Posted on Wednesday, 1st July 2009 by Maritzia

I’ve been reading Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom for a while now (yeah, yeah, someday I’m actually going to update my links list). The reason I’m writing today, though, isn’t just to recommend the blog (which I do…highly), but to tell you about the great giveaway she’s doing.

She recently reviewed The Housewive’s Tarot, and the great makers of this Tarot deck have given her a copy to give away to a lucky reader. So head over there and check out the review and sign up for a chance at winning the deck!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Posted on Thursday, 30th April 2009 by Maritzia

A while back I wrote a post asking for help finding the artist who made a particular sculpture. I got some directions to some fabulous sculpters, but never found the one I wanted.

Well, I finally found it! Another blog I read used it on a post, and she had the name of the sculpter on it. I did a quick google of the name, and I hit the jackpot! If you love fat women, you’ll love this artist. All his women are curvy, and many, many of them are big, strong, proud women.

The artist is Jed Dougherty, and his art is amazing. Painting and Sculpture. He’s an amazing artist that celebrates women like I’ve never seen. Here’s the link to his gallery (warning, he does a lot of nudes, so be careful opening at work). Enjoy the art!

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Posted on Wednesday, 25th March 2009 by Maritzia

Sorry for not being around much lately. I’ll explain later. But I wanted to share with all of you this incredible YouTube of Chanticleer singing “Shenandoah”. “Shenandoah” has always been a very evocative song for me (don’t ask me why, there’s just something about it), and this version moved me to tears. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Posted in Music | Comments (1)

Posted on Wednesday, 18th February 2009 by Maritzia

No, I’m not talking about one of those silent whistles that only dogs can hear.  According to the WikiPedia, a dog-whistle is  a type of political campaigning or speechmaking employing coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has a different or more specific meaning for a targeted subgroup of the audience.

A dog-whistle is a way for someone to say something offensive while maintaining deniability of it’s offensiveness. 

•  ”Oh, I didn’t mean it the way you’re taking it.” 
• “Don’t you have a sense of humor?” 
• “I meant xyz. What you’re saying never occurred to me.”

We saw a lot of racist dog-whistles employed in the 2008 Presidential campaign, and I’m sorry to say, we’re still not free of them.  Take, for example, this cartoon in today’s Washington Post (thanks to Feministe for her post on the subject):

The Washington Post will tell you that this was just a cartoon based on the pet chimp shot by police yesterday.  They’ll say it’s a reference to the stimulus bill being written by monkeys.  That’s what they’ll say.  But let’s look at the imagery of this cartoon.

1. Blacks have a long history in the US of being referred to as monkeys, apes, and gorillas.
2. Blacks have a long history in the US of being shot and killed by white police (after all, it’s been less than 2 months since Oscar Grant was shot and killed).
3. The same cartoonist drew a cartoon last month protraying Obama as the author of the stimulus bill.

So while the NY Post may portray this cartoon as an innocent mistake, I think that the cartoonist and the editors new exactly what it was saying and put it out there anyway, no matter how offensive it is to any thinking person.  And just in case I didn’t make it clear, this cartoon is portraying police killing the first black President of the United States and being flippant about it to boot.

This cartoon is a disgrace.  If you feel the same way, please contact the NY Post and demand an apology and a censuring of the cartoonist.  They should not be giving space to something this horrific.

Posted in Activism, Political, Social Justice | Comments (1)

Posted on Tuesday, 17th February 2009 by Maritzia

I read a lot of blogs.  I mean a LOT of blogs, and while I’m reading all these blogs, posts that particularly interest me I share on Twitter.  It dawned on me though, that not everyone who reads this blog actually follows me on Twitter, and those that do are not likely waiting with bated breath for my next tweet.  So I thought I would start posting a round-up of my Twitted links once a week or so.  Since I have so many interests, I’ll try to catagorize them for you a bit.

So, without further ado, here’s this week’s list:

Politics

Recovery.gov Goes Live
Potential Case for Legal Misconduct in Bush Department of Justice
Make ‘em Laugh - 4 idiots Republicans sue President Obama to get his Birth Certificate
Stages of Economic Grief - those poor, poor bank executives. Aren’t they having such terrible difficulties?
Majority Want Investigations on Warrantless Wiretapping

Science

Merasamun - Life Reconstructed - Interesting look at the inside of a mummy.

Social Justice

Update on Dymond Milburn - Dymond is the 12 year old girl abused and arrested by Galveston Police Officers
Formerly Incarcerated People and Economic Justice - why are people permanently labeled by convictions, even after they’ve paid their so-called debt to society, and why does this dispropotionately affect people of color?
Thoughts on RapeLay Video Game

Spirituality

In your weakness lies your strength

Fibromyalgia/Chronic Fatigue

National Fibromyalgia Association’s Response to AP Article on Drug Companies & Fibromyalgia

Blogging

How to get free books to review on your blog
EFF relaunches legal guide for bloggers

General Interest

Age of Aquarius

Fat Acceptance

Ken Paves: Hairstylist and Teaspoon Wielding Badass

See–I told you I read a lot of blogs!

Posted in Weekly Links List | Comments (0)

Posted on Tuesday, 10th February 2009 by Maritzia

Today’s Card - Four of Pentacles

The Fours in the Tarot deck are about holding on to what you have.  The Four of Pentacles is about holding onto your wealth, prestige, career, whatever it is that you value.  It’s the card of the miser, who loses everything holding onto his wealth.  This card is a warning against fighting change to your own detriment.  Don’t be so tied to what you have that you don’t see what else is possible.

This is a good card today.  My husband and I have decided to start our own business.  He will do application development and hardware support; I will provide virtual assistance and MS Office help.  With the economy the way it is, this is actually a good time to move to support small businesses.  They can’t afford to hire personnel, so will be looking to outside companies to help with support.

My problem is that I tend to be really attached to what I have.  I not only really like my current job, but I’m really attached to the security of having a job (I think I mentioned that before).  But the way I’m currently working (I work 4 - 10 hour days), it leaves me time to work on the side.  Eventually, if we can work things to where we together make enough to equal a full time salary, then I can quit to work at our business more hours.  In the meantime, I have this job to keep body and soul together.

Goddess Card: Butterfly Maiden

The Butterfly Maiden is a Hopi Native American kachina.  She is a spirit of Springtime, ensuring the crops grow and a bountiful harvest.  Spring is a time of transformation and growth in the world.  Her message is one of letting the old fall away and embracing the new.  We are part of a cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth.  We must embrace the change in our lives if we are to grow and be prosperous.  A very appropriate card to go with the 4 of Pentacles, isn’t it?

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Posted on Monday, 2nd February 2009 by Maritzia

It’s been a busy few weeks, but I’ve finally gotten back to this series on Discernment.  In my last post in this series, I talked specifically about my religious background, just to give you an idea of who I am and where I come from in this discussion.  In the next couple of posts, I’d like to share a bit about the hows of my spiritual evolution.

I don’t want to get into a long discussion (or argument) about whether or not there are universal, fundamental truths in the world.  I believe that each person has their own subjective view of what is truth, and each person’s truth should be honored by others.  I don’t want to try and convince anyone that their truth, though different than mine, is wrong.  We each must find our own truth in this world, and that truth may or may not agree with anyone else’s truth.

Are there objective truths in the world?  I don’t know.  At this point in my life, I don’t even want to know.  When I was much younger, I wanted there to be hard, concrete truths that were the same for everyone.  Why?  Because it was easy.  If there are objective truths, you just figure those out and believe in them.  The are no questions, no arguments, the truth just is.  Except that it isn’t.  If you study science, you’ll see scientists accepting principles as being truth, and a few years later having everything they’ve accepted turned on it’s ear by new research.  The more we learn, the more we truly understand just how much we don’t know.

It took me a long time to accept that we just don’t know everything, and it’s  likely that, in our current lifetime, we still won’t know everything.  That was when I realized that I would have to learn to define my truths for myself.  And thus started a long journey from which I still cannot see the end.

Posted in Religion/Spirituality | Comments (2)

Posted on Friday, 30th January 2009 by Maritzia

Wow…what a day yesterday was.  If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my tweet yesterday looking for an old friend of my husband’s.  The reason for this was simple - I had a dream.

The dream was so vivid and I could remember it so clearly; I just knew it was telling me to look for Ole.  I don’t know why it was so imperative yesterday.  I mean, I’ve looked for Ole off and on for the entire time Mark and I have been together (over 6 years now - I did the first search before we had even physically met the first time).  I just had this feeling that now was the right time.  The urgency just kept pushing at me.

So, although I am a procrastinator in the extreme, yesterday I listened and obeyed.  And I found Ole.  After about 2 hours of various empty google searches, it finally dawned on my to try Linked In.  I’d signed up for Linked In some time ago, but hadn’t used it much.  But, I thought, I’m not having much luck otherwise, I might as well try that.  And there he was.  I didn’t know for sure it was him, but all the details matched.  So I sent him a friend request explaining the situation.

And it was him.  I got his reply just after I got home from work, and my husband spent a happy hour composing an e-mail to finally reconnect with his old friend.

The Goddess spoke, and I listened, and now at least three people are very happy: Mark, Ole, and me, because I was able to do this for my husband.

Thank you, Fate, for the right nudge at the right time.  You’re quite a Goddess, lady.

Posted in Dreams | Comments (0)

Posted on Friday, 30th January 2009 by Maritzia

The Hobbit  (who I won’t link because his blog is private), offered a giveaway for the first 7 people to comment.  The rules are that I have to do the same thing here.  So, the first 7 people to comment will get something from me with the following caveats:

- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
- What I create will be just for you.
- It’ll be done this year (2009).
- You have no clue what it’s going to be. 

The catch is that you have to post this in your blog (and consequently fashion things for others) if you expect me to do something for you!

So, go ahead and comment!  I’m waiting with bated breath to see if I even have 7 readers *laughs*.

Posted in Personal | Comments (2)

Posted on Friday, 23rd January 2009 by Maritzia

I thought that since my reading for today encouraged me to use my intuition, that today would be an opportune time to do a reading about my current employment.  I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m on contract in my current job through the end of March.  I have no assurances that this job will go past March.  However, I really like this job and would love for it to go permanent.  I pulled three cards for a past/present/future format while asking a non-specific question about the future of this job.

First Card - Five of Pentacles

The first card, representing the past of the situation, is the Five of Pentacles.  The pentacles are an earth suit representing that which is tangible: finances, health, job, etc.  The Fives are the proverbial fly in the ointment cards.  It’s a card of difficulties, which is quite appropos, since the reason I was available for this job was that I was laid off from my previous job and was unemployed for almost 3 months.  It was, indeed, a time of financial difficulties.

Second Card - Ace of Wands

The second card, representing the present, is the Ace of Wands.  The Wands are the fire suit and represent passion and energy.  The Aces are about potential, starts, energy that can be directed.  Again, it’s an apropos card for this reading.  I’ve just started taking tech support calls in my job, which is something I really love doing.  I enjoy it and I’m good at it.  Before this, I liked the job, but it was just another job.  But now I’m getting to do several things I really enjoy including tech support and web design work, and I have more energy to apply to my work because I love what I’m doing.

Third Card - Ace of Cups

This is the meat of the reading, the card representing the future, the Ace of Cups.  As I said earlier, the Aces are about beginnings and the energy that goes with them.  The suit of Cups is under a water sign.  The Cups are expressive of emotions and spirituality.  This particular card, in the Rider Waite desks, is usually pictured with a Chalice overflowing, representing abundance and wishes granted.  This card also is often interpreted as the beginning of relationships, whether love or friendship.  It’s a time of blossoming.

I can interpret this in various ways.  My dream of becoming an employee here coming true and providing abundance of…well…everything for me.  It could be the blossoming of friendships here at the job (which really, I’d have to be working here for those to blossom, just not necessarily as a full employee, I could still be a contractor).  It could be indicating a relationship at a new place of employment, again somewhere my passions can blossom.

I’m hesitant to reach too far with my intuition on this one because it’s easy, when reading the cards for yourself, to let your desires color your interpretations.  And I try not to do that.  I must say, though, that I’ve had a very good feeling about this job since it first became a possibility, and it’s only gotten stronger the longer I’ve worked here.  I guess this is just going to have to be one of those wait and see times.  Whatever happens, though, it appears that it will be a time of growth for me.

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