I've been noticing the pattern of hits on my journal lately, and was puzzled. People I don't know are randomly friending me. Unless I friend them back, which I don't do unless I know you or want to know you or know someone else that knows and trusts you, I can't see all their stuff, just the stuff they make public...which is the same they get from me. I just think it's plain rude to just go about adding people you don't know and who don't know you. I think you should at least introduce yourself. So I was examining the blogs of these 'random' strangers and found they are not really random at all. From Washington, D.C., to New York, to North Carolina, to Nevada,to Texas to Canada, and right here in Knoxville these people are somehow connected to....

Wait for it...

You guessed it! The con-artist. I don't know if they are friends of the con-artist or not, they seem like possible relatives of friends based on the connections (read mostly likely assumptions) I've made about why they are here. So, whatever, read and be bored, I don't care. You won't get added unless I know you and none of you seems to have in common anything with me that makes you the least bit interesting. Now, mind you I have friends in NC, TX, and NY and Canada, so I made sure I wasn't making incorrect assumptions that these people found me because of other friends of mine.

What are they looking for? I dunnno...I guess they are just like everybody else in the world when they see a car wreck, they have to watch, they can't help themselves.

If any of you are actually ENEMIES of said con-artist, please to let me know...that's something in common we might even be able to talk about. Kthx.

Now I will go back to my other entry I was preparing about yesterday.

Haven't posted a lot on the garden, chiefly because it's going well enough to take up my time.  I didn't post about PUF, chiefly because other's experiences seemed so much better than mine, I figured the four of us were just having a bad day and wrote the heat, the rude kitchen staff, and the ungodly expense of vending where NO ONE bought anything off to lessons learned.

We went to Blooms day this past weekend where I got a daylilly called Land of Cotton, and several varieties of iris that I don't have.   We spent an hour walking around in the sun and had to leave.   Spent $6 each to get in and then $8 for the daylilly and $24 for the iris rhizomes.  I'm crazy.  This was money I should not have spent.  But damn, I work, I should be able to spend $30 without suffereing a stroke from lack of funds. 

Computers are not working properly, particularly with pictures. Notice the lack of pics in the journal when you KNOW I have a bad assed camera I love to use.  

  This is the beautiful, and so named Bella, short for Belladonna.  And yes, she's black,  so are her son and daughter.  Witches don't kill kitties, contrary to popular belief.

And this one....I shocked myself.  This is quite possibly my favorite photograph that I have ever taken.

• 

It's better, I think, than the other favorite of the Mondarda from three summers ago.


I'm going to have to do something about the camera/photo/computer situation before the old machine croaks.  I got it in 2004, it's only five years old, but five years in the world of electronics is eternity.

For now, I think next payday I will invest in a large capacity jump drive so that my pictures will be safe.

Tyra Banks joined Oprah today to bemoan the fact that Rhianna allegedly has gone back to Chris Brown and they are planning a book together on the horrors of domestic violence. Say what? Okay, aside from the excellent media savvy on the part of the Rhianna/Brown handlers...I was absolutely fuming watching Oprah and Tyra cover the Woman's Side....and while everything they said was probably true...what they are NOT giving proper exposure to is that some women DO invite violence on themselves.

Some women are abusers, who constantly nag, verbally abuse and otherwise agitate their boyfriends and spouses into acts they would not normally even contemplate because they just want it to stop. I've known two men who were victims of this sort of crap. I strongly suspect our other media darlings, the Gosselins are products of an abusive relationship too. I have NOT watched their stupid waste of reality television, but I have seen clips of her ordering him around like a dog in the supermarket. "John, come, come! Come here! You can't leave your children behind!"

What self respecting man wouldn't want to tag that holier than thou bitch and make her shut the hell up? I think it speaks well of John that he hasn't done that.

But I sat here today, enjoying an unexpected afternoon off and watched in horror as Oprah and Tyra, two very strong women who should know so much better, present women as if they are something MORE than their male counterparts. Men shouldn't 'put their hands on a woman in anger, ever, never ever." But women shouldn't do it either. Women shouldn't run their mouths and nag their men into losing their tempers either. True enough, men are responsible for their actions and should be better than that...but so such women.

Women, for some reason, because we can spread our legs and pop out a baby nine months later, are too 'sacred' are too ' special' and too 'precious' to be held accountable for the behavior we force others to endure.

Women commit crimes everyday, some more violent and more shocking than many that men commit. And judges, especially male judges in places where judges are elected, are so worried about being 'popular' that they are afraid to do the right thing and make women pay the same penalty that a man would pay, including incarceration and losing children, home, family, etc. Why should women NOT be treated equally? Why? I do NOT understand. I do NOT understand why a woman can beat the living shit out of her husband over time, but never have to answer for it?

Lift your hand to your man and you put yourself in a man's place. Treat him like shit, and you should be treated the same way. Just because you are a woman doesn't mean you have a license to act tough and smack a man around just because 'a man isn't supposed to hit a woman' doesn't make you anything to look up to. It makes you small, it makes you scum, it makes you so much less than 'sacred' or special in any way. Belittling someone who does their best to be good to you isn't attractive. Boob job, nose job, tummy tuck, designer clothes, cameras everywhere....it doesn't make you pretty, it doesn't make you beautiful...you are fucking ugly from the inside out. And there is no cure for that, no plastic surgery that will put a good person's heart where the cash register is in your chest.

S'cuse me y'all. There's a reason I don't watch a lot of TV. It. Makes. Me. Sick.

[NET: Comcast Communications, Boston, MA] c-66-31-224-185.hsd1.nh.comcast.net *

I bet it gets boring....just watching....you should see the shit that I'm posting privately.   I'm only human ,...only been waiting for this for nine years.   Just a few short weeks until September 10....not that long for the bankruptcy court to say "So sorry Charlie..."

In other news...did y'all SEE??? The gave Bernie Madoff 150 years for bilking people out of their retirement...and they GAVE him the money to invest....he didn't even STEAL it.  He didn't STEAL anyone's identity either.  In spite of the fact that a lot of people are short money they will never miss, a lot of others are hurting and their lives are in shambles because of someone else's greed.  Be it a Manhattan penthouse or a $50 manicure, if you have to steal from others so that you can have it, it's not yours....you stole it.  You are a thief.  Which one is worse?  Someone who would take from others to have a nice apartment on the Upper East Side?  Or someone who would befriend, lure into their lives, and then go behind your back and steal what you COULD have had, but were too wise to rack up debt you couldn't pay?  Someone who would offer you refuge, a job, and then take what little you had for themselves.   I feel sorrier for the little person....the one who lost a friend who was never a friend, but they still lost the hope....that's much worse than losing money.  Having someone befriend you for the sole purpose of stealing from you is ....horrible.  I don't understand the minds that come up withe ideas to do that to people that consider them friends. 

Perhaps I am more naive than I thought.  People actually DO that sort of thing....just because I don't associate with those kinds of people doesn't mean they don't exist.  Right, I'm only concerned with what happens to one, and that only because their fate will decide so much of what my life is going to be for the next 8 -10 years.   I'm pretty wigged out about the possibilities...who wouldn't be.  But my own desire for vindication, my determination that this person get what they deserve is frighteningly foreign to me.  I don't want to be that snide, snarky, uppity person that laughs and says "good enough for 'em".  I want to find some pity in my heart for a mother that would do something like steal another person's life so she could support her kids.  Maybe if she had JUST supported her kids....but there were boats, appliances, designer wedding gowns, trips, it wasn't like she was just trying to get by.  While I find it disheartening that I can find no pity for this person, I keep reminding myself that it was their choices that put them in this position and I should not feel guilty for wanting them to pay for those choices that hurt other people. 

I would send my children away before I would be forced to do something like that to someone else.  What good could it possibly do to have my children see me go to jail for things I did, supposedly to help take care of them?  But it wasn't just to take care of them.  It was about appearances, about greed, about premeditated acts to enrich unjustly. 

So why the hell do I feel like I should feel guilty for wanting her to get what she deserves.

Don't worry, I am sure it  will pass.

 

 

( Cut for mercy )

  And women who do that sort of thing, and request, even EXPECT to get just a slap on the wrist, JUST BECAUSE they are women with children just makes the rest of the world of women look bad.  It makes me ashamed to be a woman when there is trash like that thinking they can bat their eyes and cry a little bit and the jail doors will open...sorta like having a secret password to another life ...in fact, it's exactly like that.  If a man walked into a bank and stole $100,000 he'd go to jail, no hope of house arrest or probation.  A woman with kids?  Not nearly so cut and dried.  And it should be...women should be treated  EQUALLY by the law...not given preferential treatment.

You'd think a judge would know something like that.  We shall see.

Anyway, I've been musing on the times as they are a changing and the cost of keeping this world turning, and just how much these people who have died actually mean to the world heart...and I've been wondering will I live to see women treated equally in all things in my lifetime.  Probably not, but I sure plan to send a helluva lot of energy in that direction.

This is my personal code of ethics, I find it a useful yardstick, and it may explain why I am the way I am.   It might help others just starting out.
Copyright ©2007  Gaia Ivorywitch

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A HONORABLE  LIFE


1. Never say things about others you wouldn't say to their face or haven't already.  Never be polite for the sake of politeness when you do not feel charitable, it is a form of dishonesty.

2. Live what you believe. If you love nature, treat it well.  Remember the Divine is all around us, every creature has a place and none is greater or less than another.  If you love your children, do nothing that puts them second to ANYTHING for your issue is your FIRST responsibility aside from yourself.  If you want to be a community servant, show up, do the work, don't ask for thanks, and remember criticism so you can do it right the next time. If circumstances show you are wrong, take responsibility and apologize.  Forgive as much and as often as you are truly able.  Release yourself from the addiction of being thought well of by others or it can lead you to promise things you cannot deliver.

3. Never offer classes, teaching, or anything else that requires your time when you cannot follow through. If something happens and you can't follow through, rectify it if you can, correct it BEFORE moving on to another task. At least apologize for wasting the precious time of others.

4. Be honorable.  Don't lie, cheat, steal, or say you're something you're not.  Do not allow yourself to knowingly be in the company of those who do those things.

5. Be of use; speak your truth, learn from your mistakes.

6. When you see wrong doing, know it is occurring, take steps to stop it, or you are just as guilty of whatever is happening because you knew about it and didn't attempt to stop it.

7. Never insist you be called Lady or Lord anything outside your Circle.  The Title Lord or Lady is to address the human vessel of Divinity and that only happens while in Circle or otherwise sacred space however you define it. You have no power over others to demand respect for it.

8.  Never DEMAND respect, even if you deserve it, the Universe has a way of making sure we all get what we deserve and you are not better or less than anyone else.

9.  Always offer respect and common courtesy until/unless the recipient of the offering casts it back, or demonstrates any of the above behaviors.

10. If chaos follows you, one crisis after another, do NOT project that out to others, take responsibility for your actions, examine your motives, and get help if needed.  Chaos is ATTRACTED to voids, not created by good intentions.

11. Never, to your knowledge participate or be present when there are illegal activities going on.  Never allow yourself to be complicit.

12. Respect all forms of worship. But that does not mean accept fraud in place of the real thing.  Assess the label; does it make sense?  Does it borrow or cobble together wily nilly without respect? Does it offend?  Then search your soul, ask your Gods for definition so that you can explain your path to others without saying you are what you aren't or that you have what you do not. 

13. Offer kindness where warranted, never refuse an offering, and try to honor the Divine in all whom you know, in whatever form it takes, be it Warrior, Maiden, Mother, Whore, Sage or Crone or Medicine man or woman.  Offer protection to the innocence of children and never adulterate their minds with proselytization.

It  began, for me, when somehow my man’s ex got hold of my email screen name.  She didn’t even know my name as far as we knew.  All of a sudden, she knew my screen name, knew I had a daughter, and then began dragging things from my past up that she though my man didn’t know about.   Unfortunately for her, he knew everything already.  So she began contacting others.  A local reporter did an article and used us as sources for an article about Summer Solstice and paganism in Knoxville.  She forwarded all the information to the reporter, and when the reporter wouldn’t play ball, she tried all kind of things to get the woman in trouble.

At the time, I was new in town and didn’t have a job. 

( Cut for mercy )