a few extra seconds to be lined up and she would have been fine and wouldn't have been so distressed. I'm on the edge of tears trying not to get emotional about this. I know this is not the last time I will see this, and I want people's thoughts. Should I interviene next time or should I keep quiet and report it later? My instinct is to keep back and report them later, but next time could have worse consiquences, either by accident or on purpose. Next time, I might try and step in, but as a volunteer, I don't have a lot of authority over someone getting paid. Then again, if they are getting paid, why don't they get a job as a wrestler. All their rage worked out and they can get some of it back.
In other news, work at TAFE is coming along. I have holidays coming up in a few weeks and then my prtactical placement starts. I'm nervous about it, but when I get the ball rolling, I should be fine. Until then I have at least one assignment a week and they are getting a little tougher. But then agian, this next one is a little easier. I have a report I just need to reference, due tomorrow, and I need to give a talk about the culture of China (my choice on China) in a bit of an armchair travel. My computer skills really aren't savey, so I just need to do my best. But then again, I just hit myself with an idea. And kinda like Thor, it hurts.
Guy problems are still on and off. Men can't make up their minds, it is pissing me off, but at least I have two guys who have potential. I like potential. Geography is a bit of an issue, but it could be worse. At least they are cute, which is a start.
My social circle is also growing slowly. I have a few nice female friends moving into my social life, as well as a rising feeling in my psychic abilities. My palmistry is getting a little better, but my Tarot seems to have come to a near-grinding hault. Need more practice. That's life.