Groovy

This past weekend was pretty good. I led my ecology rite at Turning Circle on Friday. This is a ritual I originally wrote in response to the BP oil disaster. Of course, the ritual is still relavent because there have been other disasters since then. One of my friends had a candle magic service on Saturday. So it was a very Wiccan weekend :)

I managed to reduce my obligation to AT&T by one line. I moved an expired line to T-Mobile as a tablet device. Unlike the dreaded iPad, my little Springboard is 7", less than a pound, and under $200. It's also flash capable. It's pretty neat.

I wrote three warrant petitions today. The funny thing about probation is that you can get locked up for getting locked up. So there were three desperadoes that I hope I can get no-bail warrants served on before they can make bail on their brand new dope dealing charges. In my six year career in criminal justice I have only encountered one drug dealer who actually made a successful living at it. All the rest were low-skill, low-IQ lazy idiots.

The only down side to writing warrants is that I will eventually have to testify in court against these numbskulls. It's not the testifying that bugs me, but rather the really short sentences most judges give out. what can ya do?

The Receding Darkness

It's usually around Imbolc that my seasonal depression starts to subside. This year was complicated a bit by the fact that I went through an incredibly stressful job transition. I actually applied for the job last spring but I didn't get hired until the winter. I would never willingly change jobs during the time of year when my energy levels are the lowest. But hey, plans don't always unfold the way we think they will.

I think my energy started coming back about a week ago. I was able to start writing chapter 68 in "I, Construct". It's now got 850 pages exactly. I was able to exercise three days in a row. I do want to get back into shape again. My elliptical machine is no longer gathering dust.

One of the other reasons why I want to get into shape is that my spiritual potency also decreases quite a bit in the winter. It's VERY hard to do any kind of magical workings when one's body is depleted and exhausted. Part of my magical practice involves sunlight and it's hard to come by in the dead of winter. But now the daylight is returning. It's still light for about 20 minutes when I get off work now. I will be glad when it is no longer pitch black when I get up in the morning.

I haven't had too many nightmares since developing a warding ritual a year ago. I used to be haunted by the vengeful imagery of my rather evil father. I seem to be able to block him out pretty well these days. I think I've had nightmares about him maybe twice in the past year. I used to be tormented by him in my dreams nearly every week.

I am glad to have found the Wiccan path. The understanding of the seasonal cycles and the appreciation of the role of life, death, decay, and regrowth in the ecology has helped blunt the worst of my seasonal depression. I know that deity does not hate me (like I used to think every winter when I was a Christian). I used to think God was punishing me each year. Now I know that it is just a yearly cycle in my own energy and that I am loved all year long by the God and Goddess. I am also glad that magic does actually work. It's not the same Hollywood "magic" of course. But in the Wiccan sense of the word, it does work. Blessed be.

Ultra Caseload

Good gawd! So I finally did a final case count for my new caseload. I have 150 cases. I was told that I was going to start with 70 cases. The past two weeks have been 55-hour work weeks without any kind of overtime (the State is broke because the rich don't have to pay taxes anymore). I can honestly say that I have never been more fatigued.

At least we haven't had any major financial disasters in 2012 thus far (fingers crossed). The winter has been relatively warm so we're not getting a $1,200 heating bill. The two cars are functioning as required. The pets are healthy. Doug and I are healthy. There are no new problems with the house. We got the Baltimore Housing Authority off our backs by fixing the concrete runner on the side of the house and did a ghastly maneuver to rid the back yard of rats (filled a rat warren with concrete. Blech!)

So, my goals for 2012 is to become competent at my new job and get through this year without any awful disasters. Financially, we're reeling from the events of 2011. The roof blew off the house ($2,400 out of pocket). One dog died and another got gravely sick and needed surgery ($1,200 in vet bills), two dead computers ($1,300 total), two sets of flat tires ($550), two car repairs ($900), a tooth for Doug ($800), fines from the city due to the backyard rats ($240). As a result, our savings accounts are utterly depleted and two of our credit cards are maxed out. Now our credit card payments are twice as high as last year.

All that gloom aside, if we can get through 2012 disaster-free, things will be looking better in 2013. I will be out of new-hire status on 1/17/2013, which will confer a $240/month pay increase (after taxes). Likewise, Doug's car will be paid off in 2013 (which is $365/month). So, with an extra $605/month in income, we will be able to repay a big chunk of the debt incurred in 2011 relatively quickly. Doug is also planning on applying for a Librarian-III position since he has the right kind of degree and right experience. That would be about $200/month more if he can get it.

I finally got to be outside in sunlight yesterday. It was a good day for a three mile walk. The days are getting longer again (huzzah) and this winter has been warmer than last year. I'm also leading the Ecology Rite for Turning Circle in two weeks (another huzzah!)

I know that 2012 will be tough, but at least I have reason for optimism that 2013 will be a year that Doug and I won't have to live on a razor-thin margin.

Workiin' for the man!

I didn't get a chance to post last weekend. I graduated from the Police Academy and am now an official Parole/Probation Agent. Whoo-hoo! I got 134 cases on my very first day on the job. Egads. At Pretrial services I had 89. What can ya do?

On the bright side, once I am past the first year on the job, I get a 12% raise. It will be my first raise since George Bush crashed the economy.

Once I get that raise, I am totally looking forward to getting my gym membership back. I also want a new computer. We apparently live in an era where electronics are made exclusively in China and are engineered to self-destruct the week after the warranty expires. So my current laptop is actually about two years old. The screen is only half as bright as it once was. I have to hit the keys really hard to make them register and the touchpad barely works at all.

I also plan on cancelling AT&T in October when my contract ends. I have never encountered a company that tries so hard to punish its customers. I have an allegedly "unlimited" data plan. But now AT&T slowed the data rate down to a trickle in order to free up bandwith for the customers that pay $10/Gb (the company wants *those* customers to use as much data as possible so they can issue $500-$1,000 phone bills!) The company also reneges on the phone warranty. My Samsung Focus has had intermittent connectivity problems for the past four months. AT&T adamantly refuses to honor the warranty. The company insists that they don't have to honor the warrant because I am on an unlimited plan and I use a lot of data. What a crock. They also gave $486,000 to Rick Perry (a fine use of their customers' money!) I'm really glad that T-Mobile didn't get gobbled up by AT&T, since that is the company I will switch to in October.

My 2012 Predictions

What New Year's Day is complete without some crackpot predictions from a witch that's not even good at divination? Hee hee. But what the heck? I'm pretty sure that my predictions won't be any more or less accurate than anyone else's. So here goes. I can look up this page next year to see how well I did.

1. The world won't end on 12/21/2012. I think some unscrupulous religious "leaders" will make a lot of money peddling fear, but the idea that the world will end on the winter solstice this year is simply preposterous. 
2. Barack Obama will win re-election. I don't say this because I think he's an awesome president. He's not. In fact, Obama is quite unsatisfactory in my opinion. However, the nutcase crazy Christian Teabags are so much worse that they somehow manage to make Obama look not so bad by comparison. 
3. The economy will go nowhere in 2012. The major news outlets will continue to hawk the utterly phony "recovery" just like they have done since 2009. But the truth is that we're in the Second Great Depression and that's not going to change. The jobs are gone and they're never coming back. 23% unemployment is the new "norm" for America. The American Dream is dead and buried. 
4. The Christian Right will grow even more absurd. The re-election of Obama will somehow convince the Christian Right to go even more fringe, more hateful, and more extreme. You can count on that.
5. The Apple Cult will start to decline. The iPhone is over-priced and over-hyped, but the quality is terrible. Without the cult figure of Steve Jobs holding things together, I predict that the world will start noticing.
6. There will be a Christian-based act of terrorism on American soil. Some Dominionist or White Supremacist group will inflict some massacre on gays, atheists, witches, Muslims, or some other demographic that such groups see as easy prey.
7. Inflation will go through the roof. By this time next year, a loaf of bread will cost $6.50. A gallon of gasoline will cost $5.00. A box of cereal will cost $8.00. Wages, however, won't be going up at all.
8. The Middle East wars will continue. If we're really unlucky, we'll be at war in Iran too.
9. The European Union will reach the breaking point. The way I see it, there are only two choices for Europe: the governments can stand up for the banks, or the government can stand up for the people. If they don't get control over the banks, the EU is finished.
10. European Science will eclipse American Science. The Large Hadron Collider will will be instrumental in allowing physicists to finally prove (or disprove) the existence of the Higgs Boson and faster-than-light neutrinos.

Many Holiday Blessings

For my Christian friends, I want to take this time to wish you a wonderful Christmas holiday. I hope the special time with your families are memorable and warm. I hope that midnight mass is inspiring and life-affirming. May the Holy Spirit be with you that day and all days. Blessed be.

For my Pagan friends, I want to wish you a wonderful Yule holiday (okay, Yule was a few days ago, but I didn't blog on that day). May the celebration of the return of the light be wondrous, cheerful and bright. Blessed be.

My Jewish friends, I want to wish you a happy Hanukkah. May you enjoy shared gifts and shared food with family and friends. Light the candles, sing the songs, and keep the traditions alive. Blessed be.

A Fairy Tale of the Nation of Thea

Once upon a time, there was a land far, far away called the Kingdom of Thea. It was a prosperous land with green pastures, running streams, and lots of milk and honey. It was ruled by a mighty and powerful king named Yohevech. Now, Yohevech was a jealous king and didn't like anyone to acknowledge that in other areas of the world that there were other countries with other kings who ruled over other people. He wanted everyone to acknowledge himself as the one true King and nobody else. So he told his press secretary, a man named Monte Silas, to come up with a propaganda campaign against the other kings. Monte declared that all other kings were "false" kings and that people of other kingdoms really ought to be swearing fealty to Yohevech.

Under Yohevech's rule, the land's prosperity began to falter. The green pastures became sandy deserts. The rivers ran dry. The milk and honey became distant memories. And so King Yohevech's popularity began to wane. The citizens grew restless. Many began to say "King Lou in the north has lands that prosper" and "King Siv in the East truly cares for his people". So King Yohevech, instead of answering the pleas of his people, contacted his attorney general, Anton Levit, to come up with a very rigid set of legal codes to keep the grumbling population in check. In fact, Levit created over 600 new laws and most of those laws had the death penalty as a consequence.

"I am your King," Yohevech declared in a press release given to Anton Levit to read. "You shall have no other Kings before me. I hereby declare that any who transgress the law shall die!"

Now, nobody had actually seen King Yohevech in decades. Indeed, there were some who even started saying that there was no such thing as a "King" and that Kings were just fary tales. Indeed, the disbelievers started saying that the law enforcers were the real power, not the King, and that the law enforcers wielded their authority by inspiring fear of Kingly retribution. Of course, the King's law enforcers did actually begin killing people who either denied the King's existence, swore fealty to another King, or who broke even the most trivial of laws.

Of course, the King couldn't have everyone killed. After all, if you kill your entire population, who will you rule? So the King came up with a clever scheme in which he demanded that the citizens give their livestock to the law enforcers as a means of getting amnesty for breaking the law. This policy made a lot of people very poor while making the law enforcers very rich (for the law enforcers would simply turn around and sell the meat at the markets for a handsome profit!) This state of affairs went on for many decades. The King never made public appearances but instead spoke only through the chief of police, the attorney general, or the press secretary.

What the citizens of the Kingdom of Thea didn't know for the longest time was that King had a son out of wedlock. The son, named Jessie, had been raised by his mother and stepfather for most of his life, and had no physical contact with the King since birth. However, he was the King's son nonetheless. Being raised in the real community and not  in the hallowed halls of the law enforcers, Jessie saw firsthand how the King's policies had ruined the land, enslaved the people, and brought misery to everyone who was not a law enforcer. It was rumored that the King's illegitimate son had studied in the east where King Siv ruled, but nobody knew for sure. Likewise, some said that Jessie was celebate, while others said he was married. A few even said he had a partner of the same gender. What was certain, however, was that Jessie's attitude towards the citizenry was vastly different than his father's.

Jessie began his own political movement that was in opposition to his father's. Jessie declared that the rich should be generous to the poor; that judges should hold themselves to the same standard that they held others; that citizens should forgive one another instead of seeking retaliation. Likewise, he publicly declared that the law enforcers (especially the ones who claimed to speak on behalf of the King) were "broods of vipers". He had open antipathy towards the King's law enforcers when they would seek to assist the wealthy while stepping on the poor -- especially widows and orphans.

Now, King Yohevech could see the writing on the wall. Here was his bastard son he had forgotten about, who had been raised by a commoner and her blue-collar husband who had scrimped and saved to give Jessie a solid, liberal arts education. Jessie was younger, more popular, and really identified with the common citizen. So, what's a greedy, paranoid, power-mad, absentee King to do? Well, the chief of police for the law enforcers had an idea that the King really liked.

The chief of police, with the King's approval, declared that Jessie was guilty of treason. So the law enforcers captured the King's son, tacked on a list of trumped-up charges, and had him executed without even any formal appeals process.

This action, of course, made Yohevech pretty unpopular. So once again, he called upon his best propaganda spin doctors in media relations to come to his aid. Through his media outlets (again, nobody had actually seen the King in person in decades and a growing number of people outright denied the existence of the King), Yohevech declared that he loved his people so much that he had his own son executed on trumped-up charges just so that the King would somehow have the power to grant amnesty to the citizens for breaking the law. Somehow, through the murder of his own son, the King said that the citizens would be shown a new era of mercy and forgiveness.

There was a catch: to continue avoiding the death penalty for offenses like speeding, trespassing, and parking violations, the citizenry would have to acknowledge that King Yohevech was the only "real" King on the planet and that one had to also praise Jessie for his sacrifice (even though he was murdered, not sacrificed). Yohevech said it was still permitted to kill followers of King Siv, King Lou, King Bud, and any others who followed another King.

Of course, King Yohevech still didn't do anything good for his people. The Kingdom continued to deteriorate. An invading army captured most of the citizens and burned them alive in huge death factories while King Yohevech did nothing -- and hid from a place of safety. Later, after the war ended, his press liaison declared that the reason why the massacre happened was because the citizens didn't believe in Jessie with enough sincerity (rather than the truth, which was that King Yohevech was either unwilling or unable to help his own people).

The law enforcers of the King, however, did prosper. Rather than taking livestock from the people, they now only took cash. The law enforcers lived happily ever after in huge mansions and had bank accounts filled with money. (And still nobody has seen the King in person. And more and more people every day think the King is a made-up fairy tale!)

And that is the story of the Kingdom of Thea.

To those who would read this story, I might ask: Would you say that the King of Thea is just, good, kind, and loving? Does this story remind you of a tale from another book?