Before we go any further (and it falls completely out of my head) I have to show you something. Or rather, link you something. The Hurricane puts up her podcasts on Thursdays, but I didn’t get a chance to listen until last night. After she jokingly remarks that her only followers are her parents (I’m sure OTHER family members are tuning in as well!), she goes on to divulge some copyright-questionable Pinterest news. Go here and see if this isn’t kind of fascinating.
(You know it opens to a new window and we’ll wait. It always does and we always do.)
Wasn’t that educational? Indeed it was, as well as current and entertaining too. Well, except where she says mean things about Taco Bell, which I will continue to adore. No matter WHAT she tells me. Also, no. I am NOT doing any “pinning” but I know that many of you are. So, I’ll leave that there. And now, you know what I do about it.
View from inside the car.
Okay, back to us. What an adventure day I had! It hailed. Three times. I was taking some laundry back to J.D. and one of his baskets was starting to FILL UP with ice balls as I ran from the house to the car. (Oh, not my car, the borrowed Empress car, in the above photo. No word from Oscar today. My Wee Walnut is apparently still safely in their garage.) After my delivery to the OverPark, I marched poor Carol through MORE hail once I finally arrived at the hotel.
Did I mention that the Tall Canadians are back in town? We are having dinner tomorrow night, I’m so excited. And today we went for a wander by the river. Except I talked so damn much I didn’t realize how far we’d gone, so we had to turn back. Of course, I had no idea this was her third freaking walk of the day!
We saw this shrub and weren’t sure if it was what the Snowberries do in the pre-Spring. But then we saw another batch of REAL Snowberries, and they still had nearly all of their wee popcorns on them, so perhaps not. Pretty foliage, either way.
(Yes, that’s Carol’s hand, we did not photograph each other. My camera battery was trying to die, and we were wearing warm hats. Not that we were not tremendously adorable, well, she was. I always just look special. Plus, we’re vain* -we absolutely are VERY vain.)
(*That’s a joke, almost. Her mother used to say that to her, and my grandmother [the crazy beach one] made the same noises in my direction. Now, we just laugh about it, true or not, we no longer care.)
Also, jeez we almost witnessed a child drowning! Okay, not quite that dramatic, but it COULD have been. Far too close for us moms. This kid was on his own, not more than about five years old or so, right down by the riverbank. (Inches from the water, if not IN that water.) The Willamette River is MASSIVE! Not like Mississippi big, but pretty damn huge by any standard. The dad, and I use this term loosely, finally showed up. Gah. We were a wreck over it.
On to other news. Yes, Emmy DID arrive safely here at The Burrow, well before midnight. I took her dirty clothes from her, stuffed her full of good food, then sent her and Max home. She is supposed to be charging her phone and relaxing today, because she won’t be back for another three weeks. It’s gonna be long and sad out, once again. We’ll get through it, but don’t be surprised if you guys end up seeing a LOT of dog pictures!
I was, at first, happily hopeful when I saw what our card was, but then, not as much. (I “heard” that tomorrow we get the Special Occasion deck, in celebration of the visiting dignitaries, or ya know, bonus company down from Canada.)
“Moonstone ~ fertility, reflection, intuition, imagination, goddess energy, amplified feelings.
During the appearance of the next full moon your emotions and fears will be amplified and you will at times think you are going crazy, however, keep your calm for this condition will only last a few days. During this time you will find yourself reflecting on your life, both past and present. You will gain deep insights as to the nature of true happiness and begin to reassess your priorities.
After the full moon, a fertile period in your life begins, full of many exciting challenges and changes. Many new and rewarding friendships will be formed as you embark on new and creative ventures. This is all the result of the reflective light of the moon, so give thanks to her for her wisdom.
Embrace the blessings coming your way!”
Um. . . . ACK!!! Because we don’t have enough shit going on?! What happened to our New Dawn of fabulousness?! Dammit!
Did you all see the crap Corina was kind enough to dig up yesterday? She left a few links in the comments, and some VERY “challenging” facts about a retrograding fuck-fest those planets will be throwing at us real damn soon.
(Thanks again, C. We NEED this type of information, so we can be well informed and nothing can sneak up and bite us on the ass.)
Fine. Finefinefine. Calm and centered. Deep breaths. Positive affirmations. Looking for the blessings. Saying our Thank Yous. Acknowledging the gratitude. We can do this, we can we can. We can totally do this!
Mother Moon and I are tight, we get along extremely well. We understand each other, we are lunar and loony and we cycle along just swimmingly. This will NOT be as bad as Toni is saying. Wanna know why? Because for one thing, we know it is coming. For the other, we are now practicing our Exceptional Life skills, so this won’t be too terrible. Opportunities are what we now call changes and that’s the way we are going to approach this. (We will do great!)
The Full phase is not until a week from Thursday, so we’ve got some space to work with. We can absolutely put enough affirmations and positivity in the way of this that by the time it shows up, we’ll be prepared, we’ll be in the right frame of mind.
(Have I mentioned that We will! get through this beautifully? Because we have that power, we have that strength, we have that reflective light on our side, we now have the knowledge we need to face anything.)
Today’s Deck:
Crystal Oracle Cards by Toni Carmine Salerno
Foreign License Plate Report: Maryland (amazingly cool with a heron on it!) and possibly Florida (it went by too fast), plus one old-fashioned Colorado.
LateNight Cuteness: look at this. You’re welcome.
The only part of the card that makes me squeamish is the thinking I’m crazy for a few days. Otherwise I’m down with change. Change and I are best buds. And, frankly, these sound like good welcome changes. I looked and I won’t have to go into work until 8pm the night after the full moon. Down with that. Totally.
Way back when I was a practicing pagan I always wore a ring with 3 moonstones – maiden, mother, crone. I can’t for the life of me think what happened to that ring. I lost it somewhere in a cross-country move, no doubt.
I’m present again but I’m kind of hesitant. Like part of me is saying – is it safe yet, I don’t know. I might have to go deep again.
Glad you and Carol had fun and Emmy is safe and Hanna’s dogs are adorable. The child by the water would have scared me to death, also.
~
Now, see? I thought there was a moonstone ring around here somewhere too! And I was really jazzed about this crystal at first. But yeah, nothing too horrible, I’m starting to come back around again.
J
Think of the crazy-time as “labor”, after witch you will have a brand new baby Idea who will grow quickly and leave you in an state of exhausted joy.
~
OH wow! Perfect. That is a great way to look at it. Thanks!
J
Hmm. This is more descriptive of what I’ve been going through already. Crazy time. More of it — just what I need. Sheesh. But if I can get the crazy in my head under control, then I won’t need to even both about the upcoming crazy because I’ll have it handled! I hope.
~
It’s all in the perspective, if we give it a nice postive shade of rose colored glasses (and use The Fokker’s birth inspiration) we’ll come out the other side with a gift and a smile on our face. We’ll need a shower, but we’ll be happy and blessed!
J
I was ‘unhappy’ about the Pinterest issue and my husband, the computer guy, was laughing, “That’s what happens when you choose not to read the terms and conditions.”…ugh. Thank goodness I resisted the temptation to get sucked into that site. (It would be sooo easy. But I am sooo busy.)
That kid by the river would have flipped me out. I’m a pushy bitch and I would have been all over that kid to find his parents. And then I would have let the parents hear my thoughts about small unsupervised kids and water. I wouldn’t give a rat’s backside what they thought of me after. If you don’t respect the river it could kill you. (I have issues.)
Oh, such joy. Craziness around the full moon and shall I mention it will also be my favorite time of month? Perhaps I’ll just crawl under the bed and refuse to come out for several days. I don’t think affirmations are going to cover both situations. (Hmmm, perhaps a chocolate stash…)
~
I have kept away from the heroin of another social media time waster too, but I understand that some folks are using it for jobs. So, fine for them, no worries for me (or you).
Carol and I probably would have gone much more Mother Bear on the boy and his misplaced parents if we’d been alone, or if there had not already been others there before us/close to hand. But yeah, bad situation all around.
Chocolate is pretty much always the right answer. GOOD chocolate.
J
I think the Pinterest issue is a bit less dire than it sounds– Hanna mentions but sort of breezes by that many places WANT to be pinned, and provide easy ways to do so. It’s become a measure of popularity–how often something of yours has been pinned. Since the pin retains the link back to the original site, in most cases it would work in favor of the pin-ee by providing traffic to their website. Even with the copyright issues, I don’t think it is any more of a problem–in terms of actually getting sued for copyright violation– than the constant sharing of photos, links, and images on other sites like Facebook.
But I am grateful for the info (because of course I did not read the fine print). I can see situations where, knowing that, I would choose not to pin certain things. And also, I can see why she doesn’t want to pin as part of her job– because presumably then there would be some connection between her pins and profit on the part of her employers, which puts it into a different category (again, in terms of likelihood of being sued).
that is, of course, my complete amateur’s take on it. Loved the picture of yourself that you linked back to!
~
Thank you for giving us your take on it, I appreciate everyone’s viewpoints, especially since it’s not something I’m taking part in, so I like to see what others are thinking. One issue is maybe the personal one, you’ve lost all rights to anything you put up there/pin that was YOURS. And yes, going at it in a professional capacity is a bit worriesome, from the law suit angle
J
forgot to start with– excellent podcast, she has a great voice and I enjoyed listening to it.
~
Thanks! You have also then, heard basically how I sound, because really, both girls have a VERY similar voice and speaking style to me.
J
Hello! Just wanted to weigh in real quick. The trouble with the Pinterest/pageview dilemma is the same one that sites run into with aggregates like the Huffington Post. Posts from the sites I work for get picked up in full on HuffPo all the time, but their huge readership doesn’t translate into pageviews, because the entire transcript of the article is there–there’s no need to click through.
Similarly, if Pinterest users are putting entire texts, or even just salient quotes with headlines into their pinned items, it doesn’t translate into pageviews for the site. It’s only when a bare link with an interesting headline is pinned that people will be drawn in to read.
Additionally, if a site hasn’t given explicit rights to pin an item, while they may be grateful for the pageviews, they may NOT be grateful that Pinterest users have essentially given the images and content of the site that’s shared to Pinterest.
Anyway, that’s been my experience from working on the ‘net/with Pinterest, etc.
Oh, also, it’s different with other social media sites because users aren’t giving away the rights. So while sharing may not SEEM like a big deal, it is, and people get dragged to court a lot. And in the wake of SOPA/PIPA/that whole shitstorm, playing fast and loose with copyright law is something that’s pretty scary to small bloggers on a shoestring budget.
Oh wow, thank you Babe. I DO remember the last time you “lost” a story to HuffPo.
It was a good walk, well, my third walk for the day, poor you, Julie, having to wait while I stretch out the bad hip. Yep, hail, clouds, and the sun did shine.
Moving on….Big Guy asked a million questions about the little boy. He would have stuck around making sure the parents were worthy of being parents. He was pretty incensed. The Dad finally started to run when he realized the child was at the water’s edge. The Mom and sister were running too, perhaps he had been missing for a bit. Scary, people, very scary. The current was very strong.
Julie looks very cute in her hat which Dan knit for her. Don’t let her tell you otherwise, Julielanders. She cracks me up. We both talk a mile a minute and pick up any conversation we wander off into and back again. Looking forward to dinner with the guys.
~
As we just discussed a few hours ago, Dan would have behaved exactly as your Beloved. We, on the other hand, had much more talking to get through.
J
I’m jealous. I want to be in Oregon on a trudge with Julie.
Up side – I did make fried chicken for dinner and it was yummy! Not doing it again, but I wanted to try it once.
More crazy than usual? Heh. That’ll be fun.
~
Come on over! I’ll walk around with you, and we can have some exciting adventures too!!!
Nicely done with the chicken. That, oddly enough, is one of the few things I can make perfectly. Haven’t done it in over a decade, but I COULD.
I know, but we’ve got resources now. Much better than the last time we all lost our minds.
J
Five year old alone by the river? I’d have flipped my nut. Carol, I’m right there with Big Guy. It would have been Spanish Inquisition time. Gah. My stomach is in knots from that story.
~
Yep, we were still talking about it tonight, can’t seem to stop being outraged by the HUGE wrong-ness of the entire situation.
However, it does make me smile and feel wonderfully pleased that so many of us would have stepped (Mommed) right up and given those shitty parents whatfor. We rock.
J
We are finally having snow today, so I’ll take your hail and raise you a shit load (lode?) of snowflakes!
Ha, you got ALL of it, we are just sunny now!
Oops, rainy again.
Oh, and w(BarbN)s.