Thursday, July 24, 2008

Long Lost Martial Arts Gear Returns to its Master!

So, i'm a practitioner of a martial art known as Shinkendo. Shinkendo is the martial art of traditional Japanese swordsmanship, founded by Toshishiro Obata in 1990. If you want to know more, check out The Home Dojo Website.

I used to have these sweet tabi boots and socks that I would wear during practice for ankle support. (click here for a good picture of a good pair of tabi boots) I lent them to a filmmaker friend of mine, assuming I would get them back.

That was two years ago.

Yet, suddenly, just shy of two weeks ago, dude was rummaging through his old room and, TADA! There they were, just how i had left them: nicely broken in and in good shape. Of course the socks were nowhere to be found, but what else would you expect from socks?

I'm in my third student rank, and am working towards testing for my fourth student rank in the fall.

I don't know what i'd do without Shinkendo.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Contempt for Modern Advertisin

America... what a place. In doing some work on honesty I went instinctually to the Axe homepage and screenshot a couple of pages.

Here are my favorites:

the general Axe proclamation:



the specific hype for "Orion":



These ads are clearly aimed at adolescent boys, which includes young men who can't ever seem to get passed high school. I think it is silly to buy into an ad campaign which promises the attainment of dirty porn star sex with hot, blond, catholic school girls based on the odor of their chemical spray alone... this is just ridiculous. How? How could anybody buy into this? Smelling nice is, well, nice, but the last time I checked smelling good and having self confidence are two totally different phenomena. It's ads like these that enslave the maleable minds of the youth and ignorants. It's no wonder why our nation's teens suffer from such intense lack of self-esteem because the big media is teaching them that they must buy commercial products to fit in and to get laid. There is no finesse in Axe's approach; their advertising department must be a man-cave of overgrown fratboys who want to take advantage of as many young and stupid people as they can. Manipulation of the evolution of mind at the hands of commerce and big media? Really? I know, what a shocker right?

aloha,

aloefire

Saturday, May 3, 2008

First Altar

So, here are some pictures of my first altar... there's a lot going on here so i'll take the time to explain each piece, or collection of pieces and why they are present.

This one to the left is an overview of the whole altar. The back of the altar faces NW. The bottom right corner is the space representing Fire; the top right corner is that space representing Water; the top left corner is the space representing Earth; the bottom left corner is the space representing Air; and the the top/middle is the space that represents, me, my loved ones, and Spirit. Following are some close-ups.





This close-up is of the Air space: there are bird feathers, a candle oil lamp, a picture of sunset from my hometown and six different essential oils of: Tea Tree Oil, Lavender Oil, Grey Matter Batter Oil, Cedar Oil, Cypress Oil, and Green Tea Oil.







This is a close-up of the Earth space: in the top left is a small Earth Altar that I learned how to make from Llewellyn's 2008 Magickal Almanac, there are white sage bundles, and a set of stones: calcite, malachite, moonstone, labrodorite, garnet, and amythist, as well as a very large smoky quartz; at the bottom middle and right is a bag of sea salt and a mortar and pestle for grinding.











This is a close-up of the Water space: I have a great goblet from my 21st birthday at Medieval Times that I use to hold water in.












This is a close-up of the Fire space: there is a book of matches, a vanilla spice candle, and what was a red candle, along with a rough ruby in the bottom right corner.








This is a close-up of the Spirit space: along the bottom are my seven shaman casting stones; above those are two necklaces: the bottom one used to have the tiger's eye that the one above it now has. There is a picture of my close friend Lisa, a dream catcher and neckalce from my friend Sara, and a picture take of me by Sara, as well as a picture of my eye drawn by my friend Amiel.




There is also a magick wand right in the middle of the whole altar which you can see in the topmost photo. There's also a large mother of pearl half with a white sage bundle for smudging. It's organized, yet at the same time cluttered... perfect for one who follows the way of ChaosBalance.

P.S. (Here's my sweet banner... created by me)


Wednesday, April 30, 2008

An apprentice of Wizardy

I found the place that i've been looking for for years and didn't even know it...

THE GREY SCHOOL OF WIZARDRY

training as an apprentice wizard while finishing up my Junior year at U of I with finals and a bright summer on the horizon... sweeeeeet.

aloha,

aloefire

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Beginnings (a green love affair)

I never know how to start these things... so i'll just start as if i've already started.

I have this awesome, giant, Southern exposure window that been begging to made use of.Soooooo, i trekked out to a Menards, stocked up on supplies and look what i created!



I know, it's a little on the bootleg side, but hey, it gets the job done. Only 5 of the 6" pots contain herbs as of right now: Sage, Rosemary, Chives, Lavender, and Basil. I wish to plant some peppermint in the big 18" planter, maybe some Lobelia ("Indian Tobacco")... i would love to get my hands on some Ginseng... but it has been quite difficult to track them down. Not sure about the rest, perhaps some Jamaican Dogwood and/or some Skullcap.

Over the last year i've become deeply intrigued by the plant world and its relationship to ours. Luther Burbank said back in good old 1906 that, "All human life is absolutely dependent on plant life," is his essay "The Training of the Human Plant." This is so very true, for without the existence of plants there would be no food, there would be no forests, there would be no oxygen... there would be no living thing (unless of course your origins lie at the ocean floor or greater yet within an abyss).
As a biomaterials engineer, i notice a significant proportion of people entranced by the biomaterials within/those that can be engineered to exist within the human body. Well, although i am fascinated by the human body and its adaptive capabilities, i'm much more interested in plants, how plants communicate, how we can communicate with them, the infinite tome of hows, whys, whats, and the myriad of other possible things to learn from them.

I'm currently enrolled in a horticulture class called, "Medicinal Plants and Herbology" and it is so awesome. It has inspired me to strongly consider the possible future of getting my ND (Naturopathic Doctorate) and MSOM (Masters of Science in Oriental Medicine). i understand that there exists a place for all medicines in the world of healing, whether they be botanical or pharmaceutical, there is a place for every remedy. I personally would love to have an ND and/or MSOM so that i can assist people in focusing on their day to day health, rather than not focusing on health, and being taken surprise by illness when it strikes. I feel that if you are constantly aware of your health, then no infection can be a shock to your system. I have yet to prove this... but i've got a long life ahead of me.

aloha,

djd