Of favors and Being the inspiration...

Some goddesses are puzzled by this...like me...

I have been my fighter's inspiration before. I've made a favor before, and had it hang on his belt. He fought for me in a Crown. I watched him lose in two rounds, and then I commiserated with him over his loss. I knew much less of fighting then, having never marshalled or gotten into armor myself.

We went through a breakup as lovers do... I then had it given back to me and told that maybe I should give it to my new guy.... ? That was such a classless comment that I wondered why I had ever given out a favor in the first place.

It's also probably the reason that I've resisted making favors for any of the people that I truly love that I play with in the SCA that I should proudly ask to display my favor on their belt, arm, around their head, or neck....or anywhere else we deem appropriate. ;D

That new guy, became my husband of the last 17 years and my lord and the general guy that I consider an inspiration to live with. I took a favor and tokens class at Sport of Kings this last year given by Mistress Cymbric of the Isles, OL that totally rejuvenated my interest and love for the thought of being an inspiration and giving a symbol of that. But, since I absolutely suck at hand work, and it takes me forever, the real favor, a torse for my lord's helm is taking longer and longer it seems, but since his new helm THAT I BOUGHT HIM LAST YEAR is STILL not riveted so that he can wear it! I'm probably right up with his schedule. ;D

But my sweet daughter did her father proud and gave him a very meaningful favor full of symbolism to wear on his arm while he is fighting, it includes one of the first beads that she has made as a lampworker that was in his colors. It also includes two coin blanks for him to be placed on his eyes at "death" to pay the ferryman to cross the river. Such a creative addition to a favor! And each element has a symbolism to it that she explained at the firelit ceremony where she presented it to him.

I had to make do with a temporary favor to let him know how close he held my heart as he fought in Crown lists that day and how close he holds it every day. The picture at the beginning of this post was taken by Talon in the SCA who caught us as King Cedric was giving his invocation, and we were seriously considering the duties and responsibilities that go along with the wearing of the crowns of AnTir.

I'm still working on that favor. I'm still proud of my lord and the chivalry he shows and the love he shows for me daily, let alone the love and enthusiasm he has for this organization and it's ideals and fun. The group that is forming, it's people and our emerging traditions are just as inspiring to me as my husband is in everyday life. ;D

from a goddess who is inspired

Other people paint the same ones...

Some goddesses are puzzled by this...like me...

It seems puzzling, but it's not. It's actually very fun to see other people's takes on the same artwork and how they finish it. One of my SCA buddies found another SCAdians links on Flickr and I've been out there looking at her stuff. What makes it even cooler is that it's someone I know. I took a begining charter making class from Mistress Leah with her.

Bopping through its neat to see what she's done, especially this one! When I painted it I had a bear figuring out the shadow play on it!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9361067@N04/2263495297/?addedcomment=1#comment72157620807739514

Here's mine! Which, of course, I like better, ;D, but the reason was more that I liked the three dimensional effects that I worked to get on the architectural detail. Not for any other reason.

You go Kewpdx! maybe sometime I'll actually be able to join the other Portland painters when they get together instead of painting up here in isolation with my mom and my daughter and trying to interest EVERYBODY ELSE! lol OH the plans I have for future classes! LOL!

Gee, really? a violation of copyright? No...

Some goddesses are puzzled by this...like me...

Unless you've been in a dark hole and haven't listened to much internet/computer news lately or you aren't addicted to facebook, you've probably heard that Mattel and Hasbro are sueing the makers of Scrabulous.

The Indian courts where they sued weren't so sympathetic to the big toymakers however.

The LA Times reported that the Indian courts didn't think the game was a violation of the Scrabble trademark, just the name. :) It seems an interesting take on it, since the rules are exactly the same as on that moldy game that most of us have buried in a closet somewhere...or in the local Goodwill!

I know that's where I got one of the last Scrabble boards we had; I think this one was actually given to us by a friend. We thought it would help the kid's vocabulary to play. After the first 5 or 6 times that mom and dad wiped the board with them, it wasn't a popular game anymore. Surprise! LOL

But this summer, when a good friend was laid up and recovering from some major surgery, I got hooked on playing the email version of this silly @ss, turn based game that I rarely would even bother to pull out of the games closet. Wow! Hasbro and Mattel missed the boat on this one. All that good will and marketing revenue...gone, in the space of a dumb lawsuit. Much better to co-opt the application and buy out the developers.

The old scrabulous site is now gone. With no warning for those of us who had games going...but I've now found Wordscraper a much improved version of Scrabble on facebook that allows you to set your own game rules. :) Now if they just had an email version of the game.

Ha, I just found out that the scrabulous application is going to be lexulous.com and will have the email games back up in a few days. I tried out their solitaire mode just a bit ago and their Java ap killed my firefox sessions...so maybe I'll give it a day or two. :)

from a puzzled goddess who was enjoying improving her vocabulary, even if I had no idea what half those words meant...

Musical peace train time...take 3 and more...

Some goddesses are puzzled by this...like me...

There's this cool place on the web that will let you play with playlists of songs and create one that people can listen to. Move over social networking, this is just too much fun!

After I wrote the first music blog the other night, I went out on facebook and looked for an ap that would allow me to put music on my profile, like I can on myspace (not that I can run it or hear it since I'm using Firefox! aargh!) But I found this cool little thing to share! :) I f you don't like my music choices, just turn it off, or jump the page.

I just think it was cool that I found so many different types out there!

Musical peace train time...take 2

Some goddesses are puzzled by this...like me...

I messed up and posted this before I wanted to...so sorry, will schedule it correctly now. :)

I was just reminded tonight (or a night or two ago!) of how much I loved Cat Stevens' music when I was younger. (Won't say how much younger or how long ago!)

My musical taste must have atrophied many years ago, at least according to my son. :) I REALLY like most of Cat Stevens' music still, and Janis Ian, and Harry Chapin.

I remember my freshman year of college, my roommate and I would call the radio station constantly and request that Harry Chapin's, "Taxi," and then, "Sequel (to Taxi)," be played...over and over. I think my roommate had major patience with me! :) [Thanks to the Goddess of Everything!]


Sequel can be found here.

I recently replaced one of the major Janis Ian albums that I had originally on *blush* 8-track and cassette. At one point I had all her music; I've since discovered that she has more out! Again thanks to the Goddess of Everything for posting one on her MySpace that I didn't recognize!

A scan of YouTube has reminded me of how many of these ballad singers I loved in the past. It is actually music that is still pleasant for me to listen to, even when the head is pounding, which is absolutely amazing considering I normally wince at any music played because it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. Kind of like my son's taste in Speedmetal....NOT mom's taste, which he is heartily glad about! LOL

I listened to a new band, the one that's on his profile at myspace...the band's called Five Finger Death Punch...he likes their song, "The Way of the Fist."

I don't care for it, but I did listen to their song, "The Bleeding," and actually liked the melody of it...I could have done without the screaming in the chorus, but it was a good song.


The song by 5FDP that I think the lyrics really would have resounded with me as a teenager is, "Never Enough," I SO could relate to the feeling expressed in the song, and sometimes, I wonder if our son doesn't feel that way too when we push him so hard to live up to his potential. He's such a good kid.


And on the distaff teenage music front, my daughter recently was checking out Pink. I've got to say I was guilty of judging an artist by their looks...I LOVE the video, "Stupid Girls." My daughter thought the lyrics and the video were hilarious.

She actually had a Seether song played at her Step up ceremony last year. Shock of shocks, I like Seether and discovered them about the same time my kids did! LOL She's such a smart and responsible kid that it was kind of a shocker for her to choose, "Six Gun Quota." But then, I like the song too! :)


Anyway, I've now posted enough links that if you actually follow them, they'll keep you busy for an hour. :)

love and music from a puzzled goddess

Puzzled addiction...

Some goddesses are puzzled by this...like me...
I've become a puzzle addict. Don't get me wrong. I've always liked puzzles. 3D castles being a favorite. But just about any shot of a castle would do. Or those ones with the strange edges.

The only problem with puzzling has been having the room to lay out the pieces. When we lost the house and moved into so much smaller quarters, I lost the puzzle habit. I got it back for a bit at the Beaverton Apartment, but the puzzles were boxed up in the move and now sit languishing in the games closet with all those other things we don't really do anymore. :)

I tried the internet puzzle thing, a LONG while ago and it was pretty lame, so I thought I needed to continue puzzling in the big blue room.

WRONG! I got hooked into setting up on facebook (my kids call it the geriatric myspace! but I've got a myspace too even though Tom is still one of my friends...yes, I'm pathetic.) So anyway, I have been slowly adding an application or two to have fun on facebook and meet new people, etc.

(I got tired of my husband and one of my writing friends beating my @ss at pathwords and word twist all the time!) So puzzlebee came about! Yay! I can even use my own pictures and play with Adobe 8BF filters in Irfanview. (I'm cheap...with my budget I'm all about the FREE stuff!) Xero graphics has some very cool freeware filters.

This is fun! This ap lets you turn the pieces and reorient them. I'm not the fastest puzzler in the world, but I'm having fun doing them.

Here's one of the pictures I've taken in the Gorge that I didn't like...so I messed with it until I did! LOL

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Create your own puzzles at PuzzleBee.com!

so bye for now from a puzzle(d) goddess :)