Daily Manna from the 'Net - Friday, July 29, 2005

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair-every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
Proverbs 2:9-15 TNIV Bible

i subscribe to a daily bible verse from the International Bible Society. this was today's entry, which i find quite appropriate. i feel that God is placing some wisdom in my heart at this time in answer to my prayers. you can subscribe to their daily verse emails here.

pizza smileys

i like this smiley gif too:

my friend's new shirt!

i really like my friend's new fun shirt, especially the uneven stripes and the yellow color, which matches perfectly with smiley faces.

obviously i am in a silly mood this evening. it must be mercury retrograde :)



aren't these little annoying smiley faces great?

unrelated things

cosmic weather

this month's cosmic weather features numerous unsettling events. first up was saturn's transition from cancer to leo last saturday [7/16]. this 2.5 yr stay will certainly be noticed by everyone, just like a Leo wants it to be. lots of tears, drama, the works.

tonight's cosmic menu features july's 2nd FULL MOON! or what our ancestors used to call a "blue moon". there's nothing blue about this moon, full on in capricorn and totally opposing the sun in cancer. full moons reveal the sun sign's "shadow" or opposite. tonight is no exception. best bet is to stay calm and stay clear of anyone who could push your buttons, because emotions are 'on tap' tonight, courtesy of the sun in watery, thin-skinned cancer. capricorns hate waterlogged emotional displays, so put a lid on it.

the last july feature is mercury turning RETROGRADE in Leo on 7/22. the shadow period for this mercury retrograde began last saturday, 7/16, meaning that communications, travel, technology began their descent to chaos last week and this effect will peek over the next 3 wks until 8/15, when mercury goes direct. extra weight is on this retrograde with saturn newly minted in Leo too. look for infantile behavior, miscommunication with children and teenagers, and a general air of fun with a price during this time. also, if you can help it, don't sign anything, or purchase any big ticket items now [like a house or car]. it will break down endlessly. if you don't believe me, try it and get back to me later. if buying a car, make sure a friend owns a reliable foreign one who can drive you to pick up your ride at the auto repair shop.



my moods: i feel like a tempest in a snapple bottle. my insides are turbid now at best, and sometimes i feel like there's a macy's fireworks display going off in my head. i'm being bombarded by uranus in pisces, and right now the 'force' is very strong, whipping me up like the ocean during a hurricane. not the best combo with all the cosmic weather we're having lately. i've been trying to keep my lid on tight and just wait it out, but its hard. large quantities of water [emotions] exert lots of internal pressure. blek.

the lighter side

finally, my interest in firetrucks have been piqued. a coworker is also a volunteer fireman, and they operate a "pumper". the one he runs is a very modern truck with lots of automation, very sleek. well, last weekend i noticed a sad rusty old firetruck parked next to the supermarket i was going to, and i decided to take some photos with my phone. here they are:


i think the truck is from the 1950's. it was just sitting there.


it was very large, very tall, and not in great condition.


its pumper controls were all manual.


even though the truck was in a state of decay, it had its two hoses neatly folded in its bed, which i thought was strange. the hoses looked like they were decaying.


the cabin was 1950s-60s style, with lots of chrome. it was also a stickshift. could you imagine driving something as husky as this with a clutch? unbelievable.

well, that wraps things for now during this turbulent month. have a nice day :)

well today....

what an exhausting 6 wks! from my friend's wedding, to my severely dysfunctional family and their knife-in-the-back guilt-laden heavy-handed behaviors, to my crappy car and its endless problems, to purchasing a new used car, to work problems, friendship problems, cat problems, toe fungus issues, and blah blah blah…i'm fucking tired. i'm exhausted—physically, mentally. emotionally, and spiritually. i feel like i've had the crap beaten out of me. bleh.

this time of year is never kind for me, every year there's some bullshit that winds its way from about May thru October. every year i keep hoping the pattern will change, but it doesn't, just new issues every year. last year i'd just graduated w/my BA and MA, then my employer had a family crisis and one of the members turned into a shrieking freak for 3 months, then my car broke, then i got strep in my ear [painful and nasty], 5 rounds of antibiotics, then an ear tube, then i thought i'd damaged my hearing and went into a deep depression for months. then my car broke again, on and off, for the whole month of september, then a close friend totally betrayed me, then my family betrayed me. what a shitty summer. the only good thing last year was i got to see Madonna in Philly on july 4th—an incredible concert by an incredible lady! but even that was compromised since my ear was so fucked up. i had to wear plugs.

Summer 2005 hasn't been quite as awful as that, but March-May was brutal, with a similar right ear infection that i ended up with a months antibiotics that scraped my stomach out. the ear is healing now, but slowly. i've been blessed with a new used car, and i thank God for it, and hope i won't have mechanical problems like the last one. but i had to buy it 4 months sooner than expected, and i'm broke. pleasure right now for me is splurging on name-brand yogurt at pathmark. but i can't complain…things are looking up in several areas of my life. but i'm impatient, and want it all to change now, and i know the changes i'm starting now will take some time to manifest. its hard to be patient sometimes.

other things that are freaky now are other people. i feel like i've shifted to an alternate wavelength regarding all my relationships, and its just been weird. one thing thats fueling this i think is that i am starting to take back myself. i am an extremely giving person by nature, and being the typical pisces will sacrifice and put aside my own wants needs schedule and requirements for others in a heartbeat. for as long as i can remember i've been giving myself away, much to my own detriment it now seems.

the Uranus in Pisces thing is in full force with me, and its been going back and forth over my Sun in Pisces at 8-degrees for over a year now. Uranus is the force of volatile abrupt change, clearing of the decks, shakeup of patterns and systems, and in general, just change change change. Uranus is sortof ripping me a new asshole in a sense. pushing things in front of my eyes that i really didn't want to pay attention to; and one of the most pertinent and protracted is this giving away of myself, draining of my resources [physical, mental, and spiritual] until i'm empty and depressed. in layman's speak its called "people pleasing" and i am its #1 example. Uranus has been telling me for over a year now that it must stop, and its been forcing issues, pushing confrontations, anything, to get me to own myself again, to discover my unique identity, my likes and dislikes, and most importantly, my boundaries—what behaviors and relationships i want, will accept, and feel nourished in, and whether or not what i've got going on now is pushing me towards growth or sucking me dry. "Pisces" and "boundaries" aren't usually in the same universe—boundaries are most pisces acillies' heel and most of us don't have any. well, Uranus is seeing to it that this is gonna change, big time. but the change will be constant and slow for a while. very draining.

one thing i've been reading about is that while i'm changing [and this goes for any Sun sign Pisces now], many people prefer me as is—the apologetic people pleaser—and some will protest and not be supportive of my changing. some may throw hissy fits, be extra sandpapery in their dealings with me, treat me shoddily because i'm not living up to their expectations of me, or whatever way they can see to draw my attention away from myself, which is where its cosmically supposed to be right now. whatever it is, the need to unchange the change is there all over the place. i'm not saying there's anything evil here, but many, if not most people are generally afraid of change, except if you've got mutability stamped all over your chart, and a common reaction to change is to dig in, hold on, and stubbornly refuse to accept the changes, whatever they are.

i'm not expected to pay attention to myself. i've set a bad precedent. many pisces will succumb to the pressure and unchange themselves out of guilt—but this is a very bad misuse of Uranus energy and the blowback, when it comes, could be fierce. one of the things i've read lately is that Sun Pisces can't allow their guilt to overwhelm them now, they must embrace the changes, adapt, and flow with them. this use of the energy will eventually be very productive, but it will take time.

so i've been trying to be careful about the guilt thing and that's lead me to questions. if i have to play the servant/slave all the time, what use is the relationship to me? how does it benefit me?--these are questions i've not ever asked before. but really, what does and doesn't benefit me? what do i want?—which is i think a classic question that most Sun Pisces will be faced with sometime during the Uranus transit, and a scary question at that. boundary issues. i want relationships that are balanced, and thats part of what this transit is about and i guess why things have been very very unbalanced lately, allowing me to see just how out of balance most of my relationships are. so i'd have to rate my uncomfortability with myself and environment as quite high at this time. and of course, comfort doesn't promote change, only uncomfortableness and pain do. stay tuned.

time for a new bumper sticker

my poorly-designed and inferiorly-manufactured american made car finally gave up the ghost last week and it became necessary to put it out of its misery. having been thru 3 US car ownerships, complete with constant and staggeringly costly repair bills, i finally came to the conclusion millions have already discovered…American cars SUCK. since i don't have McMillions to flush on idiotic repair bills just to keep an american car running, and american autoworkers employed, i finally went and purchased my second well-built, reliable used Japanese car [my first was totalled via auto accident].

so now comes the responsibility to add a pithy and/or silly bumper sticker to my new vehicle, hereafter named Sebastian. currently i'm toying with these choices:

but the one i am most tempted to stick to my bumper is:

i've always wanted to drive around with that message blaring from my bumper. a worthy thought indeed. well we'll see.

by the way, while at my local Nissan dealer i noticed the place was PACKED with customers on all 3 days i visited. my salesman confirmed that its always like this, and he hardly has a moment to eat lunch. hmmm…

…so if there's no shortage of car consumers in need of purchasing vehicles, why then must GM, Ford, and Chrysler [which isn't really American anymore, but pretends to be by building crap] run special "Employee Discount" campaigns just to get suckers in the door? could it possibly be…no…no, say it isn't so…could it be that perhaps their cars SUCK and consumers are aware that GM, Ford, and Chrysler built vehicles are the shittiest in the land?…even with a "discount". if you've already succumbed and bought one via the "Employee Discount" sale, i'd strongly suggest you put the money you saved in the bank so you have it handy for withdrawal when your vehicle ends up in the shop, which will of course be continuously throughout your ownership. good luck :)

saturn in cancer, and a clear case of opposites

what is up with Mr. Tom Cruise? is he having the most blatant mid-life crisis or what?? don't get me wrong, i've been a TC fan for years, and had thought that on top of mr. cruise being exceptionally handsome, that he was a complete gentleman. but things have been getting weird with him for some time now. i think Vanilla Sky was the first clue of unbalanced self-absorption. how could he go from Jerry McGuire stuff to that?

well, needless to say, mr. cruise has been under the gun the past couple of years with Saturn sitting on his Sun. saturn's been in Cancer for the past 2 years, and anyone with significant planets in Cancer or Capricorn has been feeling the heat. like Mr. Tom here. but there's still little excuse for his idiotic behavior of late. he should just shut up already about his cult religion and naive girlfriend, who doesn't look like she's really given thought to what she's been doing lately.

ever since mr. cruise fired his long time PR person and replaced her with his sister things have been sliding south. it seems his sister is encouraging mr. tom to "be himself". hmmm... well if being yourself means your showing the world your a pompous high-school dropout jerk who was beaten up at Glen Ridge High School, well then i guess so be it. but you'd better be clear on the fact that you're probably gonna damage the very thing that people need to see your movies: transparency.

i couldn't bring myself to go see War of the Worlds because i couldn't get mr. "tomcat" out of my head long enough to suspend my belief. Collateral was the same. i think if TC keeps it up it could seriously alter his movie-draw status, especially among his main fan-base, which happen to be women. no woman in her right mind loves to pay $10 to see a pompous jerk.

well, TC should be relieved soon, since Saturn is leaving Cancer on July 16th. all the Cancers and Cappys will be able to breath a sigh of relief then. but wait...Leos are next! and Hollywood is filled with Leos, so i would bet the next two years of Saturn in Leo will bring plenty of hijinks and drama to LALA land. along with a few national leader changes and regime dumping parties. what fun!

being fascinated with the astrological concept of opposition, i couldn't help but tune in for the Lauer/Cruise bout that recently aired on the Today Show. cruise is a sunsign Cancer and lauer a classic sunsign Capricorn, true opposites that happened to face off in front of an audience of millions. TC let his powerful watery emotions overpower him, and he came off looking like an ignorant jerk, while ML, in true Capricorn fashion kept his cool and finished the interview looking classy and well-heeled.

for London and rest of the world

For London:

Prayer Against Violence by Carol Penner

Perfect love casts our fear and so today we pray for your spirit of Love on our world.
Cast out the strapping of bombs to bodies.
Cast out the explosion of bombs in crowded places.
Cast out the tricking of children to carry bombs.
Cast out the desperation that leads people to terrorist acts.
Cast out the making of walls that divide and imprison us.
Cast out the firing of missiles and the bulldozing of homes.
Cast out the prejudice against people of a certain race or culture.
Cast out the political structures that perpetuate violence.
Cast out the hatred that produces fear.
Send down the courage to reach out in peace.
Send down the resolution to not return evil for evil.
Send down the creativity to find peaceful political solutions
Send down the wisdom that politicians and diplomats need.
Send down the commitment to work together to end terrorism.
Send down the power of nonviolence to create change.
Send down the comfort and justice that victims need.
Send down the love that will end our fear.
We ask these things in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, Amen.

Original posting can be found here.

For the World:

I desire neither earthly kingdom,
nor even freedom from birth and death.
I desire only the deliverance from grief
of all those afflicted by misery.
Oh Lord, lead us from the unreal to the real;
from darkness to light;
from death to immortality.
May there be peace in celestial regions.
May there be peace on earth.
May the waters be appeasing.
May herbs be wholesome and
may trees and plants bring peace to all.
May all beneficent beings bring peace to us.
May thy wisdom spread peace all through the world.
May all things be a source of peace to all and to me.
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
--hindu peace prayer - mahatma Gandhi

Beloved, Inmost Heart of every heart,
do not Let our human hearts be broken
by our merely mortal suffering here-
but Make our mortal human hearts break-Free
to an unconditional love of You,
that we may, Thus, love all living beings
with Love's own True, and Truly broken, Heart.
--the universal world-prayer - ruchira avatar adi da samraj

O God, we pray for all those in our world
who are suffering from injustice:
For those who are discriminated against
because of their race, color or religion;
For those imprisoned
for working for the relief of oppression;
For those who are hounded
for speaking the inconvenient truth;
For those tempted to violence
as a cry against overwhelming hardship;
For those deprived of reasonable health and education;
For those suffering from hunger and famine;
For those too weak to help themselves
and who have no one else to help them;
For the unemployed who cry out
for work but do not find it.
We pray for anyone of our acquaintance
who is personally affected by injustice.
Forgive us, Lord, if we unwittingly share in the conditions
or in a system that perpetuates injustice.
Show us how we can serve your children
and make your love practical by washing their feet.
--mother teresa

Know other creatures' love for life,
For they are like you.
Kill them not; save their life from fear and enmity.
All creatures desire to live, not to die.
Hence to kill is to sin.
A godly man does not kill.
Therefore, kill not yourself, consciously or
Unconsciously, living organisms which move
Or move not, nor cause slaughter of them.
He who looketh on the creatures of the earth,
Big and small, as his own self, comprehendeth this immense world.
Among the careless, he who restraineth self is enlightened.
--ahimsa parmo dharma - jain prayer of nonviolence

Source of these prayers are here.

supreme court injustices

fresh from empowering meglomaniacs everywhere to embrace eminent domain, sandra day o'connor, that pixyish tweedle-dee supreme court injustice, is retiring. well, fancy that! i guess it isn't that much a surprise considering that another iconic figure of incompetence, the late, cerebrally-adled ronald reagan nominated her in the first place.

i don't know about you, but i haven't felt "served" by our supreme injustices in a very long time. they may be the third branch of our right-wing, fundamentalist-christian government, but their attitudes certainly reek of arrogance, elitism, and partisan politics. remember Thurgood Marshall? the Honorable Justice Marshall was perhaps the last person to claim a seat on the supremes who embodied the integrity, impartiality, fairness, and sense of Justice that served the common person's good. a truly great judge who knew that his position, although elevated, was to SERVE the people. of course, Marshall was replaced by a pillar of idiocy, clarence thomas, whose most famous actions seem to be his butt-grabbing antics on Laura Hill. butt, i digress...

advanced age may translate to wisdom, but not always. sometimes it just makes for people who are completely out of touch with the rest of society, and those types should spend as much time perfecting their gardening skills and bingo as possible and just drop out from anything that can negatively affect society, really. certainly there are many persons of advanced age that contribute their wisdom and experience, but they seem to still be in touch with life in the current decade.

i think our current crop of 'supreme' justices should be at bingo rather than affecting the world we must live in; they're completely out of touch with society, the common person's struggles, american culture, and anything that occurred after 1956…and it shows.

how? you ask; well, please lets not forget that we have sandra-day-o, souter, thomas, and the rest for the greatest travesty of justice in the past quarter century. they are to blame for the elevation of this moron



to the US presidency in the first place, which of course resulted in 9-11, our current economic dumpster dive, the 1984-ish "patriot" act, the lie that is the iraq war [resulting in 100,000 iraq deaths, nearly 2,000 US soldier deaths, and 5,000 US soldiers who are disabled for life], and the dilemma o'connor has just ignited: the above said moron, who also happens to be a draft-dodger, liar, murderer, and bigot, gets to pick the person, or ignorant crackpot who will replace her. she's only 75, she works in DC, she can see things are a mess--and she couldn't wait 2 more years to step down? o'conner's actions are unbecoming of a person of her supposed intellectual superiority; even rinquest is holding on by a thyroid tendon, yet i guess the gardening and bingo o'connor is missing out on is beckoning louder than justice and common sense. well, i guess good riddance.

of course, the white house probably already has the next supreme nomination set to go, but while here, as a US citizen, and person who values justice and liberty, i'd like to offer up my 2-cents. i think the choice is obvious; the justice to fill o'connor's shoes should be another woman, perhaps a misunderstood minority, a champion of human rights, but most importantly, they must be in touch with our 21st century world, able to make just and fair decisions that serve the common man. this can only mean one person:



…Michael Jackson. the only person who could fill o'connor's shoes with dignity! don't laugh…he is in fact more IN TOUCH with the world than any of the current supreme court corpses. i also think he'd look fantastic in that black robe.

have a great day.