I just watched a remarkable documentary, the first of three one-hour shows being produced by Frame of Mind Films.

http://www.womenoftibet.org/pages/index.php

This first part juxtaposes the archetype of the Great Mother with the details of the Dalai Lama's mother's life. It includes interviews with the DL's family--brothers and sisters, sister in law, nieces, nephews, great nephew, and friends of the family, as well as segments with Jungian psychologists, anthropologists, and author Alice Walker and lots of family photos. The DL has always struck me as very human and down to earth; listening to him and other people speak of his mother, it's easy to see where that came from. And he looks just like her, too!

If you can lay your hands on a copy, I highly recommend it. It's interesting and detailed, but also very heart warming.

Sometimes science is just too incredibly cool for words.

After a lifetime's fascination with history and anthropology, I'm about to realize a dream. I sent off for the National Geographic's Genographic testing kit and it arrived yesterday. I'll be sending them my DNA, via two cheek scrapings, and adding my information to the gigantic database they are building, tracing the lineage of every person on the planet back to our shared distant ancestors. The "family of mankind" is not a poetic metaphor, it's true.

Since the 1970's researchers have been taking DNA samples from people around the globe, and reading the genetic markers. They have traced all human life on Earth back to a single, still existing tribe in Africa, the San bushmen. That's right; deep down inside, we're all black.

I don't expect this information to change our global prejudices, but maybe it will help.

https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyOS05GUze0

Not sure what this is all about, but looks like the titles might be doing well.

http://www.c-novels.com/new_book_pickup/2008-02-15-1673.html

Thoughts for the people of China. Just sent donation off to Red Cross international disaster fund. Our little 3.1 shook the ground here. Can't imagine a 7.

Chinese Friend's in-laws are in the province. As of Monday, her husband had not been able to get in touch with them.

Floods in Burma, earthquakes in China, tornadoes here. Impending famine with the rice crop failure. The depredations of governments pale in the face of Nature. What a year.

Every once in a while I wander over to Beliefnet.com and fill out the Belief-O-Matic
questionnaire, just to see where I'm at. It's actually changed quite a bit over the years. My kids have, as well, and it's interesting to see the result. It's by no means infallible (which I don't believe in anyway ;-) but sort of neat, and makes you think.

So, today's scores:


1. Theravada Buddhism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (96%)
3. Mahayana Buddhism (81%)
4. Secular Humanism (73%)
5. Neo-Pagan (73%)
6. Liberal Quakers (73%)
7. Jainism (67%)
8. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (65%)
9. Sikhism (64%)
10. Taoism (62%)
11. Nontheist (60%)
12. Hinduism (60%)
13. New Age (59%)
14. Reform Judaism (52%)
15. Orthodox Quaker (50%)
16. New Thought (41%)
17. Orthodox Judaism (39%)
18. Scientology (38%)
19. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (37%)
20. Bahá'í Faith (35%)
21. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (34%)
22. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (32%)
23. Seventh Day Adventist (30%)
24. Islam (29%)
25. Eastern Orthodox (15%)
26. Roman Catholic (15%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (11%)


You guys know way too much about me.

Happy Mother's day to any mothers out there. :-)

Things that make me motion sick:

Riding in the back seat of a car
Boats
Airplanes
Busses
Swings
Teetertotters
Carnival rides
IMax theaters
Any yoga pose that presses the top of my head against the floor
Reclining at a certain angle-- no, I'm not joking.


And now, earthquakes.

The 3.1 jolty one the other day left me a little off.

At 2:20 today, I was standing up, reaching for something on top of a high cabinet, when one of those more subtle, ripply ones went through. Nearly an hour later, I'm on the couch, very queasy, sipping seltzer, and thinking that the meditation incense I usually like was a Really Bad Idea.

In the event of a Big One, I'm going to be as useless as Seregil after a translocation spell.

I'm buying stock in whatever company makes Dramamine.

Blackwater. What an apt name for mercenary merchants of death.

From the NY Times: Iraq Contractor in Shooting Case Makes Comeback

Here are a few highlights.

Guards for the security company were involved in a shooting in September that left at least 17 Iraqis dead at a Baghdad intersection. Outrage over the killings prompted the Iraqi government to demand Blackwater’s ouster from the country, and led to a criminal investigation by the F.B.I., a series of internal investigations by the State Department and the Pentagon, and high-profile Congressional hearings.

But after an intense public and private lobbying campaign, Blackwater appears to be back to business as usual.

The State Department has just renewed its contract to provide security for American diplomats in Iraq for at least another year. Threats by the Iraqi government to strip Western contractors of their immunity from Iraqi law have gone nowhere. No charges have been brought in the United States against any Blackwater guard in the September shooting, either, and the F.B.I. agents in Baghdad charged with investigating whether Blackwater guards have committed any crimes under United States law are sometimes protected as they travel through Baghdad by Blackwater guards.


Take a deep breath. Wrap something tightly around your head to fend of exploding skull syndrome.

The chief reason for the company’s survival? State Department officials said Friday that they did not believe they had any alternative to Blackwater, which supplies about 800 guards to the department to provide security for diplomats in Baghdad. Officials say only three companies in the world meet their requirements for protective services in Iraq, and the other two do not have the capability to take on Blackwater’s role in Baghdad. After the shooting in September, the State Department did not even open talks with the other two companies, DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, to see if they could take over from Blackwater, which is based in North Carolina.

OK, all together now: Deep breath. Scream.


254 Day. 10 Hours. 9 Minutes. And counting.

Since this has come up elsewhere, here are the official and only methods.






I will sign and personalize to you, or the person/people of your choice, any of the following:

1. Send me a SASE (self addressed stamped envelop) and I'll send you an Official Otter Goddess Wearing Spectacles bookplate while my rapidly dwindling supply lasts. See graphic at: http://www.sff.net/people/lynn.flewelling/a.biography.html/ Size: 3 x4 inches. Once they're gone, they're gone.
Limit: 3 to a customer.

2. Send me a SASE and bookplate(s) of your choice. (Make certain the return postage covers the return cost.)
Limit: 7.

3. Send me your book with return packaging and postage. (Make certain you send the correct return postage. Sender is responsible for the quality of the packaging materials in both directions.)
Limit: 1 book per package.

Any questions about correct postage can be answered by your local postmaster/mistress.

US customers can visit the USPS website.




Mailing address:
Lynn Flewelling
PO Box 162
Redlands, CA 92374
USA



How's that sound?

The fifth NR book will be titled: The White Road

:-)


PS: Forgot to add that The White Road will be published next summer. (I may need massive infusions of expensive chocolate and tea, but as dog is my witness, I will get it done on time! This book-a-year thing is taxing for a slow poke like me.)

The entire Tamír series has been acquired by Otherworld Verlag of Austria, and all three books are being put out in new translations. The Bone Doll's Twin, rechristened "The Cursed Twin", will be on the shelves in trade paperback in August.
Here's the new cover:

Let me first say that I did not grow up reading comic books. I don't care all that much about super heros or super hero movies.

That being said, I LOVED Iron Man!!!! I went because Robert Downey Jr is in it, and the previews were interesting. He was great. The movie was a lot of fun. It required serious suspension of disbelief, but hey, it's about a super hero. The special effects were good, and the story line was gripping, if predictable. But RDjr? Superb. So were Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges.

Got $10.00 to spend on fun? You could do worse than Iron Man.

Also got to see a preview for the new Indiana Jones movie. Oh baby!

Something just picked my house up a few inches and dropped it. OK, not really, but it felt that way as a 3.1 earthquake shook up Redlands just now. Checked on line; epicenter 3 miles from my house. It rattled the windows and walls a little, but nothing dramatic. This is the largest of the two I've felt, and for some reason they leave me feeling a little motion sick.

From international humanitarian organization Avaaz:

The cyclone that ripped through Burma left tens of thousands dead and a million homeless--a natural disaster made much worse by the failure of the military junta to warn or evacuate its people.

Now, the government has slowed the urgent process of providing humanitarian relief--so Avaaz is raising funds for the International Burmese Monks Organization and related groups, which will transmit funds directly to monasteries in affected areas.

In many of the worst-hit areas, the monasteries are the only source of shelter and food for Burma's poorest people. They have been on the front lines of the aid effort since the storm struck. Other forms of aid could be delayed, diverted or manipulated by the Burmese government--but the monks are the most trusted and reliable institution in the country.

To donate:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/burma_cyclone/6.php?cl=86453461

On Monday I led the sangha mediations. I read a piece on bodhichitta from Pema Chödron's writing, then followed it up with a guided chakra meditation I wrote that incorporated nurturing bodhichitta towards ourselves, then sending it out to the world. It had a very nice feel and people said they really got a lot out of it. I rang the bell at all the right times, had the backyard cleaned up (of dog doo) completely, so no embarrassment as we did the walking meditation around the yard, then back inside for the final silent sitting meditation.

I've probably mentioned ad naseum how much I love this house, but especially for events like this. Sitting in silence in the living room, we could hear the soothing sound of the waterfall, evening bird calls, and the various tinklings of the small wind chimes, and the deep voice of the Bar Harbor wind bell (listen @: http://www.northcountrybells.com/index.cfm?id=92192&fuseaction=browse&pageid=28) on the back patio. I'm particularly proud of our Yankee-rigged wind chime. I bought a cheap tubular wind chime at a local craft show last week, but the weight on the bottom was too heavy to blow around and make the chimes ring. We tried various other things, including tinfoil, which worked but kept blowing off, and finally settled on drilling a hole in the upper edge of a used CD and hanging that. It works great.

Made anise biscotti for the "tea hour" after meditation. Bisotti is easy! It turned out well and was scarfed up, even when one of the younger members, unfamiliar with biscotti, dipped his in the hummus. Apparently it was good. My friend from mainland China always brings something interesting; this time it was cubed tofu with sesame oil and cut up 1000 Year Old Eggs. Always wanted to try those. Tasty, and the egg whites look like black jello.

Wrote well, topping 1100 words today powered by a very nice green tea from
Chado.




Finally tracked down some nice Yixing teapots and ordered two. The only one I have is pretty, but bought cheap in Toronto's Chinatown at a touristy place, so the chances of it actually being a Yixing are low, and possibility of lead content something to ponder.

After many, many months of cruising the net I found a site for a shop in Corvallis OR (used to live there). The descriptions of the pots and the photos were encouraging, and the woman who runs it was quick to answer questions by email and very friendly. I informed Doug and the boys that they had just bought my mother's day gift: "Happy Lion" for everyday use: http://www.sensationalteas.com/specialyixing.html

And I bought a signed one for the collection: "Small Cap" http://www.sensationalteas.com/yixingartisan.html

A dangerous site. Many more on my wish list. Now to lay in a stock of good Chinese tea to christen them with. Ti Quanyin is my current favorite, and very well suited to Yixing.

Also got a shipment of very nice Kona coffee, too. The champagne of coffee! Sipping happily as I write. We got hooked when Starbucks briefly carried Kona. It was really, really really freaking good. Doug and I went into serious withdrawal when the source dried up. We've been on a quest ever since, with uniformly disappointing results. But this Koa company's roast is gooooooood stuff.



Ah, hedonism! But hey, it's my version of being a wine connosieur. Once you give up alcohol, there are so many other delights out there to play with, and some are even good for you.

And it's amazing how much better everything feels and tastes after a good work day.

jougetsu writes: I never realized you had a tarot interest. Alchemical Tarot is one of my favorite decks of all time. Do you have RP's Buddha Tarot deck as well?



The Alchemical Tarot is my deck of choice now, too, and I'm thrilled to have the new version, which is much improved. I saw the Ace of Vessels/Cups and my heart skipped a beat.


Ace of Vessels, by Robert Place




I've seen the Buddha Tarot (www.thealchemicalegg.com/Main.html) but at the moment am not drawn to it. Might add it to the collection at some point. He's working on one now called the Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery that I am positively salivating for for.

Temperance, by Robert Place:


This and other art from the deck in process is for sale as prints at http://www.thealchemicalegg.com/Tarot.html.

He's also published a Vampire Tarot that's pretty nifty.

Here's a great place to view lots of decks and see reviews: http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/

My current collection of decks that I've been able to find since the move. *= decks I read with, vs. ones bought for the art. More *'s means more favored deck

Rider Waite original** (My first proper deck! The one I bought when I was 16)
Rider Waite mini "Albano" edition (eBay. I think it is an unauthorized edition)
Alchemical Tarot, original ed. ***
Alchemical Tarot Renewed ******
Universal Waite****
Tarot of the Spirit**
The Gilded Tarot
The Tarot of Love* (Found at yard sale)
The Visconti Tarot
The Aquarian Tarot * (Gift from a fan!)
The Medicine Cards*** Native American animal totems Good reading deck
The Druid Animal Oracle*** (I bought it for the luscious artwork, but it's a great reading deck, too)
Tarot of Cassanova
Haindl Tarot **

My current "look for it" list includes:
Fenestra Tarot
Golden Botticellli
G.R. Giger Tarot
Jungian Tarot
Llewellyn Tarot
Sacred Circle
Mystical Lenormand
Tarot of Mermaids

Anyone used these?

I dabble round on the internet while watching the morning news. Weird confluences happen. I won't bore you with the train of thought, but the upshot is that I ended up watching Barack Obama on Meet the Press and tracking down his astrological natal chart. (http://www.horoscopes2go.com/BarackObamaAstrologyReport56.htm) He's a Leo. My husband, and many other men I like, are Leos. Then I got to wondering how many other presidents were Leos . Four so far, if I'm looking at the dates correctly: Harrison, Hoover, LBJ, and Clinton. Top birth month? October, with 6 presidents so far. And if you check out the religions, Episcopalians and Presbyterians rule. Jefferson was a Deist. Take that, Religious Right! (and by right, I mean political/religious leaning, not veracity)

Reasonably good writing day. It's still all in bits and pieces, some in the middle, some at the start and no clear end in sight. Ripping out stuff that doesn't work anymore plays merry hell with the daily cumulative word count. No glimmer of a title yet.

In other words, business as usual. But I have a killer opening line for chapter 1, and a pretty damn good opening scene, too.

Gave the office a present. Got my signed print of the SR cover art extravagantly framed. Looks wicked cool. The office is actually getting embarrassingly wonderful. And so clean you could eat off it. No Jelly Belly wrappers under the desk today.

Also have a good start on the guided chakra meditation I'm writing to lead for the meditation group Monday night.

Received my copy of Robert Place's reissued Alchemical Tarot deck, which is even more gorgeous than the original, with the naughty Lovers card that the original publisher made him change. Did a great reading—great if you don't get too freaked out over that many swords showing up. It's ok, I wasn't surprised and it ended with the Ace of Coins and included the 3 of Coins, which seems to be my signature card. Fired off a fan letter, along with the comment that his deck had inspired all the alchemy business in Shadows Return. RP fired back, asking where he could get a copy. Whee! He's now on my signed book list.

Speaking of signed books, Ray Bradbury is going to be at ComicCon this year. I plan to be in line at his autograph session, clutching my hardcover copy of Something Wicked This Way Comes to my pounding heart.


Life would be just perfect if the drummer and his garage band in the house behind us would find another practice space. Going to be a long summer. Got a good bit of meditation exercise out of it, though.

Awesome!

Speaking as one who does remember some of the 60s, including the War, not bad at all, and the music is worked in beautifully. And it's Beatles music. What more could you ask?

It does seem like a reworking of "Hair" but that's ok.

Thumbs up!