the dead creep in anyway

MOON REPORT: waxing crescent. 29% full.


Ok. I need to stop watching funky shows and doing genealogy. I should only do one or the other--but not both in the same cycles.

My dreams are always odd. I can pick out (while dreaming) what is dream, what is a replay of daytime events that are regurgitated in strange ways, what is an image or idea from a recent television show, what is none of the above, etc. But today, I had a lot of disjointed dreams from TV--from Bones, A Haunting (over-sensationalized ghost stories), the History Channel, and E! None of it made sense.

Visiting a farm. I'm in Jimmy Choo shoes and a skirt. I'm walking down a fenceline in a field (in heels!) with a guy who brought me there--I've been there before. I play with the trained piglets and scoot them down a walkway between two barn buildings so we can feed them. Then there's a dead body I saw from Bones with eewy maggots.//Then I am in some industrial loft and joining the business. I get hired to re-decorate several famous residences. Then some guy comes and gives me $2.5 million to decorate his place and whatever I don't spend I can keep. Woohoo. The loft is ok. People are nice enough.//Don't go into creepy houses.//Check out markets and architecture in Paris and go to Las Vegas. Something about a giant flea market outside of LA.//Why am I on a farm?

Anyway, I thought I'd forget about the dream...but I am not sure why. Usually I write them down in a notebook I have next to the bed. I've been a dream keeper for about fifteen years. After keeping them for so long, perhaps I have learned to analyze while sleeping?

But speaking of bad ghost stories (not that I was), I came across a post by Dean Radin from the Institue of Noetic Sciences. Here's the whole post. But I was most interested in this paragraph:

One might think that purely out of curiosity the DoD might allocate

say, 0.1% of their annual budget to study what happens after

death, vs. the hundreds of billions a year spent each year on technologies

designed to produce death: 99.9% devoted to the death machine,

0.1% to the follow-up question, then what? Seems reasonable to me.

Entangled Minds post from 21 January 2008

It isn't that I have much to say about psychic phenomena and the study thereof, but I do think that the DoD funding should also do more than find new ways to produce destruction. [Sorry for the soapbox from nowhere.]

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So the genealogy thing.

I discovered I hate typing information into the computer. It is annoying and tedious. But researching databases online is a frustration of a different kind. Say you are looking up person X. Sometimes you find squat. Sometimes you find partial information. But sometimes, you get sixty listings for the same person: 1) posted multiple times; 2) with alternate spelling/name; 3) with completely WRONG information; 4) only one spouse entered (if multiple); 5) terrible legiblity/spelling ability of census information; 6) a name with no information at all.

I'm surprised I've gotten anywhere.

rats and saints

Moon: waxing crescent. 3% full

Today the dogs were a hit at the bank drive through and the gas station. I should say two Great Danes in a Thunderbird. Doesn't leave much room for me, the driver. But, Dobby and Filch were happy with the attention--they even got dog treats and waves from the teller and the bank customers.

Yesterday marked the Chinese New Year. We are now in the Year of the Rat. Hmm...how unpleasant that sounds. Although I read somewhere that the Chinese symbol for "rat" can also stand for "mouse". So maybe it is the Year of the Mouse?

Either way it makes me want to go to Disney World. I like visiting Disney--it's expensive as all get out, but staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge is wonderful. I've stayed in some gorgeous hotels, but this one is beyond spectacular. They have a fire pit in the lobby and the African art and materials are amazing. [As a poet, you think I'd be able to describe it better.] The whole place is surrounded by a game preserve--giraffes, zebras, funky African longhorns, antelopes, and oodles of crazy birds. The best views are from the Savannah rooms. Oh, and there are three places to eat: The Mara-a grab and go food court (good for grabbing water, munchies to keep bellies happy when walking around); Boma-a sit down casual restaurant (they also do the spectacular room service); and Jiko-the fancy restaurant.

And although I like visiting Disney, my uncle calls it the "land of the rat" because he insists that Disney destroyed central Florida. He remembers how quiet and peaceful it was when he was growing up. Me, I remember living there and watching them erect the geodesic dome at Epcot--it looked like a giant eagle nest for the longest time. I also remember all the orange fields around Orlando and Cleremont--most of which are now paved with concrete as Orlando sprawls. That I'll give my uncle. I, too, prefer places without people living directly on top of each other and with a lot of green space.

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Family Tree Progress

I discovered I am a great (x many generations) niece of a Saint. So now if anyone ever says I am acting "holier than thou" I can say DUH.

Several generations on, another Catholic member of that same branch was burned at the stake during the Protestant Reformation in England. And not too long after, my direct line hopped over to America and remained Protestant.

If you are religious and reading this, I apologize if I have offended you. I have been doing my genealogy and am discovering the odd habits of my ancestors. They were either very religious or anti religious and few seem to be on the fence.

These two seem to be the most interesting so far--just due to open documentation. Not that the rest of my family is inherently boring, but there are a lot of quiet lives. On goes the quest...

wrap ups and possibilities

Moon: new moon. 0% full. Every end is a beginning.
Solar Eclipse: not seen here. See articles: TimesOnline, The Age, ABC News Australia.

Also, the odd weather continues. Tornadoes in Tennesee, Arkansas, Alabama and Kentucky yesterday did huge damage--killed some fifty (maybe more?) people. In FEBRUARY. Now, after the almost fifty degree weather for the last two days we are being slapped with a nasty snow storm. However, I think Wisconsin and Chicago will get hit much harder. We expect only two to four inches...I heard Milwaukee was expecting something like fifteen.

I've been doing geneological research lately. Most of it is on my dad's side--my aunts got us traced back on their father's side to 1792 and their mother's side to 1698. Doing my own research, I've gotten us back to 1499 in Tintern, Wales (see Wordsworth). [This could have explained my English major to my parents.] It is amazing the information on the web--especially old information--some from archives, some from others searching the same geneological lines. Now that I've got the dates, I am going to try to put together lives--especially of family members that made the journey from England, Wales, and Germany. Hmm...perhaps I have found a new obsession?

I also stumbled across a dating site for scientists or the scientifically inclined. Brainy men are sexy. I love science--I like the stories: where we come from and where we could go. So many possibilites.