Tags: #librosparaverano #libros

Gracias un año más por hacerme tan feliz con este jueguecito. Y no es una forma de hablar. Empezamos con esto en 2011, algunas (personas) lleváis contribuyendo a esta lista desde entonces, otras van y vienen, otras ya no están en tuister, pero 12 veranos después seguís descubriéndome joyas que de otra forma se me habrían pasado entre el maremagnum de la industria editorial.

Allá vamos con vuestras sugerencias!!!

1. Taller de chapa y pintura. Mestizorras. Sugerido por @ViciaFaba . Ya de entrada la autoría no personal me interesa. Siempre he pensado que los procesos de escritura son más colectivos de lo que parece y que la figura del autor debería modernizarse o colectivizarse de una manera evidente pero, por lo que sea, en 2023, esto sigue siendo algo excepcional. Además es un libro de autodefensa frente a violencias machistas y visto lo visto vamos a tener que buscar entre todas estrategias duras de supervivencia.

2. Valle inquietante. Anna Wiener. En la lista gracias a @CarlosNP90 . ¿Qué hace una humanista como tú en una startup tecnológica como esta? pararfaseando a Loquillo porque no todo va a ser ponerle verde aunque se lo lleve ganando a pulso décadas enteras. Lo que me ha contado Carlos del libro hace que tenga ganas de leerlo. Espero que este verano…

3. El fantasma de las palabras. Louise Erdrich. Recomendado por @Olvido_Contento . Ya sabéis que quiero a Olvi, que me parece una mujer admirable en muchísimos aspectos. Uno de ellos es su forma de leer. Lee muchísimo, lee por placer, es su rato diario de desconexión. Esta novela trata de una mujer lectora cuyo espíritu se queda vagando por su librería de referencia. No sé. En mi idea del cielo hay aquella piscina que mi abuelo fue a preparar mientras llegábamos nosotras, y hay seguro todos los libros que no me está dando tiempo a leer en esta vida. Y salvo que pase algo raro este no estará en esa lista porque espero leerlo antes de que termine 2023

4. La apelación. Janice Hallett. El primero de la lista de @aypexa . Quienes leemos libros “de misterio” desde nuestra más tierna infancia sonreímos siempre que nos recomiendan la enésima variación de esa novela de sospechosos cerrados que nos remite siempre a Christie (10 negritos, 3 ratones ciegos, asesinato en el Orient Express y etc). Por lo visto este libro ganó o estuvo nominado al booket. El otro día (hace igual un mes) le decía a Mir que hacía mucho que no leía una novela negra de esas que me cautivan. Y Jael me ha regalado unas cuantas posibilidades para este verano. Qué maravilla es siempre este juego nuestro

5. Un apartamento en París. Lucy Foley. También de Jael. También “de misterio”. No os voy a engañar, he comprado ya una versión digital para llevar al road trip. Dudo que lea más de 10 páginas en los 10 días, pero si no lo leeré en algún tren en algún punto del verano.

6. Dias apasionantes. Naoise Dolan. Otro recomendado por Jael. Este ya lo leí el verano que lo lanzaron. Ya dije entonces que me parecía una primera novela tan buena que da miedo pensar que su autora nunca llegue a escribir algo mejor. Dolan es una irlandesa muy joven y muy lista así que confío mucho en que nos siga regalando maravillas

7. Brillo. Raven Leilani. Uno más de Jael. También lo leí cuando salió y lo he regalado muchísimo porque aparte de ser un objeto precioso hecho por Blackie es también una novela de esas que jamás habríamos descubierto si no hubiésemos salido del canon de los cojones. Brillo es a la vez dura, cruda y fácil de leer y ya solo por eso creo que merece la pena dedicarle un rato. Pero hay mucho más que descubriréis si le dedicáis ese rato

8. Liquidación. Ling Ma. El último que viene a esta lista nuestra gracias a Jael. Esta estadounidense de origen chino publicó en 2018 este libro que se adelantó a la pandemia. Dicen que es una crítica afiladísima al capitalismo. Lo único que no me mola es que en la faja aparece una frase de un autor que no me gusta nada cómo escribe. Yo de verdad le pediría a las grandes editoriales que se repensasen lo de las fajas porque algunas quitan más que dan… Menos mal que el libro viene bien recomendado por gente de fiar…

#librosparaverano2023

It is a pattern with me. I concluded that I enjoy feeling having done so much for people so so much. Oh, everyone betrayed me, someone cheated on me, someone disrespected me.

Throughout all this, I didn’t see I wanted to feel neglected because that way, I can be the victim and I can pity myself so so so much.

She pointed this out. The things strangers (but is she?) can see right away. Unbelievable. But so true.

She pointed out how in our very first email, I led with how I was misunderstood. I didn’t use that exact word, but that was the message. And I have no idea how many times I mentioned how I did all these things for others and otehrs didn’t reciprocate. I have no idea how many times I said this to her by now and how many times I told this to others and how many times to myself.

But see, it shows. Like she said, it shows every time someone expects something in return. Often, they say so. I know this from experience. And yet, I was doing it myself. (And she said she was doing it herself, which is how come she so easily spotted this in me, she explained.)

Heck, I was telling new people, entirely new people like her once upon a time, people I like, people I want to like me… what a victim I am. Pity me, pity me, I said. And so she pitied me, though she didn’t say so. That would be like pitying herself given how she was doing it herself.

Now I can only hope that she will forget what I said, forget me, the old me. Then one day I can show up in front of her again as the new me, and she will have the grace to treat me as the new human I am. She will have the grace to actually have forgotten. Not pretend forgotten, not let’s agree to have forgotten, but actually have forgotten.

As luck would have it, she says that now is probably the time in which she is forgetting things. (This is regardless of whether I go dark or not. I didn’t tell her what I am pondering.) She says it is because she herself is changing so much. She isn’t the same person anymore, so whoever she met in the past, even when they don’t change at all, cannot be the same anymore. So add to this how I intend to change and then imagine how when I show up again she will not recognize me anymore, except for that clear memory of course that we did talk. We’re not talking about amnesia here.

I am talking about a second chance.

I have been working on a few new designs for corset patterns here. A good thing to remember is that what a pattern looks like on paper is not as important as what it looks like on an actual person. Yesterday I tried this design on a model for the first time. It is a plunge front corset based on the 1860’s corset (with a few other changes). Based on how it had looked in the PDF I had thought that the neck plunge area would actually be too narrow and would need to be made wider.

When I tried it on the model I found that it was if anything way too wide. If she had not had a tank top on under the corset it would have been showing far more of her breasts than would generally be desirable.

In order to take a corset with a neckline that is too low and wide there are a few options to try. The easist is probably to layer it over some other garment (such as a lacy black bra) that can provide the extra coverage required.

If you want to be able to wear it without that a quick trip to the store to find a nice 1” wide strip of lace that can be tacked onto the neckline is probably a good solution.

As for the pattern. I have modified it a bit. I brought the neckline up and in (as seen here) it should now show a narrower gap between the breasts and a bit more coverage on top.

When you look at photos of Victorian women in corsets they often appear to have impossibly small waists. There are many myths that say that look was achieved by lacing the corset down to a level that could break ribs or do internal damage. More often than not it was actually achieved by some retouching of the photo in the darkroom by the photographer. (Yes that was very much a thing! in the 19th century)

Of course, photo manipulation is easier today than it was in 1880, as it can be done on a computer vs in the darkroom. Of course, you can still do that.

But if you want to make your waist look tiny in a corset to people who might be seeing you in person there are a few options you can try. First of all color placement can do wonders. in this corset, the blue section narrows from the waist to the hip line.

The modern aesthetic is to make every part of the body as small as possible. But one of the best ways to make your waist appear small is to make the bust and hips larger. Increasing volume on the hips and bum. by way of a bum pad or petticoat

The Following article is an Old Script for Rural Urban Proportional Explained. The structure of which was designed similarly to the CGP Grey Videos with fancy Asterisks for more information. However I feel like this script now needs a rework with the type of visuals I want to go for (Canadian Wildlife for visualization purposes for a nice “Neutral” representation) and might be a little... Wordy for a video.

Not wanting this to go to waste, I’m posting this here with all the citations that I’m using for the article and the main video(s). If and when I get the actual video done I’ll be posting the video on the blog as well relinking to this article. I hope this article is helpful for those looking for information on Rural Urban Proportional (RUP).

The main video will be at the top and additional talking points and context will be below. At the VERY BOTTOM is where the a lot of my research and arguments came from.

Rural Urban Proportional Explained

If you’re watching this video, it’s election time in Canada again, or you’ve seen the CGP Grey videos on the proportional systems of STV, and MMP as possible electoral reforms. Now both of these are these are fine systems but there’s a tendency of either system being more proportional depending on region, and population density. This can be specially true for Canada where people can be vastly spread far and wide even within provinces while also having clusters of pop density. I’m looking at you Ontario. If only there was a best of both worlds solution that took elements from both, and could a good choice for Canada. Oh hey... I know you!

Rural-Urban proportional representation is a misunderstood electoral reform proposed by Fair Vote Canada that I’ve become very interested in over years. I’m going talk about the system in broad strokes with some additional footnotes for further explanation and additional Pro Rep info you can see in the playlist or hitting that “I” icon. In the description and pinned comment I’ll add the resources I’ve used to make this video if you’re interested.

In RUP there would be two types of local districts. Single member, and Multi member districts. This means that a seat can be given to either one, or more than one respectively. Usually 5-7 though exceptions may apply for as low as 2-3. Multi member are densely populated areas, and single member ridings are usually of population of less than 100,000

A common misconception is that multi member and single member ridings have two different voting methods. Described as “Urban” having STV while rural would get a form of MMP, but that was not the case in original proposal. All ridings would have the same ballot which could be a Ranked preference ballot like with STV/AV, or copy sweden directly with an X beside the candidates name with Open list/FPTP. All that matters on the local level is how many local Mps there are in each riding. It’s probably for this reason it can go by it’s less catchy name “Flexible District PR.” All local ridings are first voted and representatives are elected.

Where the MMP element actually shines is that a mix of these districts form together as regional districts of top up seats. These regions could be of the whole province or sections of the province depending on how big the province is, and how proportional the region already is with the size of multi-member districts and a share of single member districts. The amount of these top up seats would be pretty small per region, as the multi-member districts are pretty good at becoming proportional, and the top-up seats are to squeeze in better proportionality. This means that RUP would have smaller amount regional seats compared to a pure MMP system who needs huge amount of regional seats to be proportional. The proposed method of who receives those seats are similar to Baden-Württemberg, a No-list best runners up where the remaining unelected candidates of the underrepresented parties with most votes in the region are given those top up seats.

And with that we have a system that combines the two strengths of the two systems for optimal proportionality while still offering higher voter choice. Though to make the system a reality either more seats would have to be added for a total of 380-390 seats (42-52 seats added) or to set aside some seats and enlarge ridings by a bit. It's for this reasons that most voting system proposed has a citizens referendum attached.

Well you can make the argument this isn’t the only improvement that could be made towards Canada’s democracy, I think it is an important step in that direction.

Sincerely,

A dissatisfied Canadian Voter

Thresholds “*”

Now you can’t give a seat to every party that was voted on. Even proponents of Pro Rep think that’s ludicrous. There’s to a point where you need to have some losers. So generally a party would need to meet a certain threshold of votes nationally and/or in a region to be eligible for a seat. Typically this is 4-5% but it could be as high 12% or even higher if such a system was to be approved. Of course these individuals can get the local seat in their riding if the populous really wants them to contend with the other 337 Mps. I’m also just generally skeptical that First Past the Post is this vanguard against extremism some people claim it to be given the events of the past 2 decades.

Even then because the joys of mathematical probability there could also be a natural threshold per region. Such as 5 seats needing 20%-22% depending on the threshold method. So even if a fringe party, such as the wolverines, was to be eligible in a legal standing a candidates still would need to meet a certain amount of votes in the region get those top up seats. Look up Highest Averages method for List PR systems, and Droop quota for STV on how seats would be decided because some of the math there is above my wheel house.

STV/AV+

STV+ would be my ideal form for Rural-Urban to take. This model is commonly refereed to as as such as both Single Member Ridings would have ranked ballots. The plus part is their the Best Performing candidate not locally elected also acts as the MMP style top up vote. This appeals to me because it takes the choice and semi proportional nature of STV and tunes it slightly with the regional top up to accomedate canada’s geographical challenges. Even the formulas would be the same just with a higher threshold in single member ridings (50% using hare, and 51% using droop) because you only need to worry about 1 seat such as in AV. Voting for independents could not discouraged either as you could have it where your top up vote would be transferred from the highest Party Candidate you ranked if you choose to rank one. Special thanks to Fair Vote Canada support staff for clarifying my concern.

This method might also tends to encourage more Multi-member ridings with 2-3 mmps for some lower populated areas with less regional top up seats, but that will come down to whether or not the districts prefer to be single member or multi-member locally. There’s a chance we could see a mix of the examples given in the RUP Document.

Open List

If you saw the CGP Grey video on MMP you might have noticed that the party gets all the say on which member is first in line to get a second vote seat. This is a closed-list system and its a great way of showing MMP or List PR in a simplistic way but it will likely rubs people like myself the wrong way. In fact this was the main reason I favoured STV, because of the choice in who was representing me based on preferences and what was important to me rather than the whims of a political club, Ahem party.

Open list allows for a voter to choice a candidate of a party for those seats. The more votes a candidate of a party gets, the more entitled that individual candidate is to a seat. This is one option for how to vote in a multimember riding, along with STV.

A neat thing about open list systems is they can be more or less open depending on design. One example used is Sweden which is used as an example similar to RUP as you can vote for a specific candidate that acts both as the party vote and candidate vote. There are also more open systems where you have as many votes as there are seats in the riding and can even be across party lines in some cases. The more free lists however have a more complicated voting method called cumulative as a result. I’ve even seen an argument for an approval voting style system could be done in this manner called apanarchage.

Chances are that if a simple x ballot is chosen it would likely stick closely to the Sweden system as that would require less change in the minds of Canadians and is what is referenced in the documentation of RUP.

Second Ballot

MMP usually requires a second vote for a political party in a some kind of party list system. This can be a closed or open system but would be used in the regional top up seats. Unlike how it is described on wikipedia and BC referendum where MMP would only be for rural, the second vote would be for all districts. When talking with Fair vote Canada members the reps explained while it is an option, best runners up is preferred as to not overly confuse voters when filling out a ballot.

The reason of the misconception

What I described in the main video is the original pitch for Rural Urban Proportional by fair vote canada in 2016.

So, you might now be wondering where Stv urban and MMP rural came from. Well when looking into it, and asking FVC directly I was told that it was a miscommunication for the 2018 referendum in BC. Instead of STV with MMP top up seats, it was explained as STV in urban and MMP in Rural on the ballot and in the Attorney General’s report. This can even be confirmed with older pages of Bc’s fair vote website in the wayback machine matching up closer to the national site though not exact.

Full clarification, I think it’s better to understand Rup more of a way of how to distribute seats among a population within regional boundaries rather than a concrete ballot system. Like there’s nothing stopping Rup from having approval or score voting be the universal ballot instead of what FVC proposed, that’s just the model they went with. This can seen as Panama with an extra Layer.

I’m not going to speculate as to how or why the Attorney General’s report and the Model developed by FVC has these differences, but it is what happened, and it is why FVC has people like myself emailing them to clarify this confusion to this day.

Broad Explanation:

In the video I go over the Rural-Urban Proportional System that was proposed by fair vote canada electoral reform for Canada's voting system. I made this video for a number of reasons.

The most obvious reason is that proportional representation is a topic I find very important. This is for numerous reasons such as voter choice, the importance of having a voice, have better reflection of what the public voted for and diversity with in parliament. In fact the most recent election made me realize just how important it was which of the candidates got into parliament beyond party affiliation and is how I dictated who I voted for in the end. Think about it, having black, first nation, neurodivergent, or gay (as some examples) reps is as important as having a local rep as issues that affect them. Not that allies aren’t important, but I do feel that a representative democracy should reflect the overall population, and have those voices heard.

Another reason is a moment in the 2019 election where I got to talk with my Mps looking for reelection where the main pitch came off as “well you don’t want this other leader to be voted in” when I brought up I was interested in voting green. That wasn’t the only pitch but that... bothers me on a fundamental level. That the conversation was tended to focus on “giving” the vote for someone I didn’t not vote for because they were so low on the polls in my local area including a weak leader as a result. Of course, Pro Rep does not solve this, we the people may need to have more control over who leads the country in some way, and there’s the question of the senate but I would hope that the local candidates would start to focus on what they and their party could do for their constituents and less of these scare tactics about who leads the country. That if they truly want a majority, they should explain the merits for voting for them.

And lastly that most videos on the topic left me dissatisfied. You either had the hour long FVC livestream vod, or the news and lectures covering what was proposed in BC. Even the scorecard on fairvotingbc, underlines these discrepancies that was explained to me in the FVC email thread I had. So it was important for me to explain it in the way that was actually advertised because I think it’s an interesting possible solution to canada’s voting given our.... let’s say uneven geography.

I know this video is far different than the others on this channel but this is probably one of the few topics I’m confident and passionate about that I’m comfortable in making this. Don’t expect things like this often, I just thought it would be an interesting video to make and it gave me an excuse to muck around in krita/opentoonz.

Top Up Seats choice between rural and urban

You might be wondering, If the Top Up seats were best runners up has an equal number of votes a party candidate receives doesn’t this give urban votes an unfair advantage over rural? After all one of the goals of RUP is to partially mend the perceived divide between Rural and Ubran demographics, having top up seats largely going to the city candidates would still alienate rural voters when if the seats better reflected the overall regions make up.

Well, Wilfred Day recommends that when selecting the best runner ups of the region, that you look at the multi member and the group of the single member districts and see which of the two are the most underrepresented for the parties of the regions. The seats then then given to the strongest candidate of the underrepresented district. This means that the top up seats will have better balance of urban and rural representatives and will encourage that voters vote as authentically as possible regardless of their geographical location. As a result, while still not as choice as a pure stv, it still is better proportionality, while keeping most of the candidate decision up to the people and not at the whims of a closed party list.

Regional alliances/parties?

Now technically there is a way that independents and extremely minor parties could win regional top-up seats in theory. Multiple parties, or independents could form an Electoral fusion or Alliance on a regional level. Netherlands until 2017 had the ability to combine two or more party lists to increase winning a party seat. This was a wholly list PR system but I could seen why one couldn’t apply this to an MMP like system.

The question of course is if independence and smaller parties within a regional district would be willing to coordinate and ally with another other in order to achieve seats they normal could no on their own? Would pre-2017 Netherland like electoral alliances or would there be a rise in parties focusing on regional seats? It’s not unheard of, considering this is one of the goals of The None Of The Above Party. It’s something to consider when pondering a change to how we vote in a country.

Sources:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180208070241/https://fairvotingbc.com/join-the-campaign-for-fair-voting/fair-ways-bc-could-vote/combined/

https://fairvotingbc.com/scorecard/

https://web.archive.org/web/20180614140521/https://fairvotingbc.com/scorecard/

https://www.fairvote.ca/2016/08/19/fvc-erre-submissionsappx10-made-in-canadastv/

https://www.fairvote.ca/2016/08/19/fvc-erre-submissionsappx12-rural-urbanpr/

http://wilfday.blogspot.com/2016/04/multi-mp-ridings-in-big-cities-single.html

https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/ERRE/Brief/BR8456964/br-external/DayWilfred-e.pdf

https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/ERRE/Brief/BR8518116/br-external/Batten-CarewMark-e.pdf

Let’s stop the nonsense. Let’s stop pretending we are important and our lives are so important. That the world really cares if we write or if we don’t.

I was in a meet-up once with a bunch of writing enthusiasts. I came to learn about the work they’re doing. I came to learn about their perspective. One of them said, “I will never write because if I write, I will expose myself like dirty laundry.” I pushed back, but then I realized it would be a dead-end. This girl was 100% convinced that she was so important that the world would care so much if she started writing. I wanted to tell her I’ve been writing and making films for over 20 years; who cares about me?

The other girl called herself a “superhuman woman.” When I looked at her links, she wasn’t writing anything. Why do you call yourself a superwoman? Are you using it as a defense mechanism for your lack of will to write? Or your ill-ability to express yourself.

The other two guys were even worse. One never wrote a single word in his life, and the other guy was blogging about tourist attractions. When I sent my self-published book to one of them a few weeks ago, I received only one word of praise in return, along with a hundred negative comments. Probably you guessed it; this person didn’t write anything in her life. I was writing two new books then, so I never talked to these people again.

But if that meeting were real life – then these people would fail. If I pointed a gun to their heads, telling them their only permission was to write – would they write? I don’t have to say it, this hypothetical situation where these people know the importance of writing something – anything – hence the gun metaphor.

I doubt they would want to write because their fear is deeply installed in them. I think the solution, the antidote is not the gun, but the anti-entitlement medicine, making them feel they are not significant. They are a spec, a dot in the vastness. Whether they write or not – no one cares. So maybe they needed to get rid of the notion that they were fulgent or were born special.

If I point a gun to your head again, would you consider it? Would you consider writing something? Pick a journal, buy a notebook from your local bookstore, nothing fancy. The key is to start scribbling. The key is to start writing your ideas down. Don't worry too much about what people think of you or your writing. Or if you have changed. There is a chance they might hate you anyway.

Writing will help you understand yourself more. It’ll help you make a connection with your inner thoughts, with your inner soul. It’s the thing you can control when the world is falling apart when you're facing a dilemma, or worse a tragedy. Thinking you are significant or important, won’t help you.

As I write this, I think about how many times I thought about what people would think if I did something – you know what? None of these thoughts matters. The 99% of people are displeased anyway, maybe not with me, but with themselves. Why worry if you will really change the world when you only need to change yourself?

When I was 19, I had a friend who claimed he was going to change the world. Fifteen years later, I saw him and I was so disappointed. This person who claimed he was going to change the world, couldn’t even change himself: he was miserable, addicted to alcohol, and his life was falling apart. If you think you really want to change something start with yourself – start with writing a word.

Now, I ask you the question again: do I really need to point a gun to your head? Maybe something in you moved, maybe reading this post inspired you to write something…anything.

Seit 288 Tagen nehme ich nun schon medizinisches Cannabis und meine Lebensqualität hat sich enorm verbessert.

1. Ich konnte die Schlafmedikation (Benzodiazepine) komplett weglassen

2. Ich konnte die tägl. 800mg Ibuprofen weglassen, die ich zur Eindämmung der Entzündungen in meinem Körper eingenommenem habe. Früher hatte ich ohne immer Temperatur oder leichtes Fieber am Ende des Tages

1. Ich konnte die Schmerzmedikation (Tilidin 100/8mg) sehr stark reduzieren. Seit dem Beginn mit Cannabis, musste ich nur zwei Mal Tilidin nehmen

2. Meine Verdauung, die seit meinem Darmverschluss 2009 (seitdem Ileostoma) extrem träge war, arbeitet wieder besser. Ich kann hin und wieder Gemüse essen, ohne einen DIOS am nächsten Tag befürchten zu müssen

3. Meine Lungenfunktion ist deutlich stabiler und hat sich sogar leicht gesteigert.

4. Ich komme wesentlich besser mit den ADHS Symptomen klar. Meine innerliche Unruhe und die Getriebenheit sind weniger geworden

5. Stabilisierung meiner Psyche. Weniger häufig depressive Phasen und Angstattacken

Der Beitrag wird immer wieder aktualisiert

Der Szenerist Matz und der Zeichner Xavier ezählen im Comic «Die Schlange und der Kojote» einen Thriller um das US-Zeugenschutzprogramm Witsec. Der Gangster Joe ist 1970 einer der ersten Profiteure des Witsec und lebt in einem Wohnwagen in der Wüste. Auf seinen ziellosen Streifzügen durch die Wüste wird Joe einzig von einem Mischling (halb Kojote, halb Hund) begleitet. Als Kronzeuge steht er unter dem Schutz des FBI, auf diesen ist allerdings kein Verlass da der zuständige Marshall bestechlich ist. Als Joe wieder Erwarten nochmals in einem Prozess als Zeuge auftreten soll kommt überschlagen sich die Ereignisse. Matz und Xavier legen einmal mehr einen klassischen Noir vor, die Ästhetik aus einschlägigen Filmen der 70er Jahre ist unverkennbar. Die Zeichnungen Philippe Xaviers sind gewohnt stimmungsvoll und bieten schöne Landschaftspanoramen der Wüste. Fans des Genres werden vom Gespann Matz/Xavier erneut bestens bedient. «Die Schlange und der Kojote» erscheint in gewohnt guter Ausstattung bei Splitter.

#comic #thriller #krimi

Not every quiet man is humble, but every humble man is quiet. – St. Isaac the Syrian

As I wrap up my final year in a classroom, I reflect on change. What’s changed in me, just in the past six months, and what’s changed in my relationship with teaching.

I have wanted to be a counselor for just over a decade now. Pursuing this career change was a long and confusing path. Teaching lends itself to elements of the counseling profession, but as time went on, it did so less and less. This past year my classroom role was to deliver content that a school counselor would, but to over 600 children. The enormity of the number of children and the minimal connection and understanding with them, due to the sheer number of them, was overwhelming. I no longer felt deeply connected to my students and although I enjoyed creating the curriculum, the joy I once felt in teaching students was difficult to find. As I type out those words, I realize I never thought I would feel that way, which means it’s time for me to fully move on to my new career path.

In addition to the growing disconnect to teaching this year, my mom passed away, which only deepened that disconnection. The way my job was set up this year meant that I had to switch schools mid year, and did so only 1 week before she passed. I had no relationships formed at that point, and when I had to return, I returned to hollowness. I had one or two other teachers that I knew, but the students and most of the staff were foreign to me- as well as the enormous grief I was navigating. On weekends, I felt the release and burden of the performance I was putting on during the school days, and could properly grieve. But for 6 months, my grief was mostly locked up as I woke up each day to pretend everything was ok in front of hundreds of children that I felt little to no connection to. I cried by myself in my office during planning times, cut-off from the rest of the school. I took drives during my lunch periods because it was too much to socialize with my co-workers, pretending I was ok. As one might expect, this took a toll on my system. I got sick, a lot. There were really only a handful of weeks that I wasn’t sick. Towards the end of the school year, I was able to connect to a few more people and endure the days a little easier. Every single part of me wanted to quit so that I could properly grieve, heal and return to health, but I stayed- and I’m glad I did. I needed to properly grieve, but I also needed to properly close the door on this chapter of my career, despite its immense difficulty.

Now that I am through it, I actually look forward to returning to my grief. The pain that I deal with in processing is not even close to the pain of suppressing it to do a job that feels even heavier than the grief itself. I’m grateful for the people around me who have loved me and supported me as I navigated these past 6 months and who I will continue to lean on as I take steps through the grief and onto my next chapter of counseling. I’m also grateful for myself and the immense strength that I didn’t know I had, but that came through and carried me during some of the most difficult days of my life.

Gesloten Inrichting ; Geenrichtingsverkeer

Het zit allemaal dicht alles is gesloten de hele inrichting alleen de winkels en de kerk zijn altijd open om je in plastic verpakte waren te verkopen of je schulden af het zit allemaal op slot koren en kaf de sleutel is zoek de hele inrichting een gesloten boek rest ons alleen de aftiteling op het grote doek het zit allemaal dicht alles is gesloten de hele inrichting alleen winkels en kerk die blijven open schutting hier hekwerk daar en de zeven sloten haalbrug hoog verankerde boten overal zit een alarm op je wil er uit maar alle contacten zeggen stop deuren dicht ketting en klink controle met een hokje en een nooit vliegende vink moeten inloggen op je eigen stek duizenden palen in en om het perk alles met wetten versterkt wetenschappers verhogen de dijken, staan bij de poort en bewaken de grens de enigste toegestane wens is je zelf in de winkel te verkopen dan kringetjes lopen en op het eind na de laatste koop dan gaan ze je slopen het zit allemaal dicht alles gesloten de hele inrichting alleen de kerk en het winkelcentrum blijven open het zit allemaal dicht bij rood en groen licht van ieders gezicht mag je het alleen aflezen onder voorwaarden en met restrictie openheid is slechts fictie het huis op slot, cameras aan, besturing op afstand, zonder per missie kan je niet eens heen gaan iedereen is opgenomen vastgezet in waterdichte natte dromen het zit allemaal dicht alles gesloten alleen winkel en kerk zijn immer open dan kun je gebeden kopen waarin je vraagt om openingstijden voor de komst van het leeger van de grote koopgeest, het wild almachtig handelsbeest die je uit hun met eigen handen handel opgerichte inrichting tussen 7 en 21 uur bevrijden (tenminste als je krediet waardig bent) het blijft allemaal dicht alles gesloten want zonder slot en grendel heeft niemand enige belangstelling voor hun kloten allemaal dicht alles gesloten voor de wrakken van mensen met krakkemikkige poten die alleen kunnen bestaan in een inrichting met overal sloten

Introduction

I present here my version of the famous ‘headless rite’ as originally recorded sometime between 100 BCE and 400 CE in the Greek Magical Papyri, specifically in PGM V. 96-172: “Stele of Jeu the Hieroglyphist in his letter.”

I rely heavily on the Betz translation (Betz, H. D. et al. (1986) The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation. Including the Demotic Texts. University of Chicago Press.), with the most major variation in my version being in relation to the six magical names. For these I follow T.F. from Sublunar Space.

I retain what is, I believe to be, the original intent of the operation as an exorcism, a common form of spell in antiquity. Use this spell to drive negative energy or forces from a beleaguered loved one.

While I do not use or present it as a “preliminary invocation” nor as an initiatory operation to connect with one’s Holy Guardian Angel as per the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Crowley’s Bornless Ritual, I also don’t reject their approach. However if you wish to follow their working, do not use the below, but instead you should rely on their words and approach.

Performance notes and a brief list of resources and background reading are provided at the end for those who are interested.

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Preparation

For three or seven days prior:

• Abstain from meat, fish, seafood, eggs if these are part of the diet.
• Abstain from one item that is usually ingested daily, such as coffee, sugar, cheese.
• Abstain from sexual release

In advance of the operation:

The spell requires a piece of parchment or good quality paper stock which will be attached to the forehead as a phylactery using a ribbon. The “parchment” should be long enough to go across the forehead from one temple to the other. It should be wide enough to be able to be folded in half length-wise such that the magical formula and sign can be written on one folded half and be visible.

Write the following formula on the paper or parchment phylactery as described above:

αιη αιωι ηωιαη αη ιω ωη αιηουευωαι εαι υο ιαω ιωη οαυ αεη υωυω

ΧΑΒΡΑΧ ΦΝΕΣΧΗΡ ΦΙΧΡΟ ΦΝΥΡΩ ΦΩΧΩ ΒΩΧ

Include the “good sign” on the parchment, between or below the two lines of text according to your preference

The “Good Sign” as per Preisendanz and Betz

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Performance

Bathe and don clean clothes or robes or perform “skyclad” as is your want.

Cast a circle or open the liminal as per your usual practice

Face North

Fold the parchment lengthwise so that all of the writing and the good sign is visible.

Attach it to your forehead like a coronet, with the ends of the parchment touching each temple. A simple but effective method to do this is to run a ribbon through the fold and tie it to your head with the text and the good sign showing outwards.

Still facing North, breathe slowly until you enter the liminal then, say the formula from the parchment once or six times as is your want. The formula transliterates as follows (note macrons e.g. Ō indicate long vowels):

AIĒ AIŌI ĒŌIAĒ AĒ IŌ ŌĒ AIĒOYEYŌAI EAI YO IAŌ IŌĒ OAY AEĒ YŌYŌ

KHABRAKH PHNESKHĒR PHIKHRO PHINYRŌ PHŌKHŌ BŌKH

Then say:

Subject to me all daimons, so that every daimon, whether heavenly or aerial or earthly or subterranean or terrestrial or aquatic, might be obedient to me and every enchantment which is from God.

Then:

I summon you, Headless One!

Thou art IABAS; thou art IAPOS.
 You have distinguished the just and the unjust.
 You have made female and male.
 You have revealed seed and fruits. 
You have made men love each other and hate each other.

I am Moses, your prophet, to whom you have transmitted your mysteries, celebrated by Israel.

I am the angel , the messenger of PHARAOH OSORONNOPHRIS.
 This is your true name, handed down to the prophets of Israel. Hear me!

ARBATHIAŌ, REIBET, ATHELEBERSĒTH, ARA, BLATHA, ALBEU, EBENPHKHI, KHITASGOĒ, IB AŌTH IAŌ.

Hear me and turn back this daimon!

I call upon you, awesome and unseeable god who dwells in the void.

AROGOGOROBRAŌ,

SOKHOU, MODORIŌ,

PHALARKHAŌ, OOO.

Holy Headless One,
 Deliver NN. from the daimon that restrains [PN]:

ROUBRIAŌ MARI ŌDAM BAABNABAŌTH ASS ADŌNAI APHNIAŌ, ITHŌLĒTH, ABRASAX, AĒOŌU.

Mighty Headless One,
 Deliver NN., from the daimon that restrains [PN]:

MA, BARRAIŌ, IŌĒL, KOTHA, ATHORĒBALŌ, ABRAŌTH.

Deliver NN.:

AŌTH, ABAŌTH, BASYM, ISAK, SABAŌTH, IAŌ.

He is the lord of the gods.

Lord, King, Master, Helper,

IEOU, PYR, IOU, PYR, IAŌT, IAĒŌ, IOOU, ABRASAX, SABRIAM, OO, YU, EU, OO, YU, ADŌNAIE,

Immediately, immediately, good messenger of god:

ANLALA LAI, GAIA, APA, DIAKHANNA KHORYN

I am the Headless Daimon with my sight in my feet; the mighty immortal fire; I am the Truth.

I am the one whose sweat falls as inseminating rain upon the earth. I am the one whose mouth is scorching flame. 
I am the one who begets and manifests. 
I am the Favour of the Aion.

My name is a heart encircled by a serpent.

Come forth and follow!

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Descend the magical hierarchy (see notes) to return to your magical form.

Close the circle as you normally would

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Performance Notes

As is standard in such spell, replace the letters NN in the spell with the name of the beneficiary, i.e. the afflicted individual.

Also replace the letters PN with the appropriate pronoun for the beneficiary, e.g. her; him; them; per; ver; xem etc.

To successfully perform this ritual you first assume your own magical form by opening your circle and entering the liminal.

You then assert your magical authority by subjugating all daimons. It should be noted that daimons are not limited to our modern malevolent concept of the demon, but rather refer to a vast array of “lesser divinities or spirits, often personifications of abstract concepts, beings of the same nature as both mortals and deities, similar to ghosts, chthonic heroes, spirit guides, forces of nature, or the deities themselves” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimon).

Having asserted your magical authority you then assume the form of the legendary prophet Moses, the “One Who Conversed with God”. In this form you first summon the Headless One before then moving up the spiritual hierarchy to assume the form of an angel, a messenger to Pharoah Osoronnophris. A number of sources, including this one make the claim that the name Osorinnophris is a corruption of the “old Egyptian names of the great god of the dead ‘Ausar Unnefer’”. Whether this is correct or not is, for our purposes immaterial. The important point is that while performing you are moving upwards through the spiritual hierarchy, increasing your magical authority and, hence your potency, at each stage.

It is in the form of this powerful messenger angel, with the ear of a god, that you beseech that god to free afflicted person from the control of the possessing daimon.

Finally one assumes the form of the great Headless Daimon and commands the possessing daimon to follow.

While the orginal text concludes with the powerful command of your assumed Headless Daimon form, I find that the lack of a descent down through the spiritual hierarchy leaves me concerned that I am in some way attached to the exorcised form. To avoid this I visualise myself “disrobing” each form, first the Headless One, then the messenger angel, then Moses. I picture myself taking off each form up over my head as I would a long robe. I then see it walk off into its own realm as it approaches the edge of the circle. I wait for each form to disappear fully before “disrobing” myself of the next until finally I stand as magician, alone once more in my circle. I then close the circle as usual.

The abstinence preparations are my own addition, but such an approach features in many PGM spell and later medieval grimoires. I’ve found such preparations to improve the efficacy of important rituals

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References

In addition to the Betz edition of the PGM the following were useful resources

• Sorcerers and Magi https://sorcerersandmagi.blogspot.com/2016/06/stele-of-jeu-bornless-ritual-.html A Good overview, background, and context to the ritual
• The Six Names https://sublunar.space/2017-08-the-six-names.html Excellent piece of research and detective work into the six god names that the PGM instructs the magician to write on a piece of parchment. These god names are the subject of much speculation, however this blog post offers a very compelling case for the god names it proposes and I’ve incorporated them into this version of the Headless rite.
• The ‘Good Sign’ https://digitalambler.com/rituals/classical-hermetic-rituals/the-headless-rite/ A good overall discussion with translation and suggestions for use. Also features a detailed discussion on the ‘good sign’.
• The Headless One (epub) Jake Stratton-Kent. https://www.hadeanpress.com/shop/headless-one

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#magic #spells #PGM #exorcism

Wolf Moon est le deuxième tome de la trilogie de science-fiction Luna de l’écrivain britannique Ian McDonald. La quatrième de couverture promettait les mêmes ingrédients qui m’avaient plu dans le premier volume :

A Dragon is dead.

Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered. Eighteen months have passed .

The remaining Helio children, Lucasinho and Luna, are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs, while Robson, still reeling from witnessing his parent’s violent deaths, is now a ward—virtually a hostage— of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished of the surface of the moon.

Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and more to the point—that he is still a major player in the game. After all, Lucas always was the Schemer, and even in death, he would go to any lengths to take back everything and build a new Corta Helio, more powerful than before. But Corta Helio needs allies, and to find them, the fleeing son undertakes an audacious, impossible journey—to Earth.

In an unstable lunar environment, the shifting loyalties and political machinations of each family reach the zenith of their most fertile plots as outright war erupts.

Le récit reprend dix-huit mois après la fin du premier volume ; les survivants de la famille Corta sont séparés, exilés ou cachés :

• Lucas, présumé mort par sa famille et ses ennemis, s’est réfugié in-extremis dans un vaisseau qui fait l'aller-retour entre la Terre et la Lune et cherche à rejoindre la Terre, au péril de sa vie, pour assouvir sa vengeance contre ceux qui ont provoqué la chute de sa famile
• Ariel, protégée par Marina dans les hauteurs de Meridian, tente de sauver sa carrière d'avocate à succès tout en navigant dans les hautes sphères politiques
• Wagner, le fils maudit, est réduit à travailler à la surface comme mercenaire au service des Sun
• Robson, le fils orphelin de Rafa, a treize ans et a été récupéré par les Mackenzie, la famille de sa mère
• Lucashino, désormais âgé de dix-neuf ans mais toujours aussi immature, est en exil à Twé, protégé par les Asamoahs, la famille de sa petite amie Abena

Ce deuxième volume est dans la lignée du premier, avec des intrigues, des complots, des histoires de famille, et de l’action spectaculaire. Les lignes bougent, les alliés d’hier peuvent devenir les ennemis de demain, au gré des surprises, des retournements de situation et des trahisons qui s’enchainent tout au long du roman. Par rapport au premier tome, le récit est un moins centré sur les Corta, nous découvrons un peu plus les entrailles des familles MacKenzie et Sun.

Il n’y a toutefois pas que des histoires de vengeance et de complots, l’auteur nous offre également des moments très forts dans d’autres registres. J’ai notamment été très marqué par le chapitre qui raconte le voyage de Lucas vers la Terre, avec tout l'entraînement indispensable et la souffrance que son corps, né sur la Lune, subit sous la gravité terrestre. J’ai également beaucoup aimé la relation entre Robson et son oncle Wagner, où comment deux solitaires se retrouvent et se lient tant bien que mal.

Globalement, j’ai beaucoup aimé ce deuxième volume, je crois même l’avoir lu un peu plus vite que le premier, tant j’ai été emporté par le récit haletant et finement écrit. Je vais évidemment enchainer directement avec le troisième et dernier tome, impatient de découvrir la conclusion de cette trilogie.

紋蔵庵の大福

TwitterなどのSNS時代の変化や、歳を重ねることによる心境の変化などから、ただただテキストを書いて置ける場所を持つことをまた考えるようになってきた。

世の中のホスティング型ブログCMSはずっとWordPressの天下がつづく。

そんななからWrite.asはそのシンプルが気に入って使っていたことがあり、この下に続く過去のエントリがそれ。

何も書かないままサブスク課金がつづいていたので停止したけれど、オリジナルドメインを当てたTopページのみ閲覧できなくなり、記事のパーマリンクはそのまま生き残っていた。

なんだかそれがうれしくてまた再開。

いろいろ新しい試みがはじまっているようなのでゆっくりみてみる。