#Fig is still a work in progress (all the time) but this is a little closer to what i have in mind :)

[keeps-ache]

a sketchpage i decided to just use a ref anyway lol

[dailyfigures]

Do you have pictures of your personal collection if you’re comfortable sharing? Hearing abt the miku figures u have made me curious! Love the blog as always ⭐️

thank you anon! honestly i have been waiting for someone to ask me that so yes! i do!!! :)

little disclaimer is that my collection is always a work in progress so i don't love how some of my shelves look rn but it changes all the time so that's okay!

here's a general overview and i'll do a shelf by shelf tour under the cut!

starting off with my favourite madoka magica set! i love how dynamic the poses are and they look so badass but delicate at the same time <3

and my second favourite madoka magica set! this madoka was actually my first scale figure ever :)

ofcourse i need a homumado shelf <3 i don't usually put non-scale figs in here but that sitting homura just matches the madoka too well so i had to make an exception!

i try to have a theme for each shelf so as you see this one is like a traditional clothing shelf!

this is my halloweeney shelf! definitely will be expanding this in the future as i am obsessed with halloween <3

these ladies don't have much in common but they all have some hot/deep pink in them so i still like them together!

this is my racing/street style miku shelf! (it's starting to sound far fetched but these shelves all make perfect sense to me ok)

ok this one is not supposed to be like this but neither of them fit anywhere else so they're just chilling down here for now. will change as soon as i get new figs that match either of them!

my beautiful goth girlfriends! they can't really hold hands physically but they are holding hands mentally <3

my beloved annoying men <3 btw dabi is a 1/8 scale and gojo is a 1/7 so it's crazy how big dabi turned out i was so surprised!

chainsaw shelf! sadly this denji turned out kinda bad but together with bishoujo ash williams i do kinda like him....they're cool together :)

and lastly the rest of my horror bishoujo ladies! this shelf is a little empty rn but i have the friday the 13th one, the hellraiser one, the other beetlejuice version (striped jacket), the other pennywise version (coloured instead of monochrome) and the other ash williams version (groovy version aka extra bloody) in the mail rn so that's super exciting!

that's my whole scale figure display! i have some scale figures in boxes that i'm planning on selling and i obviously didn't include any of my nendoroids and prize figures, since those are mostly in boxes rn until i figure out a good way to display them.

this was very fun for me to talk about so thank you so much for asking anon and thanks for reading everyone!!!! <3 and let me know if you have any questions about anything!

[catominor]

Hi! I am looking forward to the cato yaoi (I personally think the triumvirs should be involved) but did you have any more furius/martinus excerpts you could share? I know it's still very much a work in progress. I just love your work ❤️

hehe thank you... i need to do evil things to cato as soon as i . get around to it and actually decide on like . an actual idea of what to write lol.

also yeah sure! i honestly don't have that much actual writing about them that i can share, but yknow what . why not ill share this prospective first meeting scene i wrote over the summer.

---

Lucius Furius Camillus’ house was the most beautiful on the Palatine. Or, at least, this was what Gaius Martinus had heard; he had little eye for such things. And yet all the same, he had been curious when the invitation came; he had noticed him before, spoken to him, very briefly, a couple of times, yet did not know much about the man. 

He followed Furius’ dignified form into the atrium. He was tall (though not as tall as Martinus) and straight, and thin as a rail. He moved with a pronounced limp; the result, Martinus had heard, of some long-past war wounds which had left him in more or less a permanent state of illness. Martinus glanced up, noticing the wax masks of ancestors hung near the entryway; a practice of patrician and illustrious plebeian families Martinus had always found somewhat foreboding. Furius coughed (this was another affectation of his old injuries) and continued on at a leisurely pace, falling back to walk beside Martinus. 

Martinus could hardly picture Lucius Furius in the army, much less in battle; to him the image seemed comical. Tall and stately though he was, he looked fragile, like a slight gust of wind could have easily borne him off. He was around the same age as Martinus (in fact, a little younger, although anyone looking at the two men would never guess); around forty-five, his short black hair peppered with silvery grey. 

The walls of each room of the house were decorated with frescoes; he noticed these were mainly composed of scenes of gardens, which were filled with all manner of exotic birds. Finely painted, indeed, although they were old and rather faded. In a corner of the atrium there was a shrine to the lares of the house; its candles flickered in lanterns and cast a soft glow onto the little silver figures. There were flower petals scattered at their feet. The house was quiet save for a faint clattering from the kitchen, the lamps already lit as the bluish evening light diminished. 

There was a faint chill in the air; Martinus shivered, and noticed Furius did too, but he did not move to put an arm around the man as he might have for others. Something in his gut told him the gesture would run the chance of offending his patrician sensibility. And he did not want to seem over familiar, anyway. They passed into the peristylium and its beautiful garden. Furius wore relatively simple clothing for the likes of a wealthy aristocrat of his time, but it was clean and clearly the best he owned. On his right little finger he wore a seal ring of gold and blue chalcedony, which bore the image of Juno; on his left index finger an iron senator’s ring.

He turned toward the garden. “I designed it myself.” he explained. Clearly he was particularly proud of this area of the house. “I selected plants so something is always in bloom; right now it’s the narcissus. I specified that the earth be laid out in these hills, so that it might look more natural than a usual peristyle-garden; I cannot afford and have no interest to leave Rome to go to the country; and I need to have something to myself.” 

Martinus did notice it was quite unusual. A few trees ringed the outside; oranges, olives, figs, something else he didn’t know. Large bushes of rosemary and lavender clustered around a small fountain, and blobs of thyme crept over rocks. Thick vines just leafing out climbed some of the columns and up onto the tiled roof.  The rest was a sort of collection of grassy hills divided by paths, various shoots coming up at this time in the spring to add to the hyacinths already in bloom. The scent of the place was otherworldly. 

The narcissus huddled at the roots of the trees in heavy clusters, winking at them like stars in a dark field. A couple of statues stood in the garden; they looked old, the paint on them long since worn away, and never refreshed. Furius motioned toward a bench near the little fountain. He sat down nearest the orange-tree, sheltered under its new-green leaves and doubly illuminated in the bluish evening tinge and by the little stone lantern on the ground next to the pool. He leaned over, lifted one of the flowers’ heads and studied it, still not looking at Martinus. He could detect some nervousness in his posture. 

“I… Invited you here because I have a problem. I want to become consul.” Martinus was not particularly surprised. “Oh?” 

Lucius Furius finally turned to him, looked at him intensely with his large dark eyes. “I know you want this too. I want us to run together.” 

Martinus was a little surprised. “Really? Are you sure our interests are so aligned?” 

Furius’ expression was hard to read; maybe a little apprehension. “They are aligned enough.” He paused, perhaps considering his sell. “You’ll never get anywhere without patrician support. And I” he sighed. “I can’t afford it on my own. I’m sure you know my family has not achieved much in the realm of politics for quite some time.” 

Martinus looked at him for a moment, thinking. It was true, he had trouble winning over the patrician segment of the political elite. Being an Italian nobody with only a few generations of wealth and one senate seat behind you would do that. But the simple fact was: “Why me?” he asked Furius. 

Furius thought for a moment. “Because I think you’re the most well-off man in Rome whom I can stomach allying myself with, as well as being in a position to stand for consul with me. I don’t know you, yet, but I’m not throwing away my idea because of that. …Are you a good man, Gaius Martinus?” Again the eyes fixed him. Stern, inscrutable. Lucius didn’t really believe he was. 

“I believe I have brought much glory to Rome.” 

Lucius Furius hummed assent. “Mmm…” A flicker of …sadness? In his eyes. 

“...Your own military career?” Said Martinus. 

 Furius looked a little pained. “I suppose not all are constituted for such a life. I was one of those… not constituted.” A faint dusting of pink passed over his face; as befitted a man so pale, even his faintest emotions were written brightly on his cheeks. Martinus decided to change the subject. 

“Your reputation as a voice for good sense in the Senate is unimpeachable, at least. Everybody respects you.” 

“Everybody also makes a pastime of coming up with vaguely insulting nicknames for me, and giggling about me behind my back. Gods forbid I spend my free time reading the greatest works of philosophy and literature in the world instead of hanging around in stinking, sordid taverns, generating adultery scandals, and frequenting brothels.” He said, bitterly. He had Martinus, an incurable tavern-and-brothel-frequenter, there. Martinus laughed. 

Lucius Furius looked up, fixing Martinus with his dark eyes again. “That won’t stop them voting me in as consul, though. I know it. And censor after that. Especially with you, the military man, behind me. You would win glory for Rome on the battlefield, and I would restore glory to Rome here.” Martinus smiled. “You know, I’m starting to like this idea. But… I’d still like to know you better. Come to my house tomorrow afternoon.” 

“I shall, Gaius Martinus.” Lucius Furius said firmly, proferring his slender hand and looking down his nose at Martinus. Martinus shook it. 

[fourseasonsfigs]

Building Block Figs - Two Devils

Following up on the last few days of building block fig posts, this is the last kit that I have to post about. I have three more incoming, but they won't arrive for at least a month, if that.

I actually started on these figs a while ago - they were the second set I started to make, after my first kit of Beautiful Fight Scene in the Middle of the Lake. That one was so involved that I figured I'd relax a little on an easy set before tackling the next scene.

Ahahaha. Little did I know.

First, I had such a big problem with this set that I originally wasn't sure I was going to buy it. The full, long name of this set is: Ghost Valley Valley Master and Tianchuang Leader. Great, love it, right? Always a fan. Except, this was the picture:

Right, you see the problem. Valley Master Wen is all dressed in his Episode 1 red finery, but our Tianchuang Leader definitely is not dressed in his midnight-hued civil servant assassin best. Why on earth would Zhou Zishu be in white? This is not "Rescue from Tianchuang Jail" A-Xu (although I kinda wish it was, that would be great).

Also, less egregious but still not great is the fact that Zhou Zishu's hair is Jianghu-styled half down, and that Baiyi has a cross-guard. This whole fig is just not working for me!

But, as you can tell (and as you would already have suspected anyway), I bought it, and just planned somehow to figure out a solution to change up the entire fig.

Somehow. I had no actual idea how to do it, but I felt confident I would somehow figure it out. So confident, that I even went ahead and put together Valley Master Wen first.

He, at least, was not going to require changing. The only thing I'd change up with him is to give him a gold guan instead of his hairpin, but I used up all my extra yellow bricks on the Catching Light fig, so I was out of luck. That's alright, I don't mind this one so much. The Valley Master would wear his hairpin at times, that makes sense.

Oh, I should say, in comparison to the other building block sets, these two together totaled 856 bricks - 424 for Wen Kexing and 432 for Zhou Zishu. The figs stand 4.4 x 5.2 x 10.2 cm and 5.2 x 5.6 x 10.2 cm respectively, and each one is rated 2 hours to complete. Like all of these kits, the time to complete is pretty right on, if you follow the directions.

The two figures came together in a set. I wouldn't have minded if they split up the two figures in two different bags, but nope, they're all mingled in there together!

Here's a sample progress pic:

This one wasn't too bad - it's always a little harder for the ones that are mostly one color, since it makes it easy to miscount as the colors all blend together. But, I didn't make any mistakes and it went pretty smoothly.

I finished the body and moved on to the face. They have you do the fig in pieces, and then put it all together at the end. You can tell the passage of time from the quality of the light in these photos, but I pretty much finished this one over the course of a day and an evening.

I had to laugh as I saw his red cheeks/eyeliner. Very cute!

And here he is! Photographed at a rakish angle, as well. He looks great!

While I was at it, I decided to click through the directions for Zhou Zishu, and see if I could figure out any ideas in advance of working on the fig. By this time, even one (and a half) sets in, I could see that they had provided lots of extra bricks, so the idea that was starting to half-bake in my head was that I would have enough bricks at the very end of all my kits to do something instead of the white.

While clicking though, I realized that I could skip the body part and do the head, which would help use up some of the necessary bricks. So the head it was! That way, I would really only have leftover bricks at the end.

That I got done very quickly. It wasn't bad at all! And, the best thing was that this head didn't have any long hair attached to it. So, I could just ignore the long hair when building the body, and use the head as is. Things were looking up!

I mean, Valley Master Wen looks horrified, but don't worry Lao Wen, he'll get better.

I set aside these two, and went on to the rest of the sets.

That brings us to this morning. I woke up, pulled out my SHL reference book, sat down with all the brick remainders, and figured out, I think, a pretty good plan of attack.

Technically, all his clothes are midnight shades of blue and wine, but those are not colors I had available, sadly.

I had a lot of black bricks left over since I wasn't doing the half-long hairstyle, and plus extras from the other sets. That being said, there wasn't a ton of the smaller sized bricks in black. Also, I didn't really want a fig that was black on black on black, and technically his robes are that deep midnight blue anyway. The biggest problem with that was that I didn't have enough of the darkest blue bricks. Or really any of the blue bricks, and of course going lighter would get us right back to a non-canon compliant fig. So, I decided to try and do his cloak and body with as much of the black bricks as possible, and try to use the blue ones as judiciously as I could, in the hopes of stretching them far enough.

I'm a little annoyed at myself I didn't take a pic of all the remaining bricks left so you could see what I was working with, but at least here you can see the start of the fig and the remaining black bricks left. You can also see where I started off making the interior white, to try and use as few black or blue bricks as possible. My plan was to make the cloak as enveloping as possible in order to use the least number of blue pieces.

You can see here how very few blue pieces there are left, and how far I have to go. You can also see here how I started changing up Baiyi, to make the hilt dark grey vs. the neon orange.

I will note at this point I was about two hours in on the body, which sounds ridiculous, but let me assure you, it gets worse. I stopped here for lunch, and then came back ready to finish this up.

Unfortunately for me, though, this is where I started to get into real trouble. I was changing up the sword, the top hand position (inadvertently, since I got rid of the cross-guard), I was trying to make the cape wrap around the front robes, ignore the directions for the long hair in the back and therefore revise the back (which is half hair). And I had no idea what I was doing with any of it, other than to desperately stretch out my remaining dark blue pieces. For each blue piece I did use, I was trying to figure out if I'd be better off using a bigger piece, or multiple smaller pieces, or if I might need those exact configurations later.

Basically, I was doing way too much off script, and didn't have the skills to back it up. The directions at this point were almost useless.

You can see how the step I was theoretically on looked nothing like the fig I was trying to make!

I must have reworked this piece here three different times. It doesn't help that the arms are asymmetrical, which only complicated something that I really didn't need to be any more complicated.

The biggest problem, of course, was that I was just way out of my depth, and kept making mistakes that I would have to go back and fix. And unfortunately, I have extremely poor visual short term memory, so when I disconnected a piece to fix a mistake or replace a brick, I couldn't remember how to reconnect it. And since I was so far off book with the instructions, I couldn't use that to help. I just had to figure it out new each time.

It was pretty rough going, I'm not going to lie.

Somewhere in this I ditched the two-brick configuration for Baiyi and made it into the slimmest, whippiest, greyest version I could.

At this point, those were all the blue bricks remaining, and I was critically short just a few pieces. So, I went to the lake raft set from Beautiful Fight Scene in the Middle of the Lake, which I'm going to re-work next to make the raft brown vs. blue and green. I pillaged a few dark blue bricks from the raft in advance of.

Finally, after three (more) hours, I was done! I couldn't almost believe it. Very happily, I started to take some pics.

And that's when I noticed that Zhou Zishu was actually taller than Wen Kexing. I was like, wait a minute. How is this possible?

It was possible.

At this point, I was really, really tempted to just say, you know what, it's good enough. Clean up the bricks and move on with life. But the bricks were still out, and I just couldn't let it go. After all this time, working so hard? No way.

I figured here the easy way out was to extend Wen Kexing's legs. Gong Jun is all legs anyway, so it would work.

I didn't take any pictures of this, because at this point I was losing the will to live, but basically not only did I extend his legs, I ended up extending the train of his robes just a little bit. Just to make it a little more like the show! I had plenty of red bricks, so this was actually fairly straightforward.

So NOW it was done. Unlike this extremely long blog post. Picture time it was!

You can see he's quite a bit taller now.

Don't judge my fig-designing skills too harshly, please! I was struggling. Desperately.

This is actually the first time I am really looking at them since I finished, so I'm curious about this too.

Oops, I see in my fugue state I knocked a little tendril of the Valley Master's hair off kilter. I'll have to fix that.

Ah ha, I did fix it! I have to say I really love how we have Wen Kexing's hand behind his back here - love this modelling. This is a good angle to see the train here - I just added that last two rows, nothing special.

Hmm, I guess I should have done a straight box down at the back for Zhou Zishu's cape, vs. trying to shape the shoulders and arms from where he's holding the sword. There isn't a ton of black bricks left, but I might go back and see if I can streamline it some.

Ok, this doesn't look too bad from this angle. I could have curved his bottom back part of his hair a bit more, but I suppose it can be the braid in back.

Well, Baiyi looks good!

Finally, I remembered to take a good bottoms-up pic for these building brick figs!

And the top here. Oh, I forgot to mention I had changed up Zhou Zishu's hair tie too - it was originally light grey and light blue, but I made it light and dark grey.

Alright, I'm at 30 pics, so there we have it. Clearly not the best, and there's still clean up work to be done, but I'm pretty happy how he turned out, considering everything. At least he's not wearing white robes.

In conclusion, I will not be giving up my day job for a brick designer job, that's for sure.

Well! Thanks for tagging along with me through brick festivities! I am looking forward to the next sets coming - they look wonderful. And best of all, I don't think I'll have to change a single thing on them!

Material: Plastic bricks

Fig Count: 508

Scene Count: 35

Rating: 8 hours of build time

[link to the Master Post Index]

[pbandjesse]

Somehow today was worse then yesterday. I am so beyond upset. I could barely eat today and it was a struggle to even stand up at times. I got exactly nothing done. I was able to take a nap but not until the very end of the day. And I have just felt like garbage for the entirety of the day and cried multiple times.

So it wasn't my best day ever! Honestly it was mainly a blur. I was very exhausted and nauseous yesterday and gagged and almost threw up a few times. But today I was just scared to eat because of the fear of throwing up. And so I just. Barley ate. Which I'm sure less to how blurry and weak I felt.

I did eat some though. James woke me up when they got up. They lost their phone down the side of the bed and needed my phone to find it in the dark. I was able to go back to sleep for a bit. They would come kiss me goodbye before they headed to work. They would tell everyone that I wasn't doing well and I have an appointment on tuesday.

But more and more I don't think they are going to be able to do anything for me. I just feel so scared feeling like this.

When I got up for real it took me a bit to get up and out of bed. I brushed my teeth and washed my face but my face looked so hallow and sad.

James made me a sandwich and cut it up into pieces. I can't stand to eat the crust of the sandwich anymore. Which is insane. But I ate what I could and had a glass of milk, mainly for the protein. And laid on the couch for a long time.

Every time I eat I just end up in horrible pain for 20 minutes and it's really just. So very very disheartening. I am trying to remain positive but it feels so hopeless.

I watched to many TikToks today. Which made my head hurt. But there was absolutely nothing I wanted to watch on YouTube. I can't watch anything sad right now. Nothing where someone is disappointed. Or hurt or anything. And I want no conflict. So it's been hard to find much.

I did eventually find something to watch for a bit. I went upstairs and tried to go through my purses. I only got rid of a few, and moved all the tote bags to the kitchen. But it felt like progress.

I would move from the living room to the bedroom and back a few different times. I found that if I was perfectly flat or tilted with my head lower then my body I would become so incredibly dizzy. So I propped myself up best I could and just tried to rest.

I am trying to encourage myself by saying that thing about how if you don't rest your body will make you rest and that's what this feels like. Like I'm being forced to rest. But it's not even good rest. I'm just crying and hurting and so very tired.

I was able to eat a little of my chipotle leftovers. Which I did not throw up but it was close. I hate that this is the only thing I have to talk about but it's literally all that I can think about right now. And it sucks.

I would eventually fall asleep towards the end of the afternoon. I came down to the living to wait for James to come home. I had two fig newtons and a fruit strip. And fell asleep.

I briefly woke up when James came home. They kissed me on the head and left to go do laundry. And I kept sleeping.

I woke up at 6 and they had left me a nice note that they would be home soon. And when they got back they sat with me and folded the clothes and cut me up some watermelon. Which tasted great and didn't hurt my stomach to much.

We have been hanging out since then. James did some chores. Made themselves dinner. Babied me. It has been really tough. I am scared all the time and feel horrible. I just want to feel okay and be able to do things.

We canceled our plans for tomorrow. We may still go look st paint swatches but I am afraid of leaving the house. I just feel so weak.

I am going to go take a shower or a bath. I don't know which yet. But I hope it will make me feel okay and that I can sleep easier tonight.

I love you all. Be safe. Be well. Until tomorrow.

[tinypocketowl]

Trying a thing, and feeling a little self-conscious about it, so... I'll do it self-conscious.

My Jewish parent couldn't pass along much in the way of cultural knowledge--mostly just the need to know where your hypothetical exits are at all times, and that one summer where ugly beets at the produce market were nearly free and money was tight and we ate a lot of thin, dreadful borscht in his trailer.

I've spent the last two years working on becoming halachically Jewish--which is its own complicated feeling place--making up for what I wasn't taught and the circumstances of who that Jewish parent was, or wasn't. The day is coming up pretty fast now. And I still don't know what a good borscht tastes like. A celiac diagnosis means I haven't made challah in a decade (and it still stings, because I used to make a very good challah if nothing else). I'm still not 100% on what constitutes a kugel.

So I got some cookbooks. And this, too, is Torah, and I must learn. My goal is to try at least one thing, even if it's small, every week. PS I am not someone who has made a great habit of cooking, or even of eating, in recent years. This is not a small undertaking. I do not know how successful I can be, but I want to be, and maybe there's some joy here to be shared and that will serve as motivation? PPS Observant observers may notice kashrut discrepancies. My practice is and will always be a work in progress; for now, I eat "kosher style."

Tonight it was pan-roasted chicken with figs and olives (from the afore-modeled The New Yiddish Kitchen) and cucumber and apple salad (from Shabbat, by Adeena Sussman). I even broke down the chicken myself, and did not even set the fire alarm off, though it was a near thing. It was all pretty darn good! I might be tempted to add more figs to the chicken next time, and also to not burn the skin on half of the pieces (cleverly removed for the photo!).

[eggtholomew-isnt-emo]

as promised yesterday... my theory on transcranial electrical stimulation! (originally from my section on the rancord gen loss theory doc, feel free to check it out! i edited it a little bit just to make it better for tumblr)

"Basically, *friend* recognized the mask from their studies on Transcranial electrical stimulation. Me and *other friend* researched this a bit more, and found this article. From the National Library of medicine, this article includes studies, the effects tES has on brain cells, brain stimulation, all that good stuff. However, the main spectacle is this line right here. A quote in this article is, “It might therefore surprise some readers to know that studies directly measuring brain activity overwhelmingly support the idea that tES alters the spiking activity of neurons. In fact, studies in isolated brain slices, e.g., [9,10]; rodents, e.g., [11]; ferrets, e.g., [12]; and non-human primates [4,13–15] have largely converged on the specific finding that tES alters the timing, but not the rate, of single-neuron spiking activity at field strengths found in human brains [16,17].The effectiveness of tES is most evident in the application of tACS (Fig 1A). Neurons become entrained to the sinusoidal currents, shifting their spikes towards certain phases of the sinusoid’s waveform and away from others (Fig 1B). Control experiments have shown that this entrainment occurs independently of stimulation of peripheral nerves in the skin [14] or the retina [4], even though stimulating these structures sometimes produces similar effects.”(feel free to look through the diagrams. I didn’t but they might be interesting/helpful) Listen, I may not be a scientist, but I think this seems to suggest that tES can affect the human mind and its neurons. Since neurons affect the nerve impulses, this might be used to support the idea that Ranboo is either a meatpuppet (here in the ranboo gen loss chat, we live laugh love that word) or that he is being tortured. Neurons and its use in torture isn’t a foreign concept, it is actually very popular in torture devices. In the article, “The Future is here: Mind Control and torture in the Digital Era,” I found written by P Perez Salez, it states, “A neural implant is a device placed inside the body that interacts with neurons. In the early days these were electrodes implanted through the cortex, but over time they have evolved into microchips that require minimal surgery for implantation and do not require external power supplies. Neural implants have multiple applications in medicine, especially related to neurostimulation in motor and sensory disorders, but also epilepsy, and they are in early experimentation stage in depressive and obsessive-compulsive disorders (Costa e Silva & Steffen, 2017). This is a rapidly progressing research area in which biochips and implants are built in new and better materials that produce no tissue rejection, incorporating nanotechnologies to diminish the size and with more powerful software to control and interact with the neural system (Dabbour et al., 2021; Salari et al., 2022; Wan et al., 2021) while, again, there is no international regulation of its use (McGee & Maguire, 2007). The most important concern regarding the use of neuroimplants – not in the near future, for now - is represented by the possibility of controlling an individual’s mental functions via wireless waves interacting with the electric activity of the brain. From the perspective of torture, it has been claimed that they could be used in the future to manipulate memory and emotions and to induce hallucinations and psychotic-like symptoms, among many other harmful effects (J. Illes & Hevia, 2021; Krishnan, 2016; Leung et al., 2019).” This shows that nerves can be used in serious torture and mind control scenarios, especially in these current times. (however, I do still believe that this ARG is set in the 80s or 90s, so I’m not sure how that’ll work in that time.) EDIT AS OF MAY 28TH: We now know that it has to be closer to current days, since Ethan lost his job in the 2008 stock crash. Now, if we carry this back to tES, this can be tied together to show that, with the neurons being simulated and waves interacting with the electrical activity in the brain, someone can be tortured and/or mind controlled. "

[dianessunflower]

Art in The Good Fight (2017-2022) - Part 2

part 1 here:

this part 2 is mostly about s6, because i think you can really track what the art is doing for story and character. so, let's get into it!!

still mad the new partner Ri'Chard took away this beauty, but they're forgiven for 603's art history references.

in the scene with the Dr, Diane mentions Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, originally attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder (oil on canvas, c. 1560). it's in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.

this is absolutely fascinating, because the composition of the painting is original—to give prominence to the 'low' subject matter, being the agricultural figure, rather than Icarus, to whom Diane is drawn. this is called 'Mannerist inversion' (yes i screamed, i'm a nerd).

this piece is brilliantly used this ep. Icarus, small, drowns unnoticed by everyone else. death happens all the time, and we move on. i'm reminded of Diane's sane little corner. the world is oblivious to the tragedy of hubris, concerned only with themselves. seems apocalyptic...

which leads me to my next point. behind the Dr is a Jean Andran engraving of a painting called Winter, part of a Seasons series now in the Louvre by Nicolas Poussin from the 1660s. and what does it depict? the flood. 100% premonition of impending death.

i love that *someone* has done their NY homework and seen that Guggenheim Hilma af Klint exhibit (i am not jealous at all), because also in the Dr's office is af Klint's Tree of Knowledge, No. 5 (Kunskapens träd, nr 5), from the 1915 W Series.

for various reasons, af Klint was for a long time ignored in favour of Kandinsky, Mondrian, Kupka etc in modern Western nonrepresentational art (also her queerness 🍵). her work has two overlapping levels, one biographical and one relating to the history of humanity.

the Tree of Knowledge series is part of her series of 193 Paintings for the Temple, which was af Klint's vision for the future as given to her by a spiritual medium, to depict 'the immortal aspects of man'. hence, she uses iconography from Christianity and Hinduism.

each piece in the Tree of Knowledge series is a variation on a theme, a tree with a heart-shaped crown. and there's a progression to the biblical allusion to Genesis symbolising innocence to fall from Grace, but there are also organic forms and ornate details.

the Tree of Knowledge (of Good and Evil) is usually paired with the

symbol of the Tree of Life, and in af Klint's work, signals binaries melding into unity. but the tree also signals Buddhism (the fig tree), the Tau/life force, the Arasa Maram in Hinduism.

the colours have meaning, yellow for female and blue for male. put them together and it becomes green, and the colours have become purer. this is No. 5, so the white radiations that were pale rose-coloured in No. 4 are now inverted.

af Klint probably knew Rudolf Steiner's colour meanings—yellow as spirit, blue as soul. green as the lifeless image of the living, peach-blossom the living image of the soul. white as the soul's image of the spirit, black as the spiritual image of the lifeless (cf swans).

the 12 sections in the top lotus leaf crown seem to represent the zodiac, months. also, there's a multi-coloured, lobed 'cross' in the small box middle-right, which maybe suggests the first awakening of the higher self?? compare this to the unity of colourful two birds in the bottom circle. there's a lot to be said about how this art represents how humans navigate their smallness in the world.

as seen on 604 in Diane's office, this is Street Musicians, by the American artist Norman Lewis (oil on canvas, 1948). part of the post-war movement.

from 605, i have identified some of the pieces Ri'Chard chose for the office, and they were clearly chosen for reasons. (unfortunately i couldn't find Liz's but i love the home decor and don't doubt this was also carefully chosen.)

this is by Kara Walker, known for room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. her work illustrates the origins & legacy of slavery in the American South. i suspect there's a Civil War reference too. the 1994 piece riffs on Gone With The Wind (MOMA).

i really love this one. this is Holy Mountain II by Horace Pippin, a self-taught artist post WW1. he was influenced by Edward Hicks, a Quaker minister who painted interpretations of Isaiah’s biblical prophecy of world peace and harmony in nature (Peaceable Kingdom, c 1830-32).

though the gatherings seem tranquil, the Holy Mountain series is very dark. poppies, soldiers, grave markers, a limp body hanging from a tree... Holy Mountain I refers to D-Day, Holy Mountain II to Pearl Harbor Day, & Holy Mountain III (Smithsonian) to Nagasaki.

so there are parallels between WW1/Civil War, but it is also very Eden-esque. i rather like that the pastoral figure in a white dress with the yellow cheetah is the centre focus. all very biblical, which fits right in with Ri'Chard's style. Pippin himself stated that,

"'Holy Mountain' came to my mind because the whole world is in such trouble, and in reading the Bible (Isaiah 11:6) it says that there will be peace in the land. If a man knows nothing but hard times he will paint them, for he must be true to himself, but even that man may have a dream, an ideal and 'Holy Mountain' is my answer to such dreaming."

i was thinking about how much gold Ri'Chard brought into the office in the context of his Brand™ (1 & 2 old decor, 3 & 4 new, but none identified yet oop)

there are other etchings in the Dr's office: top: 'Rotherhithe' by James McNeill Whistler from the Thames Set (1860, V&A) bottom: 'Clearing a wreck on the north coast of Cornwall' by Thomas Rowlandson (c 1809-1822, British Museum).

Dr Dude likes ships that's all i can say 🤷‍♀️ but actually i think there's something interesting about all the Flood references in the Dr's office, like Diane is drowning. possibly, there's a subtle allusion to a very famous painting, Le Radeau de la Méduse, by Théodore Géricault (1818-19, oil on canvas, Louvre).

this is an icon of French Romanticism, depicting the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of what is now Mauritania on 2 July 1816. what's so interesting about this painting is that it presents ordinary people, rather than heroes, reacting to the unfolding drama. as Christine Riding says, the painting represents,

"the fallacy of hope and pointless suffering, and at worst, the basic human instinct to survive, which had superseded all moral considerations and plunged civilised man into barbarism."

by 607, Diane's office art has changed to a piece called Three Tumblers by Daniel Clarke (2018), perhaps a reference to her revolving office bar. also did we notice her flower obsession has dulled a little? but there are still orchids all around the office. i'll leave you to google the meaning of the original Greek word 👀

elsewhere in the office, FIRES abound on the digital screen in the conference room. flood, fire…and?

where there's a mansion, there's sure to be art (609): Asher Brown Durand, Landscape—Scene from "Thanatopsis" (1850, Met); Max Ferdinand Bredt, In the Courtyard of the Harem; John Frederick Lewis, Intercepted Correspondence (1869).

in 609 when same sex marriage is overturned (and Christine Baranski's acting chops is on full show with her shocked face), the image on the tv screen is Witch burning in Regenstein, Saxony-Anhalt, 1555. It's a wood engraving after an original printed on flyleaf (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg).

frankly there's a lot of misinformation about witch trials, not least of which is that they happened a lot later than most people think (ie. not the medieval period). the early modern period 16-17th centuries were the height of the European witchcraft trials.

and it was an ongoing, systematic persecution that resulted from the targetting of Christian heretics and Jews throughout the 14th century, and gradually both the church and scholars became more and more obsessed with demonology. it was really about the 'other', the concern about the loss of a certain way of life.

Diane, of course, calls herself a wench, so i think it's interesting that her s6 arc eventuates with her heading up a female-only law firm in DC working on women's rights and Roe v Wade. i dislike the way that the word 'witchhunt' is misappropriated like other historical terms in modern contexts, but it's probably fair to call the current backsliding on women's rights a witchhunt. so i love this double meaning.

finally, i wanted to return to how Diane's office art tracks her journey. the Surrealist art was the tone of the show throughout. but the violence seeped into the everyday and everyone just got used to it. hence the second painting is war (contrast the flowers).

but then Diane chooses to stop PT108. almost immediately, a bullet lands on the realist painting of a woman (where does she end up? in Washington DC fighting the good fight for women).

the violence doesn't end there. and then the office literally explodes & you can see a painting is off-centre. which seems like a good metaphor for where the world is at.

so yeah, the progression in Diane's office from Peony Girl to Post-War to a painted version of Chris is just chef's kiss. the way it tracks her psyche in s6? i'm obsessed.

[hieromonkcharbel]

SAINT HILARION, abbot (Hilary) ... FEAST DAY 21st OCTOBER

St. Hilary was born at Tabatha near Gaza, Palestine, in the year 291. His pagan parents sent him, while still a youth, to study at Alexandria. He was remarkable for his diligence and good manners, and he shortly became a convert to Christianity, making great progress in faith and charity. He was zealous in visiting churches, in fasting and prayer, in scorning all earthly joys and pleasures. Lured by the fame of St. Anthony, Egypt's illustrious hermit, he entered the desert and for two months remained his disciple. While absent, his parents died. Now Hilary gave all he had to the poor, and although hardly fifteen years old (306), he returned to the desert, built a little hut scarcely large enough to accommodate himself, and slept on the bare ground.

Most of his time was spent in reading and in meditating upon holy Scripture. A few figs and a little soup from herbs sufficed for his nourishment, but this he never took before the setting of the sun. Because of his mortifications and humility, he triumphed over fierce assaults by the evil one and healed many who were possessed. After founding numerous hermitages (he had two thousand followers) and working countless miracles, he became ill at the age of eighty. In his last agony he encouraged himself by saying: "Go thither, my soul, why do you fear? Why do you tremble? Seventy years you have served Christ, and now you fear death?" The day of Hilary's death is given as October 21, 371. His grave is on the island of Cyprus. St. Jerome wrote the life of the holy hermit twenty years after his death.

[lit-crits]

(2022) The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (Illustrated Edition by Beya Rebai). 28/08/2024 - 01/09/2024

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 9/10

Favourite quote: "I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet."

Gift from my boyfriend! Been on my reading list for AGES and this edition is sooooooo pretty. I loved this book and will definitely be reading it again. The fig tree analogy is my favourite thing about this book, so many things can be taken from it and the whole thing is beautifully written. Esther is such a good character (loads of discussions I've read online say she is a badly written character but I don't see it), she is immediately morbid right off the bat which sets her up as different to the rest of the women she lives and works with. She sees how hypocritical societal standards for women are, how she has to remain a virgin till marriage but Buddy (her boyfriend/fiancé to be?) can have sex with other women with little consequence. Sex is a key theme in the book which I didn't really expect, I think it was really interesting that when Esther gets on birth control (due to her supportive female psychiatrist, Dr Nolan - a lot to say about her) and does finally have sex (not with Buddy) she literally haemorrhages and has to go to hospital - this bit is never really fully explained by Plath. She bleeds a LOT directly after sex and then the doctor in the hospital says she is one of a kind and winks at her when he is examining her - I did not get what this meant and I can't find any answers online either? Either way it is INTERESTING that when she finally gets to have sex it is bloody and destructive. Back to Dr Nolan, she was obviously written to be the shining example of what Esther wants to be: an independent, professional woman. Nolan actively helps Esther become more independent by helping her get on birth control which gives her the sexual freedom she has always envied men for. Nolan is arguably the key reason Esther even gets better at the asylum, she is a progressive woman who supports Esther's way of thinking and she convinces Esther to try shock therapy again (after it was done incorrectly by a male doctor previously). Nolan is there right at the end of the book too, when Esther is about to go in for her review with the board of doctors, to help guide her back into society. The bit with Joan being heavily implied to be a lesbian went right over my head, had to go back and re-read that bit once I saw that analysis online. I had just read it as Joan was a mirror of Esther, and what she would have become if she hadn't gotten better which I still do think, but Joan was quite obviously crushing on Esther. I really really really did not expect Esther to make an assumed full recovery from her mental illnesses, I had presumed she was going to kill herself and that would be the end of the book. My one complaint is that Esther's descent into becoming mentally unwell seemed really quick to me, which I guess is how it can actually be in real life, like one chapter she was feeling a bit disconnected and emotionless then the next she was self-harming and planning her suicide. Overall, great book that I really recommend!

[returntosaturn271995]

Friday, October 20th: Later that night

So I went ahead and did everything I said I was going to. Spicy fig mayo, folding laundry, reading, and 20 minutes of yoga.

Turns out, with that kept promise, I have hit 100 days of yoga this year so far. (I started in February, took a month off in August before I resubscribed end of September). That's close to one out of three days I stretched and I have the rest of the year to up the number.

In the "Defining Decade" chapter, I read about how essentially before thirty is the time to get more diligent and less neurotic before it sets in. Taylor Tomlinson once referred to it as getting garbage out of the lake before it freezes over. Self-confidence is trust that we can get the job done.

Maybe that's why I feel like my progress is so fragile sometimes, that I'm only as good as my last success. Confidence comes from successes and failures. Surviving both and having a growth rather than a fixed mindset. I knew I could do 20 minutes of yoga today because I had done 40 before. I knew I could run my 5 K because I had done it before.

Confidence is the result of a struggle, not the absence of one. It's the result of not having something and then working until you have it. You know you have it because you remember how you got it. That's why the shin splint scares me, because I worry if I don't run for a week or two, my progress will slip. But that doesn't erase the 47 runs I did this year and I started the last couple days of July.

It's fragile and new. But I'm resilient. I can rewire. I can grow. Eventually, I need to relax, not cling to the habits I once half-heartedly committed to. Let a few things go and keep what matters.

Today I hit a landmark. Of all kinds.

And it was also a day that wasn't my best mentally to start...and to middle.

I can still trust myself on these days. Treat myself like a sim character, stepping away from my thoughts and freaking out, and just working to turn my little diamond thing green.

[sunmmon8689]

THERE’S A SAYING, “AS MEEK AS GRASS, AS SMALL AS A FIG, AS HEROIC AS A MIGHTY WARRIOR”. It sounds strange, doesn’t it? But if we reflect on it, we find that the combination of these three characteristics creates a perfect soul that helps us be liberated from samsara. Lacking any of these three characteristics, we are imperfect and our spiritual road will be blocked.

THE THREE ESSENTIALS OF A PERFECT MIND

AS MEEK AS GRASS

It’s believed that the ordained are meek. When writing about the life of venerable monks, the authors often build the image of compassion, tolerance, and generosity because they are the foundation of spiritual practice and they are the target of our spiritual practice, too.

A stubborn, aggressive, and persistent person will become obedient, gentle, and tolerant after his long time of practice without which, such a transformation cannot occur. Most people like to tell others what to do. However, for those who make progress in their spiritual practice find it happy to be told what to do. This feeling is contrary to that of ordinary people.

Humans often hunger for power, and that’s why there were many bloody battles in history. In ancient times, many officials had command of the mighty army and many servants but still desired the throne. The kings of powerful countries brought their troops to occupy other countries to expand their power and become the world leader.

Men have spent money, made much effort, and used many tricks to gain the authority to order others and decide their lives.

When we give others to others, we feel more powerful than them. But when we know this feeling is because of our vast egos which are the cause of all our suffering. When a practitioner can reduce his ego, he sees himself dust and is willing and happy to do whatever others order him.

He feels satisfied with his obedience, and at that time, he clearly understands what happiness is. We must practice so that we will have such a feeling and prefer being ordered than ordering others.

We can know if that person made progress in his spiritual cultivation. If he made little progress, he would get angry. He would feel proud of his being wealthy, so he might think, “How can you ask a dear disciple of the abbot to take the garbage away?” But if that man made significant progress, he would be happy to do the work although the person who ordered him was just a poor woman. If the man could do it, he didn’t belong to this human realm but the divine one – the realm of beings who are as meek as dust. If that person got angry, he still belongs to this world and will be reborn into this world full of competition, love, and hate.

We practice spirituality in order to attain the mind as meek as grass. Grass will bend into the direction the wind blows and lies on the ground when people trample on it and then get up again.

Collected.

#moralitymakesabetterworld

#morality

#meditation

[fourseasonsfigs]

Moonlight Night

Day Two of this Junzhe Extended Universe week continues with this beautiful fig. Here we have Zhang Zhehan as Long Feiye in The Legend of Yunxi, the show I still haven't made any progress in since the last time I posted a Long Feiye fig.

Long Feiye is Prince Qin, the cold, noble prince with the heart of gold. He very rarely smiles, we are lucky to have this one with a quirky sideways smile - my favorite! He does actually have this smile in the poster for the show:

Similar to a number of Long Feiye figs, the name of this fig is a variant on "night". The “ye” in Long Feiye’s name 龙非夜 up there in the poster is the same as the character for night (夜), so that becomes an easy shorthand for fig makers. The name Moonlight Night for this fig is particularly appropriate since Zhehan is wearing white moonlight colored robes.

I've become a big fan (ahaha, inadvertent pun, I promise!) of these polystyrene boxes. I just got a big shipment of figs where I tried not air column wrapping all these resin figs in these type of boxes. They all arrived unscathed. Not a broken fig in the bunch. I lost a couple of Wen Kexing hairpin ends, but that's totally typical since it's such a delicate piece (ironically, those were figs I did air column bubble wrap!).

You're getting enormously cute, very blurry eyes in exchange for sharper focus on his fan-holding hand. You can see the little valley where his fan will sit. I will note the fan just sat in that little fan-holding valley very, very loosely. If I just exhaled too hard in his general direction, the fan fell out! I really hate to do anything permanent to my figs, but in this case the fan got glued in. There was nothing to be done.

Speaking of fans, both sides of the fan are black. I was hoping one of the sides would have the beautiful flower blossom branch like you see in the picture, but no. It would have been beautiful, but I guess this way the focus goes to the fig's face vs an ornate fan.

His little smile is particularly charming from this angle!

So cute! Something about the proportions of this fig seem extra adorable to me - I think because the hair style makes the big round head extra-chibi.

Just a broad expanse of white flowy robes in the back. I really like the gentle waves of fabric so we get a sense of volume and weight.

I also love that we have a full decoration on the back of his guan. The fig makers really do try to get all the details they can.

As you can tell, this fig stands quite well. His feet aren't overly tiny and balance him nicely.

The fan looks really good. Nice and straight set. Even though I would have liked the fan to be patterned, the black really works with the overall color theme.

The smile is great from this angle, too!

That guan is something. I don't really care for the general guzhuang style of severe, tightly pulled back hair with an enormous teetering hair crown. Long Feiye's hair at least is not pulled back tightly, but I still prefer when the hairdressers give more volume and bangs / wispies around the face. Just softens the over all look I think. That being said, this fig is perfectly, perfectly adorable!

This is a pretty good angle to see his waist ornament. It's not very detailed, it's more a little bit of ornamental color here to coordinate with the overall outfit.

The fig maker did a beautiful job with the detailing on the guan. I love, love, love that it actually has cutouts, and you can see the bound up hair in the inside. What a great detail.

You can see one of the cutouts a little more clearly here.

Beautiful box cards! I love it when the fig makers design art scenes on the cards.

If you like Long Feiye, let me just make a shameless plug for my all time favorite Long Feiye fig, which is part of a pair in Tianshu Beichen -Dog's Blood Drama. If you haven't seen it, it's totally worth checking out, I promise. Zombie Prince Long Feiye? yes please!

Material: Resin

Fig Count: 408

Scene Count: 29

Rating: The moonlight is beautiful tonight

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[dramamelon]

Minifig Repaint Project #3

[ part 1 | part 2 ]

All of the figs are out of the Bath! (Finally....) The blue ones took for-freaking-ever. So far, two others have joined Prowl in needing some shaping work with the files—Sunstreaker and Soundwave.

Because they went in a reblog and were probably missed by anyone paying attention (I hold no lofty ideas about how much attention my stuff gets, yo. 😂), I'll start with them here.

Ironhide, Megatron, Bumblebee (some spots of that yellow just did not want to let go), and Starscream. Amusing note: both Megatron and Starscream were painted with a silver base coat. Not so amusing? It was difficult to tell if I'd actually gotten it removed in places. -_-

Sunstreaker and Wheeljack. Just like Bumblebee, Sunny still has little bits of yellow that just would not let go. Wheeljack has tiny surface flaws that clung to tiny bits of white, too. But, they're clean enough.

Thundercracker and Shockwave! I despaired over either of them getting clean. The blue paint just did not want to budge and the purple on Shockers? Boy, that stuff was good, just badly applied. (And his underboob was a terrible spot to clean.)

And Optimus! His base coat was metallic red and that wasn't the worst color to get off, kind of middling really. He held on so long because I think he feared going gray again. 🤣 *slaps knee*

And just an hour or so ago, finally pulled out Soundwave and Ultra Magnus. Two very, very blue boys. Oof. Soundwave has so many tiny details, too, that it was even worse. He's still got quite a bit of blue, comparative to Magnus and TC, honestly. I don't really have the tools to get deeper, though, so he's good enough.

Also, if you look around his arm blaster, you can see where Sounders needs some shaping. Should be quick for him.

Same with Sunny. His head kind of slopes back into his backpack and that is just not gonna work for me. So, shaping he gets. 💛

Prowl's shaping is progressing. I've got maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of his wing free and have reached the point of needing to shape around where his arm should be.

Next update will come after the shaping is done and it's time for them all to get ready for painting.

[nancypullen]

Progress

While parts of the interior of the house are still in limbo, today I went out to play in the dirt and, OH, it was good for me.  Pretty sure the previous owners never pulled a weed, spaces that were probably flower beds once upon a time were a hot mess.  I snapped this when I was making progress on the west side of the house.

See what I mean?  A mess. But look at that rich soil!  I eventually got it tidied up and...

because I’m lucky enough to have a daughter-in-law who is a botanist and happens to have a green house, I already had some beautiful tomato plants and herbs to put in.

I’ll still need to get some tomato cages and some sort of edging for the space, but I feel good having the plants in.  I weeded in the front as well and put in a few red geraniums and some lobelia, I still have a long way to go in that bed - but I’m still deciding what I want to do.  In the back yard there’s a little hump that looks like there was an attempt at landscaping.  It had three clumps of Monkey Grass on it, which I promptly dug up and replaced with lavender. I’ve been making note of what’s going in where and I have to admit that while I was pulling out that Monkey Grass I was reliving every Dateline episode I’ve ever watched. “Is there something buried here?”...”Why were they in such a hurry to close and leave?”...”Bet they took the money from the sale and fled the country...”

Don’t be surprised if you see a CNN report featuring a backhoe in our yard.

I have a few yard projects in mind, and this little fellow has a starring role.  Isn’t he adorable?  When I saw him I immediately thought of Charlotte’s Web - that’s some pig.

I couldn’t resist him. I’m rolling in Lowe’s money because the people I love know me well.  My Rat Patrol friends and both sons have filled my wallet with Lowe’s gift cards and I’m parsing it out a bit at a time on things that make me happy.  Isn’t that lovely?  I never, ever forget how lucky I am to have such good people in my life. Speaking of good people, on Sunday we went over to the other Pullen house and filled our hearts and tummies.  The sweet grandgirl entertained us and Tyler and Jamie made amazing homemade pizzas in their fancy schmancy outdoor pizza oven.  The grandgirl’s pizza of choice was ham and pineapple. No thanks.  The rest of us ate delicious combinations - chorizo, pesto, pistachio, cotija and plenty of gooey cheese as well as fig, feta, walnut ,mozzarella, and just a drizzle of honey (that one is my favorite!).

 It was a wonderful day, exactly what we’d imagined when we started this journey.  We’re going to be a regular presence in our grandgirl’s life and watch her grow up.  That squeezes my heart.  It’s an easy drive from our place to theirs, close enough to go whenever we want but far enough away not to be up in their business all the time. Heading over the bridge at dusk on a Sunday made it a peaceful trip.  

By the time we made it home that great big moon was hanging in the sky lighting up our little patch.  It was a sweet welcome home. We didn’t stay up for the eclipse, we hit the sack early (for us).  Maybe we’ll catch the one in November.  Big day tomorrow. Mickey has to go back to work (BOOOOO!) and I’m going to visit the library and get my card.  That’s a big deal to me, that’s part of making a town into a hometown.   So there you have it - we had a busy, productive, happy couple of days.  Each day we feel more at home and the house feels more like ours.  We’ll get there.  We’re already making happy memories. More tomorrow. Stay safe, stay well. XOXO, Nancy

[thegrapeandthefig]

Attempting to set up a "holiday decoration" box

One of the things that make holidays feel like holidays is symbolic decor. There's a reason why, when December comes around, people get excited about shiny garlands, gingerbread cookies and branches of holy/mistletoe. If you take those elements apart, they don't really mean much but once in context, they communicate a particular message linked to a particular tradition. While I've taken a Christian example, the association of symbolism to specific religious event is something that is found across cultures and faiths.

For hellenic reconstructionists, the question of "what do the festivals mean and how did people celebrate?" is very real, especially when the information is fragmentary and doesn't do justice to the religious diversity of the Ancient World.

the Eiresione: the eiresione is a branch of olive or laurel that is adorned with wool, dried fruits, nuts, sometimes little flasks of oil or honey. I'm putting it first because there's a lot to cover. It's part of at least the Pyanepsia, but some people associate it with both the Pyanepsia and the Thargelia, and I would even be tempted to add the Delphinia. The pattern is that those are all festivals to Apollo.

Plutarch, in his Life of Theseus (22), gives us more details:

At that feast they also carry the so-called ‘eiresione,’ which is a bough of olive wreathed with wool, such as Theseus used at the time of his supplication, and laden with all sorts of fruit-offerings, to signify that scarcity was at an end, and as they go they sing:—

"Eiresione for us brings figs and bread of the richest, brings us honey in pots and oil to rub off from the body, Strong wine too in a beaker, that one may go to bed mellow."

The part in bold is what leads me to believe there might be a link with the Delphinia, even if they don't have the same ritual purpose, as Plutarch also describes earlier in Life of Theseus (18.1):

When the lot was cast, Theseus took those upon whom it fell from the prytaneium and went to the Delphinium, where he dedicated to Apollo in their behalf his suppliant's badge. This was a bough from the sacred olive-tree, wreathed with white wool. Having made his vows and prayers, he went down to the sea on the sixth day of the month Munychion, on which day even now the Athenians still send their maidens to the Delphinium to propitiate the god.

In the ritual for the Pyanopsia, the eiresione would be carried by a young boy during the procession to the temple of Apollo, where it would be placed at the door. That being said, there's indication that people had their own eiresione at home, close to their house door:

several passages of Aristophanes which show that any normal house in Athens might be expected to have one outside the front door all year round; [...] The orator Lycurgus associates the origin of the custom with an ancient famine, and says ‘decorating a large olive branch with everything that the seasons produce at that time they dedicated it to Apollo in front of their doors, calling it eiresione, making first fruit offerings of all the products of the earth, because the suppliant branch placed with Apollo ended the famine in our land.’

-Robert Parker, Polytheism and Society at Athens, 2005

We could go on and on with this topic, but the point is just that the eiresione is meant to be a bringer of wealth to the household. Its purpose and use in religious festival make it an item to consider when thinking about stuff to add to your religious paraphernalia.

Garlands: They are mentioned in sources and probably could exist both made out of flowers and fabric but we don't really know what they actually looked like. This seems like a generally versatile festival decoration. Colour-coding could be an interesting modern adaptation.

Wreaths: following with the garland logic, this is something that seems very universal and could easily be adapted to the time of the year/festival. Olive wreaths for important Athena festivals, laurel for Apollo, vine for Dionysus, wheat for Demeter etc. Wreaths could make up for a very rich and handy way of decorating for specific festivals.

Phallus and phallic imagery: Again, a symbol that comes up in processions, especially for Dionysus. I'm aware this isn't the easiest to pull off, but if 1) you're fine with the imagery and 2) have the freedom to decorate your house however you want, this is something to consider for Dionysian and Demeter festivities.

Torches, fire imagery/candles: Fire is a bit of a given considering the central place of the hearth in this religion, but I wanted to bring it up for some specific events. The Prometheia, the Panathenieia and the Hephaisteia all included a torch race. The Mounychia also featured "little torches" (dadia) that were put on the cake-offerings to Artemis (the amphiphontes).

Cow and bull imagery: Appropriate for Zeus and Hera-centered festivals, especially the Dipolieia.

Bear imagery: Especially appropriate for the Brauronia.

This is a work in progress, and I will probably update those ideas in the future. It's while making the holiday cards that I realized what was missing was clear symbolism for the festivals that are part of my religious calendar. Feedback and ideas more than welcome.