Thursday, August 25, 2005

Coming not so soon... the Faerywolf Tarot



I had started a tarot project long ago, but shelved it so that I could focus more energy on my business. Recently I was asked to join a group of other Feri practitioners in order to create a collaborative tarot deck based on the symbols of our tradition. I was assigned the Magician and the Hermit, so naturally I decided to do the High Priestess. ;)


"The Magician" ©2005 Storm Faerywolf "The High Priestess" ©2005 Storm Faerywolf
Click each image for a description or to purchase a signed print.

More to come later...



Comments welcome.

All's well that ends well...

So some of you may have read in my husband's journal about our recent battle with Megahosters, our web hosting company for the past year. I just wanted to put it out there that everything has been worked out fine and we are staying with them. In a nutshell they had tried to cancel our "Everlasting" (lifetime) hosting plans for two accounts that we had purchased (from a web hosting company that they purchased a year ago) because they were losing money. After several emails, and finally a phone call, they agreed to simply combine my two lifetime accounts with my  third, monthly paid account and increase the disk space and bandwidth limits. So, in essence, I will pay no more than I do now, and will have no increased restrictions than I do now. It all amounts to a simple internal restructuring on their part. (Apparently separate accounts cost them more money than having all three domains under one account.)

So it's all good. Thank you to those who sent me words of support and alternatives for web hosting. In the end we are staying put because Megahosters made the effort to make things right for me and it is still a great deal. $9 per month is the normal price for one domain/account, and I now have that for three. Not too shabby, plus they have 24/7 phone and IM tech support.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Icky sick sick

Blarg... still sick. No BAGG for me tonight. :(

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Robitussin and Ouija boards

Well I'm sitting here sick (again) and feeling kind of useless. Between the fever, chills, sweating, aching, and coughing, I've been filling my time sleeping and watching reruns of The West Wing. But I figured that, if nothing else, I could take a moment to shamelessly plug our business...

Many of you know that my partner Chas (chas_bogan) and I created the online store, Carnivalia. In addition to the dolls, puppets, hats, and sculpture that Chas creates for the store, we also have a selection of tiles, boxes, paintings, prints, altar pentacles, and Talkingboards (a la Ouija) that we design together.

Right now on auction at eBay, we have a #1, signed and numbered board I designed titled, "Elven Star". It's a simple design that is reminiscent of antique talkingboards and utilizes the symbolism of the seven-pointed star, sometimes called the Elven or Faery star. (Click link for more information.) Auction ends Sunday, 1:18pm Pacific.

Rest assured that if you win this auction you will not catch my cold, as all I did was design it in Photoshop. Chas does all the craft work so your board will come to you delightfully germ free. :)

Saturday, August 13, 2005

A poem...

'Calla Lily' ©1990 Chris Fox
Image "Calla Lily" ©1990 Chris Fox

Calla Lily
for Daniel on our anniversary

Unfurl your cloak of silken white
Reveal your secret wand upraised at length
And not unlike a star you shine serene
To exalt the autumn-tide with silver cups.
Shall we drink sweet nectar as we praise
The simple beauty revealed now in truth?
Or shall we simply sit and idly gaze
Into the eyes of love I have for you?
Calla lily soft and silken white
With open heart I pledge my love this night.



©2005 Storm Faerywolf

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Ugh! And other thoughts...

Feeling gross...

Tummy started feeling badly last night while Chas and Daniel were away at Death Guild. So I got no sleep last night. Lots of cramps that make me want to hurl, but of course I don't cause that might actually make me feel better. ;) Was hoping it would be better today, but no... usually this takes about three days, or so.

On the bright side I met with our business accountant yesterday and got a training in how to keep track of my own books, which will save me a bundle. I have lots of paperwork to catch up on but I got a nice chunk done yesterday. Not as hard as I had thought. Hopefully I will get caught up in the next few days and then I will know more about how the business is actually doing.

On the other bright side my missing Wonder Woman comic arrived yesterday along with the current one... so I got a double dose of the Amazing Amazon. Ended one story arc and started another. Yay! The comic is really so good. I'm a little apprehensive as to how she will be interpreted in Joss Whedon's movie which is tentatively due out next summer. He says she wont be dressed in the flag or be able to fly, nor have an invisible plane. She should so be able to fly. And whereas I agree that her costume is... improbable... and should be re-thought... I really think it needs to keep the elements that have made her an icon. Only time will tell, I guess...

Sunday, August 07, 2005

A Mother's Letter

This appeared in a Vermont newspaper in response to some anti-gay letters being printed there. I am posting this here because I can identify with the son in this account, having myself been perceived as being gay from as early as 5 years old. My early years were a mix of childlike exuberance, curtailed at times by the hurtful attacks and jeers of my male peers which continued pretty much all my life up to and through High School. As soon as I left school I was able to find myself, heal, and become strong, but I am left with the dark knowledge that many others never do... that many others choose to end their suffering by ending their lives.

If you are touched by such things, or outraged at the injustice... read this letter. And then maybe when you are done reading it you can share it with your friends, your family, or maybe you can write your own.

Lifted from the journal of veedub, who lifted it from others...

A Mother's Reflections

"Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people. I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.

My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.

He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called "fag" incessantly, starting when he was 6.

In high school, while your children were doing what kids that age should be doing, mine labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure his family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart out of me as he choked out that he just couldn't bear to continue living any longer, that he didn't want to be gay and that he couldn't face a life without dignity.

You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children from the homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and drive children to despair. I don't know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn't put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and it's about time you started doing that.

At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind of subculture out there that people have chosen to join. The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours, and you won't get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something occurs during a critical time of fetal development, I don't know. I can only tell you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn.

If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I'm puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that's not the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?

A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for generations. I am heart and soul a Vermonter, so I'll thank you to stop saying that you are speaking for "true Vermonters."

You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought on the battlefield for this great country, saying that they didn't give their lives so that the "homosexual agenda" could tear down the principles they died defending. My 83-year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles of World War II, was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.

He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles, that they did their part and bothered no one. One of his best friends in the service was gay, and he never knew it until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at all. That wasn't the measure of the man.

You religious folk just can't bear the thought that as my son emerges from the hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong companion and have a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities that he should request the right to visit that companion in the hospital, to make medical decisions for him or to benefit from tax laws governing inheritance.

How dare he? you say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage. You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings. There are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant. God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no sin.

The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley News who lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about "those of us who have been blessed with the benefits of a religious upbringing" asks: "What ever happened to the idea of striving . . . to be better human beings than we are?"

Indeed, sir, what ever happened to that? "

__________________________________________________________


If you believe that homosexuals deserve the same rights as everyone else, repost this, and be thankful that there are people like this mother, because without them, where would we be?

Saturday, August 06, 2005

Another silly LJ Quiz

My narcissism is showing... ;)


Your IQ Is 125

Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional
Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius
Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius
Your General Knowledge is Above Average




Maybe this is related to another quiz I recently took that told me that I required lots of attention and praise. But whatever the need that drove me to post my results I do feel compelled to inform you that in all actuality I suck at math. 

Friday, August 05, 2005

On second thought...

Thank you to everyone who recently posted or emailed words of support... things are now being worked out. No one is leaving, except maybe to go to the post office. ;)