The Flatland Chronicles

T13 #12 | Pictures from the (Virtual) Earth: Thirteen Landscapes

  Hi, everyone.  If you leave a comment on these magnificent virtual landscapes, I will give you a link back to your blog.  The people who created them were kind enough to share them and I took a lot of trouble over selecting them!  :)

If you enjoyed them, please say!

If you're new to the meme,Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday.   It's SO MUCH FUN!

 

Random Link O' the Day: FilterMusic.com (Internet Radio)

I know there are a lot of music resources out there, but this site's really good....See it now.   I like listening to jazz as background when I work and this is a great selection....

It's Time for Another Random Link O' the Day!: The Virtual Drumkit

Maybe you've seen this before.  If not, you'll thank me.  Didn't you secretly always want to play the drums?  Doesn't everyone secretly want to be a drummer?   

I always did, but---this was back in the Seventies---my father found drumming unfeminine, so it was my younger brother (who really just wanted to play guitar) who got the drum kit.  ::Sigh::   As was later made clear to me, I have a poor sense of rhythm and little coordination in any case. 

But---particularly after growing up to learn the ritual , mystical, and therapeutic value of drumming in certain cultures---I still have a secret longing to play the drums.  Nowadays, it's my quiet husband and my fellow multiple-housing dwellers who oppose it....

So I'm grateful for this site, which appeases my yearnings to some extent, while simultaneously affirming my lack of talent. 

D3 on Knitting, Daleks, and Equal Health Care for All

(<Get "A pinhole opening in the radiant void" by Damozel) |  One of my favorite blogs---a role model of a blog---is D3.   It has everything in the world in it.  It is beautifully written and marvelously observant. 

Recently I got stuck on one of  the author's "Thursday 13" contributions.  It's called
Thirteen Geeky Knitting Projects and is superficially a weird obsession for me, since I neither knit nor aspire to do so.  But if you look at the 13 projects, you'll see why....

Thursday 13 for 3 May 2007 (#6). My 13 Favorite Pages from Cute Overload.

NOTE TO READERS/COMMENTERS:  I have not had success installing Mr. Linkies (because I am a techno-idiot).    I WILL post links to the blog of anyone who comments on this post.  I will link to your blog from my front page, the Flatland Almanack, the page which has the highest Technorati and other rankings of any of my blogs or blog pages.  That way you will get an actual link from my homepage.  My link will explain briefly what your page is about. 

Random Link O' the Day. Facade: Your One-Stop Shop for All Your Divination Needs.

And today's link is.....FACADE, a site which offers you the opportunity to do your own (free) fortunetelling using the Tarot, Nordic Runes, the I Ching, Numerology, or Stichomancy (which is the one I'd recommend for amateurs).  People adept at any one of these systems will appreciate the opportunity to use many different Tarot decks---I ADORE the darling Ator Tarot (based on the Rider deck but way cuter)----or any one of several sets of runes. 

This is true:  When I was studying Taoism and Oriental philosophy in college, I learned as part of one of my projects  to use the Chinese system of divination, The I Ching (Book of Changes).  I started out with the Richard Wilhelm translation (foreword by Carl Jung) but eventually abandoned it for the John Blofeld edition.  Subsequently I tried many variations, which was useful in educating me about alternative readings of the various hexagrams and lines.   I consider myself fairly adept (a real adept wouldn't need the oracle). 

The I Ching has deep roots in Chinese culture and----I am just telling the truth here----always turned out to be accurate (though not invariably in the way I expected).  Subsequently I learned to read the Tarot from a friend of mine who is an experienced reader.  I felt less of a connection to the Tarot or to the Nordic runes, but I can read them if pressed.  The difference is that I won't read those for myself. 

I don't use oracles or divination anymore, not because I believe that there is anything wrong with it or because it didn't work (it did), but because I finally came to understand a line from a novel by one of my favorite writers, Ursula LeGuin.  In The Left Hand of Darkness the skeptical main character, Genley Ai,  has encountered a group of people from an alien culture who have perfected the gift of foretelling the future and has been duly awed by the demonstration he witnesses.  The Foretellers are members of a religion very similar to Taoism.  One of the Foretellers explains to him the reason why they have perfected the art of Foretelling:  to demonstrate the uselessness of knowing the right answer to the wrong question.

One night in July 1988, I did a Tarot reading for myself.  I wanted to know whether the (then) love of my life would choose me or a rival.  The card in the place of my immediate future The Tower, an extremely unfortunate outcome, auguring disruption and scattering of forces, a rupture within the family, and the downfall of all one's current hopes.  The outcome card was a card of uncertainty and suspension, the two of swords.   I was cast down by the reading and also confused.  The next day I got the news that my father had died suddenly of a heart attack, which changed everything.   I haven't liked using the Tarot for myself since (though I enjoy contemplating the cards).   I've sometimes done readings for my friend Frannie in the years since. 

I stopped using The I Ching several years ago, once I took in LeGuin's point and realized that all my questions were wrong and always will be.  But I miss feeling what I felt during the process:  that cold, electrified feeling you get from the proximity of the ultimate.  (I'm just being honest about how it felt). 

Online divination isn't the same, but it's there for those interested.  I recommend that you proceed with extreme care and that you do some reading before you try it.  But if you've read this far, you probably won't listen...though perhaps you should take a look at this site before you venture out on your own. 

 

Random Link O' the Day for 11 April 2007. The Daily Meme!

I can't believe I haven't included a specific note on this site before I refer to it all the time. 

Bloggers in search of a community or in search of ideas for blogging can find some of the net's best meme sites collected here at The Daily Meme.

A meme is an idea or a concept around which to organize your thoughts.  For example, I belong to one very popular meme, The Thursday 13 (some examples are on this page).  On Thursdays, members of the meme post a list of 13 items about anything they want.   Members then go to the site, post a link to their blogs and visit other blogs of other members, leaving their comments.  In turn, the people you visit will check out your blog.  It's a lot of fun and often eye-opening.  You get glimpses into lives----and ways of looking at the world----that are ENTIRELY unlike yours.   Within the meme, you can find sub-memes, such as memes about favorite books, pets, politics, or people's children.  Some people offer free advice in their areas of expertise; some provide links to sites that you may find to be of interest. 

It's a great way to build connections on the net.

Skeptical at first, Nick---a neophyte blogger----has already made a number of connections to the 13s.  I've made a few myself.  It's a great way to build up your readership and also find other blogs you enjoy reading.

Other memes may be more specific as to content.  Since I have cats, and enjoy telling stories about them (without necessarily wanting my blog to morph into a "kitty blog,"  I joined "Cats on Tuesday," where cat owners agree to post a story once a week about their cats.   On Tuesdays, cat lovers from all over the world visit each other's sites and read each other's stories.  I'm always enthralled by these glimpses into the lives of others. 

The Daily Meme  links you to memes that recur regularly on a particular day or once or month, or that are one-time or perpetual memes.  As I said, it's a terrific way to begin building a community for yourself on the net or to find things to blog about.

You're welcome!

HAPPY EASTER! and Today's Random Link O' the Day: Check Out Dover Press's Subscription Page!

  Another free sample I received through my subscription to Dover Press... If yuo join, you'll get at least half a dozen free samples every week emailed to you.  Not only are there painted or colored in pictures like the one on the left (I added some texture because that's how I roll), but many, many color-yourself pieces of lavish clip-art. 

To see how to subscribe, jump back to the Flatland Almanack.

In addition to some fun, royalty-free clip-art, you can buy so many other wonderful gifts (for yourself or for someone else you know). I've written before (here and here) about the relaxing, joyful, and otherwise therapeutic effects that I experienced during a dark phase in my life from my Dover Press coloring books.  My favorite was the book of famous Japanese prints, but there were, and are, many many others. I notice that the newest release is a coloring book based on the paintings of Cezanne.  Imagine the pleasure to be had in coloring or painting those.

One of the best things about Dover Press art is that a lot of it IS art you can color for yourself.  I have some beautiful Celtic, Chinese, and Indian designs that were sent to me as part of my subscription. 

There's another piece of Dover Press Easter clip-art at The Flatland Chronicles.  (I wasn't going to waste those two free samples from their Holiday Book!)

Random Link O' the Day for April Fool's Day! Presenting...THE GEORGE W. BUSH SPEECHWRITER.

  I don't want to be mean to W---it's just too easy---but this link ROCKS. Compose your own speech for Bush and hear him speak it!

Generate Your Own Fairy Tale Using "the Proppian Fairytale Generator."

I really enjoy this site (brought to you by Brown University).  It explains itself thus:

[quote begins from "Digital Propp"]

"When Vladimir Propp created his theories of structural analysis in the 1930's it is unlikely that he foresaw the advent of the computing and information age, yet his concern with structure and the modularity of his construction of narrative anticipate that of computing models and languages today. Additionally, writing has increasingly become electronic writing, filtered and mediated through the interface of the computer. Thus with this in mind, it seemed only appropriate to choose the computer as the environment in which to explore both Proppian structural analysis and contemporary rewritings of tales.

"You have reached the Proppian Fairy Tale Generator, an experiment in electronic (re)writing and an exploration of the retranslation of modernist theory within the electronic environment."

In case that doesn't clear it up for you, you check the elements that you wish to incorporate in your fairytale and click "submit."  To understand the elements, click on the items in the list. 

For my first go, I chose "interdiction," "violation," "hero's reaction," "receipt of a magical element," and "unrecognized arrival."  Here's my fairytale.  It's a bit disjointed but rather poetic.

One last pear hung precariously from a tree growing on the other side of the fence.  It glowed like it was golden, and I could close my eyes and imagine the succulent juices falling down the back of my throat.  Pear juice.  An extravagance I could only dream about.  But the more I dreamt of this luxury the louder I heard my husband's voice cry out "No, No," and I would fall in the misery of my discontent.

I could not stay like I promised, so I took father's satchel hidden underneath his bed and followed the smell of him.  If I could not smell anger, I could at least smell my father, wandering the valley bloodthirsty and violent.  In the search for my father, I found someone else.  Another man, smelling for something angry, with only one eye and a tangling beard.  He was distinctly foreign.

I tore myself away from the life-threatening needles and pines. 

Then the bird came down beside me, and thanked me graciously for my good work.  In return, she left two feathers attached to my heels to replace the leather-bottomed shoes I lost.  "They will take you where you want to go, and you no longer will fear the people the live in the ground." 

Before I entered my home my brothers came out, and, thinking I was a peddler, asked how much the jade I carried was worth.