Fun with Alternate History

I joined the Alternate History Discussion Group yesterday and so far I've put forth two alternate time lines. One, Hermetic studies remain a legitimate field of study that is not just limited to New Agers and Fringe people. The Second, Howard Philips Lovecraft assassinates President Calvin Coolidge. These are both for my amusement. The Hermetic one is more thought out, as I wanted to write a novel that would basically be something like William Gibson if William Gibson had worked under Numerology and Kabbalah. I call it Hermetpunk, or maybe Occultpunk. I prefer Hermetpunk.
I seem to be getting more and more into science fiction again. Ever since I started reading Philip K. Dick I thought, I should read some more science fiction. I feel like I'm getting back to my roots again. I'm also coming up with sort of science fiction stories, which I may go into at some point. Probably not though.
Also, update on the alternate history. The Lovecraft assassinating Calvin Coolidge turned into Lovecraft attempting to assassinate Coolidge and failing horribly. So far all it's done is eliminate the Cthulhu Mythos from the time line, and probably keep Coolidge from making any more public appearances for awhile. Which he didn't do much of anyways.
That's it for now. Bye.

The Aspie Diaries 2: Return of the Aspie Diaries

Hey everybody, I'm back. Let's hope I can get back in the swing of things.

So, new news. Exam season is but a few days away. I have two take homes (both in RS), and one regular (my English Lit class). I feel very good about myself concerning these and feel that I can take at least one day off after that. Once the weekend is done I'm going to have to sit down and get to work on my Kabbalah take-home. I have to write three papers all of which should be three pages. I won't go into that anymore on this though. Mom, if your reading this and we haven't talked we will.
This was an alright term as Religious Studies go. Both were fields that I was interested in and I enjoyed the teachers. The English class was so so. It was necessary for an English major, but a bit dull. It was kind of like my trip to Italy, were we basically had to rush everywhere so we could see all the spots. Survey of British Literature Part 1 was like that. I sense Survey of British Literature 2 will be like that as well. At least we'll be getting into the Romantics and Modernism in that one. Medieval Literature was kind of interesting, and I think that may be my favorite part of the class, except for maybe John Donne and most stuff dealing with Courtly Love. I read a bit about Courtly Love, or some form of it, in an R.U. Sirius book on Counterculture before I even knew who R.U. Sirius was. I found the aesthetic kind of cool. Seems kind of artificial in the course material, especially stuff about Philip Sydney. But I'm rambling on in English major talk so I'll stop. Maybe I'll go into it again at some point.
As some of you may notice, I have grown a beard. I have officially decided to let my hair grow out again and this time I'm doing my beard as well. I'm going to try this look out for awhile while I'm at University. I may need to loose it to get a job, or maybe I can try the starving artist thing for awhile and see where that gets me.
Spiritually I'm no farther then I thought I'd started out at, or maybe I'm not. I've officially read all the gospels, in some cases twice and plan on going over them again. I also feel that I have a much better foot on Kaballah, particularly Jewish Kabbalah. I also know that most Jewish Kabbalists are probably damn pissed off at Gentiles such as myself and Pico della Mirandola and Eliphas Levi messing around with it. I also know they probably aren't going to do anything because A) It's been going on since the Reinsurance and B) the Jewish people basically want to be left alone and will return the favor, especially if there Hasidim. (This is what my Professor said and he's Jewish and a Jewish Studies Professor so he would know). I still wouldn't go as far to call myself a Kabbalist of any stripe, and I may not be. I still plan on doing a lot of reading on Kabbalah.
Finally, Alan Moore has an independent zine. Yes, that's right, Alan "Greatest-Comic-Book-Writer-Alive-Today-Who-Is-Also-A-Wizard" Moore is running an independent zine. It's called Dodgem Logic and they gave me a free CD, which they will give to you as well. I can't make a link on this page, but if you go to www.dodgemlogic.com, you can see all the stuff Alan Moore and his friends are up to. You have to buy a copy of the magazine though, which I will probably do at some point. I don't think it's the kind of thing I'd ask my parents to buy for me for Christmas. Besides, it's only...okay I'm not sure. But I'll probably buy an issue after Christmas, or try too. My job options aren't looking pretty good at this point.
Well, that's basically part of what's happening. I'll update you on some other things as time goes buy.

Lady Gaga: Is She a Zeitgeist or Something? What's the Deal?

I want Lady GaGa to find religion. Not because I fear for her soul in anyway, I just want her to join some wacky religion like Thelema or something so that her aesthetic can get a bit more organic.

Since she came out of God knows where Lady GaGa has been a peripheral interest of mine. I don't go after any tabloid stuff to see what she's up to, but if there's an article about what she's doing at the moment readily available to me I'll check it out. I'm haven't really heard much of her music and I'm not really sure if that's the point. Her music videos and whole persona is what I find really interesting. It takes a certain, I'm not going to say balls, it takes a certain guts to do the kind of crazy shit she does and make money of it. I am also going to go out and say that Lady GaGa is a sort of poster girl for a lot of what is wrong with our society. She is the embodiment of a plastic disposable sexuality that I see as largely empty. The difference with most other pop stars is that she seems to be aware of this and is taking pop to it's logical conclusion. She's is also Madonna's true spiritual offspring. Since nobody is really going to be shocked by overt sexual and religious imagery being juxtaposed anymore, Lady GaGa is basically free to do whatever crazy shit she feels like.
But again, I seriously think Lady GaGa should find religion at somepoint. Preferably something with incredibly vague and complex symbols. Let's all cross are fingers. If we wish hard enough, she may become an Alchemist.

The Ideal Apartement

1. The Neighborhood should be inexpensive, but safe. I like the idea of living in a building with a lot of other artists but this seems to much like an idea that Hollywood has sold me. Either way it shouldn't be to gentrified.
   
2. I'd like to live in an urban area, and I'd like to have windows to look over the street so I could watch people go by.
3. I should be within walking distance to the following. A grocery store, my place of work, an independently owned cafe, one or more bookstores (preferably one that deals with new releases and one that is used), one movie rental place that specializes in independent releases and has a good foreign films selection.
4. The apartment does not need to be large.
5. The apartment should not be dirty. It should not have rats or cockroaches.
6. The apartment should have a lot of room for books.
7. The apartment should have the following rooms. A bedroom. A bathroom. A living room. A kitchen/dinning room. It may also have a room totally devoted to books and my writing, but this is not completely necessary.
   
8. I will have begun to develop a music system that isn't totally dependent on Itunes. I will have a vinyl system and a collection of vinyl.
9. I will have a cat.
   
10. I will leave as small a carbon footprint as possible. This may be hard, as I'm running a minifridge, an Ipod dock, a lamp and a fan at the moment.
11. I'll have various foreign artifacts, such as African masks, Persian rugs, Tibetan Murals, statues of Buddhas and certain Hindu gods, a few Celtic and Mennonite artifacts to celebrate my heritage, and posters of artists I like, i.e. posters for concerts, the odd psychedelic thing...alright that's about it. I'll probably buy some from artists I like. Don't expect much high art though.
12. I don't know if I'll develop much of a movie collection. I've thought about it, but mostly I just like to rent movies. If I want a movie, I'll rent it. If the library has it I'll get it from them. I do have a DVD player that is pretty portable. I like using that, so I'll rent movies (see 3)
13. I'll probably have a phone.
14. I'd have really good cooking skills. I know that this isn't dependent on an apartment, but my kitchen would have a good supply of food and I'd make really good meals.
15. I don't know what it would be I'd do. I'm not sure I can write as a career, because my writing mentor has talked me out of it. I'm going to have to look around in the job market for awhile until I can find something that fits.
16. I'm still thinking about the ex patriot thing. Odds are this will be somewhere in Canada. The vast majority of my friends are in Canada, so I'll be staying here in all likelihood.
    

Blog Vacation

I haven't been blogging recently. To be honest I don't really see much of a reason to. I'm not saying I'm abandoning my blog, but I'm not going to be writing for a while. I don't know how long exactly but blogging is not something that is taking up much of my time these days. I might start in the new year, but otherwise I don't feel I have anything to say on my blog.

End of the World Scenarios

I finished the first draft of my essay last night. I think I can do better on it, but I'm taking a break and will get back to it tonight. Anyways, I'm back home for Thanksgiving and look forward to much turkey and stuffing. In other news SCIENCE WILL DESTROY US ALL!
Yeah, you heard me. Science is going to destroy us all. Look what I found on Stumbleupon. Yeah, that's right. The top five ways science can kill us all, and recreating the Big Bang is not even the top one. A lot of this has to do with something called the Large Hadron Collider, which is supposed to bang together dangerous particles or something. I'm not really up on all the sciency details. Apparently scientists have made this thing somewhere in Switzerland and plan on turning it on in mid-November this year. First off, after reading all this I am now going to say that I am afraid for my life and the life of my loved ones if this thing goes off and recreates the Big Bang or opens a wormhole to the future or something like that.
And that's not even the scariest thing. Number One way science will kill us all is nanotechnology, which in the wrong hands can create an army of desructo-bots that will devour all organic matter in there path. What really scares me is that my campus is working on a place that will build nanobots. This makes me feel uncomfortable, by which it means it scares me shitless. I am seriously considering making a sign and marching in front of were the building is being made and starting a protest on the grounds that this building could lead to the destruction of all life on earth.
Well, I need to get some cold water and calm down. Figure out a way to calm down. I can't link to the wikipedia article on the Large Hadron Collider. Look it up on wikipedia.

Feeling Slightly Overlooked

Hey folks, it looks like I'm three-for-three on RPG posts. I've posted three times and tried to start part two of the game three times and so far I've gotten nowhere. I can never get everyone in the same comfy lounge at the same time. I'm starting to wonder if this game was meant to be.
Well, aside from the whole RPG thing I am also in the process of putting the finishing touches on my Kabbalah paper. I'm just going to write up a final paragraph that will put rational philosophy and mysticism in the Jewish context up against the future development of human society or something like that. Shouldn't be to hard.
Still wish I could get this game running. I know in my heart it is a freaking awesome game, and it would be if I got everyone to get here on the same day.

I need Role-Play

Well, no Weimar Mage today. Two of the guys can't make it and now I'm listening to everyone talking about how cool and epic 10-Mage is. I am banging my head on a wall thinking why didn't I play because it's awesome.

What with running a role-playing game that I hope to be totally epic, and hearing about a role-playing game that is totally epic I am beginning to realize something. I need to play a character. Because of this I am thinking about getting involved in the local Vampire LARP, as it is the only LARP going and the only game I can see myself in being involved in. I'm thinking about playing a Thelemite who becomes a vampire. I'm working up what else to do with him. Now I'm going to go.
This is Role-Play Update. Goodbye.

Where To Find Supernaturals

I was going to post Wednesday night, when I had my Autism speech. I forgot though, so I'm blogging now. It's raining outside and I'm a good walks away from my residence. I am in fact at Cafe 1842. I haven't ordered anything yet and I'm trying to decide what my next move should be.

Anyways, Wednesday was when I made my talk about being autistic and how that affects communication. My mom kept me in check so I wouldn't bore anyone, and I made alot of jokes. I can't really say if this whole thing was an education for me. Except that one of the people who asked questions brought up a bunch of stuff about how wireless internet is making the world autistic. Since I'm on a wireless connection at the moment I'm wondering if I should be worried.
School is alright. We're getting to paper writting season, and I've got two pages worth of a Kabbalah paper and I think I can work out the standard number. It should also cover pretty much everything I have learned that's important. So none of my Professor's funny jokes. I should also figure out what I should be doing for my English paper. I probably should read Morte D'Arthur when I get back to residence. Once I figure out how to do that.
Being at Cafe 1842 is a bit depressing, because this was were the Changeling LARP once was and I really liked the idea of getting into it. This is the exact place I'd see a Changeling LARP as taking place. It's just how I see the Changelings in the game. There are certain strata of society I see the various WoD templates as inhabiting. Changelings I see as being almost always in coffeeshops, or on Skid Row, or squatters. Not sure what I see the rest of the templates as. Mages can be anywhere, but I usually see them as having at least religious or spiritual background. Vampires I see in power positions, or in skeevy techno disco hangouts. Werewolves I don't have an actual picture, but I always thought there was something similar to Twin Peaks in the nature of the set up so they'd largely be in small towns. But I suppose there would be Werewolves in major cities. Hunters, like Mages, can be everywhere and far more scattered. Hunters are basically everywhere. Prometheans, as per game rules, are nomadic.
I'm working for my ultimate campaign setting for World of Darkness. It's a project for me to create a city, a really large city, where I can set various WoD games, mainly based on the three concepts I have that I'd like to work on (Psychedelic Mage, Beat Generation Changeling and Hunter: The Wire). I'll have to come up with a regular city though, like who's the Mayor? where is it? What are the major neighborhoods?(I see Psychedelic Mage and Beat Generation Changeling as being in the same basic area, sort of a cheap bohemian neighborhood). I already know that most of the city was designed by a Mage who worked it for reasons no one really knows at that his old house is now were the Consilium meets up. His name is Guillarme Archimboldi by the way.
That's all for today. I'm going to go buy a hot chocolate.

Elephant Engine High Dive Revival

My love affair with poetry is largely due to Mongo at Indeefeed:Performance Poetry. There's a link to it on my blog. If you don't go there, go there. It is the main reason I'm becoming a poet and while it's not where my interest in poetry began, it's where my interest in poetry was fixed.

The Elephant Engine High Dive Revival is a tour of some of the more regular spoken word poets that I discovered from listening to Indeefeed. This is something I would love to see. It's been a really long time since I've seen live poetry performed, and never by these people in person. I also admit that most of this is because of Andrea Gibson. I don't know if she's on the official tour, but she is my favorite living poet. Give me a second to see if she's on the tour...
...alright, couldn't figure it out. I'm pretty sure she is though. That's not really the issue anyways, since the tour doesn't go to Canada. Damn it. How come all the poets I know and love are either dead or American or both. (Leonard Cohen doesn't count, because he's doesn't have the same place in my mind as someone like Andrea Gibson, i.e. I can see myself sit down with Andrea Gibson and talk. I don't think I could do that with Leonard Cohen no matter how cool he is).
How come I feel more interested in American writers and not with Canadian writers. There are very few Canadian writers I'm interested in. Cohen is the only one that I can think off. I might have worked Robertson Davies in there once, but I was frustrated by "What's Bread in the Bone." The majority of my favorite writers are Americans, though this is due to the fact I'm a fan of the Beats. The rest are from England, and also special notices from Russia and Chile. Is this bad for me or is National Literature going to be dead because of the internet? There's really not a lot to be proud of about being a Canadian. I'm proud of the health care system, because it helped me fix my back without bankrupting my family. This is something I am thankful for, though with all the town hall meetings in America it's something I don't think I'm being as vocal with. I'd write something about it, but the entire fact that a bunch of rednecks believe that a government that cares about your health is evil, while having an army full of gun wielding murderers to slaughter innocents is God's will and thus should be actively supported. This is such an alien idea to me that I am filled with a rage that feels like a cubist painting, all crooked and out of sink and that my body is distorting into a way that is not normally scene by human eyes.
Anyways, before I got onto that tangent about rednecks and being Canadian I was talking about poets and poetry. I was talking about my identity of being a poet. I don't know if I'll be remembered as a poet, or even if my poetry is that good. Either way I like this kind of poetry and I liked at least one of the poets involved. If any of you guys are reading this, if you could run this through Waterloo at some point that would be wonderful.