calculus and stimulus

[gurdonark]

To calculate a repair shop bill, take the base services
estimated to accomplish the task, add the options one knows one must agree to in pragmatic good sense (particularly given that one put the spare on backward, after all), add a few hundred to the total, expand the total to the highest conceivable amount it could be without inducing all present at bill presentation to blush, and then add 25 percent. I wish I'd had my flat next door to the backyard mechanic we usually use. Folks helpful, cheerful and courteous, though, and the beluga whales on the TV were worth the waiting.

I got 3 great mail art things in, one from geekturtle (cool coincidence in theme between one I sent her and a recent
exhibition invitation she used), one from Jen of postcardx,
very nicely done, and one from nacowafer that just leaves me
incredibly impressed. I sent out several postcards of my own.

Soon I got to the Last Waltz film with friends who have taken pity on my spouse-away state. Tomorrow will be rest,exercise, and
getting chores done.

What a blessing to retrieve my dogs from the vet's!

Comments

Being Poor could have helped you(!)

[amatrixangel.livejournal.com]

When I was in my teens, my friends and I couldn't afford to take our cheap bombs to the mechanic. As a result, we learnt to do all the work ourselves. Otherwise it meant we couldn't drive our cars which were always breaking down ('cause they were clapped-out heaps). Now we can do anything, rebuild entire motors if we had to. Even panel beating. It also led to being able to repair other mechanical things. We saved thousands. But then, we didn't have thousands, that's why we had to learn. We got to know everything about a car/

Interesting how life turns out.

Now I can afford to pay for anything. I drive a good car, which means it only needs servicing. If my car ever did break down, I would never have to take it to a mechanic. But I would. Why? Because now I'm sick and tired of working on damn cars(!) ...heh.

Re: Being Poor could have helped you(!)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You've got a point, poverty might have helped, though my brother, raised in the same circumstances, can wield a pretty mean wrench, so I may not get off in my ignorance with the otherwise reasonable "I had no necessity to learn" defense.

I noticed your comments in your journal about your art.
If I may make a special request, why not post a bit of your sketches in messages? It'd be fun to see.
Of course, I should really reply to your post, because I thought the new age pagans crossed with xtian astral journeyers looked like a fun and *very* open minded crew....just wait'll you get to LA, and spend time in the Bodhi Tree bookstore, a place of many faiths and an incredible number of women and men who look like
they are modeling new age lifestyles. I used to love to go there,
find arcane tracts, and soak in incense and incredible
people watching....odd as it sounds, the old Order of the Golden Dawn actually did spring a splinter group in the 20s or so
whose theology was not that far from the group you noted...which, of course, will not be enough to get the fabled "head out of hands",but it at least will give heterodoxy some historic precedent.

The key thing is not in this context what they believe, after all, but whether as some more "traditional" folks do here, whether they try to tell you what you must believe.....

Re: Being Poor could have helped you(!)

[amatrixangel.livejournal.com]

why not post a bit of your sketches in messages? It'd be fun to see

I do post things now and again. Mainly the stuff I do for drawingstudio. All the public art stuff and gallery installations is documented, but only a few personal works of paintings, drawings and some other bits. Trouble is, 98% of it is in slides and I don't have a scanner which can take slides. However, I can & do photograph things, but mainly the projects but again, mainly in slides. I will be posting something shortly fo drawingstudio and I'll put it in my journal as well. However, they're only some skimpy life drawings. Other stuff will follow but it's the old 'when I get around to it' syndrome.

Of course, I should really reply to your post

Your refering to the link about the neo-pagan + christian community I made (the ohh my gawwd one)? I think their heart is in the right place but their facts are screwy. I also would have a hard time figuring out being a 'Christian' and a New-ager. Even though Christianity has as many points on the line as a highway forgive bad attempt at pun the most basic concept is deliverence to 'god' or heaven via only one intermediary; Christ. This basic ideology is at odds with every pagan nuance you could shake a stick at. It's like trying to have your cake and eat it too.

Bodhi Tree bookstore

We have quite a number of esoteric bookstores. Even a few "Bodhi" named ones(!) I wonder if they are just using the same name or are a chain?

the Golden Dawn

ahhh...yes. Some years back I did a bit of reading on the Golden Dawn. I think they had something to do with Crowley and/or Blavatsky from....from..*snaps fingers trying to remember*...oh, nearly got it...what were they called?...um...um....the Theosophical Society(!) yes, that's it ......well, I think it was, I'm not totally sure. From what I remember, I haven't heard of "The Order" of the 'Golden Dawn'...just the Golden Dawn. But I'm sure there was only one, especially from the '20's. I thought they weren't an early form of new-gers but rather, Magicians. The real ones who use spirits, not the ones who pull rabbits out of a hat. They followed the old ways of the Magus [magi, magician] and went about their work in a very detailed and 'scientific' manner. I also think they were all men, but I could be wrong on that. I didn't think they used or came from any form of Christianity. They mainly refered to the first testament, I think only in their work and that was mainly using the names of angels, archangels and the like. Alchemy and Ceremonial magic, from Cabalistic lore pre-dating Christianity. I could be wrong but now come to think of it, I'm pretty sure they didn't use or have any truck with Christianity. Especially if Crowley was involved.

The key thing is not in this context what they believe

Yes, I follow your point here. Like I said, they have some priorities set straight at least. Well, they wouldn't go about spending trillions on arms and nukes at least :)

Re: Being Poor could have helped you(!)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Your memory is quite good. The actual name of the group was the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Aleister Crowley had some involvement, though he went on to his more "dark occult" entity, the O.D.O. The poet W.B Yeats also was involved in the group. Indeed, an article Yeats wrote about whether the O.G.D. would be a 'magickal' society spawned a schism in the movement. The movement had had a significant Christian strain, but the Christian elements, led by A.E. Waite, seceded and formed a group called the Rosy Cross (a Rosicrucian reference, but they were not, strictly speaking Rosicrucians). The poet and novelist Charles Williams, the third of the great Inkling writers (along with Tolkien and CS Lewis, omitting D. Sayers), was a member of this latter group, and
imagery from what we might now term "new age" thought appears throughout his work.

I see your point about xtianity and new age being exclusive, but in fact new age and its forbear, new thought, have always mined
xtian theology. The new thought pioneer
Quimby considered himself a sort of Christian
faith healer, the Unity School of Christianity new thought movement (I don't think it ever went down there, but didn't you folks get Higher Thought, the Brit equivalent?) was explicitly
Christian-derived (thought entirely heterodox), and several of the scriptural writings of the early 20th C. new age forbears (example: the Aquarian Bible) reinterpreted Christianity.

As an aside, the academic Elaine Pagels' book on historic gnostic Christianity points out that many offshoots of the early Church, later suppressed by the orthodox Church, featured elemens we might recognize today as occult or
heterodox. I guess that when you exclude Christianity and the New Age, you have to define Christianity according to the views of the triumphant sects, when in fact the faith has always had a strong minority of sects and ideas who are much more "new age friendly".

Sorry to drone on so, because I don't really have that much to say, but the topic interests me...

Re: Being Poor could have helped you(!)

[amatrixangel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all that :) Now I do remember a lot more. My initial interest in Crowley/O.G.D. actually come from a reference when I studied Yeats in high school English Literature classes (they didn't teach Crowley :). Yes, and my interest grew from there. I think the group I mentioned, theosophinists, may have evolved as a breakaway group from the Rosicrucians. But again, I could be wrong on that because it was quite a while ago I read up on them. I knew about Lewis, Waite and the others but I didn't realise about Tolkien.

Funnily enough a mob much much earlier was actually Keats and Shelley who were also right into it over a century before. They were following the English occultist Francis Barret who greatly influenced them.

No, you're not droning on at all. I don't get to have these conversations in cyberspace often ;p

I would like to speak (well, write more) with you about it as well but I'm off to sleep ...NO not your writings...god it's easy to get misinterpreted in this medium, but after nearly 16 hours of working away looking at a screen I'm beginning to go ga ga.

Re: Being Poor could have helped you(!)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Well, I was about to write about how Lewis and Tolkien had a minor falling away because of Lewis' friendship with the heterodox Williams,
but I think I'd rather just say that I hope you have/had a really good night's sleep, which matters much more than English theological orders and the descendants of the theosophists at this point anyway....

This is the Law, do what Thou Will
[need to do to get a good night's sleep]

drawingstudio

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Found it...thanks for the reference...looks interesting....it must be fun to teach kids like that smiling girl!

Re: drawingstudio

[amatrixangel.livejournal.com]

Oh look kids are great :) my god, try to teach adults! No, give me kids to work with anytime. Adults, bleah ...lost causes :)
With many of the projects I do I always try to include kids from the local highschool if the schools are around in the area.
drawingstudio was started by patrickwonders who's married to eyelid. Actually 'eyelid' kicks arse around the communities she's involved in around LJ. She's brilliant. A sharp intelligent mind and wit to match. You should involve her in conversation some time. She really, really is good. The have a saying here. "she's good value" (meant as a compliment of course.)
At the moment, 'drawingstudio' has only a handful of members but lately it seems I'm the only one posting anything. It's getting a bit embarrassing, I would love to see other people's work go up more often. It isn't the sort of community you just sit on the sidelines and watch and Patrick wouldn't have intended it that way. I think with 'drawing' studio if anyone joins then they should commit themselves to doing at least something, even if it's only once in a month.