My Daemon

my guardian angel

Your Score: Jophiel

So you need Healing (31%), Knowledge (30%), Inspiration (50%), and Strength (43%)?

Archangel Jophiel is the Angel of endurance, freedom of thought, wisdom, truth, beauty, and illumination of the mind and spirit. He assists us in absorbing intricate information and in dealing with complex matters, and guides us along our aspired spiritual path to enlightenment.

Jophiel, inclined to help us see and maintain beauty in life, is the Patron Angel of artists and helps them in every step towards the completion of their work. Also, he loves those using inventions, discoveries, or revolutionary ideas for the greater good of humanity, and gives them special support, for as well-meant as the efforts of a pioneer often are, success will seldom come without doubt and humiliation.

Jophiel shares with us his wisdom and selfless patience that will strengthen us at times when we are close to resignation, and encourages those who are wishing to make a change that seems impossible to do to keep going. He teaches that everything can be made possible.

Striving and struggling souls, continuously searching for solutions and answers will find the strong and unshakable support they need in Jophiel, which goes for spiritual matters as well as earthly problems calling for solutions. He comforts those that were denigrated and abandoned, unwearyingly staying by their side to light their way and lead them out of hopelessness and despair. Jophiel is also concerned in beautifying the planet by cleansing it of pollution and lends his assistance to those engaging in the vital mission of helping our environment.

A Bit of Trivia:

Jophiel is one of the two Angels assisting Michael in battle, the other being Zadkiel. Just like Gabriel and Ariel, Jophiel is sometimes referred to as female.

Jophiel - Michael - Israfel - Raziel - Ariel - Uriel - Gabriel - Raphael - Zadkiel - Jeremiel

Link: The Angel Test written by Nitsuki on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Which Hero am I?

Your Score: Peter Petrelli

You scored 50 Idealism, 58 Nonconformity, 37 Nerdiness

Do you ever... get the feeling that you were meant to do something extraordinary?
Congratulations, you're Peter Petrelli! You are a compassionate, idealistic person, which is great. You're searching for your identity and purpose in life, and you have a strong desire to be special, and do something great for the world. You're a bit on the emo side, but you have the best of intentions.

Your best quality: Empathy
Your worst quality: EMO

Link: The Heroes Personality Test written by freedomdegrees on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

I'm a...

Thor's Warriors

I have no doubt in my mind that these dogs are going to get the justice they deserve...this guy is a "bulldog", no pun intended.

Check it out at http://www.thorswarriors.com. Sorry I couldn't set up the link...something is acting up in blogger today.

Personal vs. Impersonal

I have never really put a lot of thought into how I felt about the gun control issue. I haven't formed a strong feeling either way (which is strange for someone as politically minded as me, I know...). I have friends on both sides of the issue, from those who are strident gun control believers to serious gun freaks.

After the mass shooting at Virginia Tech yesterday, the thought keeps going through my mind that killing someone is so much easier if one has a gun...it's so impersonal. That creature at the other end of the 9mm can be written off as not even human; no need to look at it face-to-face. On the other hand, if one is forced to use other forms of weapons to commit murders, it becomes much more personal - it is more likely that eyes will lock, skin will touch, the realization that it is a human being will be unavoidable.

As the saying goes, "nobody's ever heard of a drive-by knifing".

Gun proponents will argue that if you outlaw guns, that only criminals will have them...but there are plenty of other countries that outlaw them and they don't have a rash of criminals shooting innocent people in the street, or even criminals using them to commit crimes. However, there are other countries that have relatively open gun laws, but nowhere near the gun-related crime that we have here in the States; obviously this shows that it can be controlled without eliminating all guns to citizens.

Then it appears the problem lies in the mentality of the citizens of this country...what makes us so violent, so willing to kill others in this impersonal manner? I'm sure the sociologists and psychologists will be discussing this ad nauseum. I don't have any answers, other than I believe our collective soul is dark...

This may be the event that makes me finally take a stand on how I feel about the gun issue in this country.

I'm a faerie (giggle) - what a surprise!

You scored as Faerie. Faerie: Aren't you a cute little flying person? Faeries are earth spirits. They live among each element completely hidden. They have cousins called Pixies. Pixies however, are very mischevious. They enjoy tormenting other creatures for fun. Little pranksters.. I hope you never meet one. Pixies have a bad reputation for finding a creature and clinging to them until death. Faeries can be somewhat close to a Pixie, but mostly they are loving, playful, and carry with them a child-like enthusiasm for life. Hide among the pedals of a Daisy, you are a Faerie. Faerie 92% WereWolf 75% Dragon 75% Angel 75% Mermaid 42% Demon 0% What Mythological Creature are you? (Cool Pics!) created with QuizFarm.com

What Philosophy Am I? - Maybe....

The funny thing about this is how much I HATED existentialism when I studied philosophy in high school and college...but ultimately...yeah, it probably does fit me as the closest to my philosophy. Followed closely behind by HEDONISM...WOOOHOO!!!

You scored as Existentialism. Your life is guided by the concept of Existentialism: You choose the meaning and purpose of your life. “Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” “It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.” --Jean-Paul Sartre “It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth.” --Blaise Pascal More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page... Existentialism 95% Hedonism 80% Utilitarianism 70% Kantianism 65% Justice (Fairness) 60% Strong Egoism 35% Nihilism 35% Apathy 15% Divine Command 0% What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03) created with QuizFarm.com

My Visual DNA

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the power of the web

As I was reading another blog the other day, I was struck by the fact that there were people commenting from different places all over the world. Just to be able to communicate with people everywhere that have the same ideals and common threads as you...How cool is that?

Not again

Why has the insomnia come back with a vengeance? The only time I can sleep is in the middle of the afternoon. Too bad I have to work for a living....

the laziest cat in the world

You know it is the laziest cat in the world when a male cardinal (the most skittish of birds, at least here in FL) lands not two feet away from the cat and the cat merely looks over at the cardinal...and goes right back to cleaning its paw! Literally, this cat looked like it shrugged its shoulders and said "meh". The cardinal barely looked at the cat and went back to foraging on the ground.

I have had this "neighborhood" cat (I'm sure he must belong to someone, as he looks well-fed, and I don't feed him) sleeping in my back yard day-in and day-out since I moved in. He looks like Garfield, orange striped and fat. For a while, he would run away when I went in the back yard...now he just looks at me as though I am bothering him.

The funny thing is, every cat in the neighborhood hangs out either in my front or back yard, or on my porch. I don't feed any of them. I'm sure everyone in the neigborhood thinks I own them all. I am the "crazy cat lady" by proxy.

Recovery

From St. Patrick's Day, that is...

I have concluded that I am WAAAAY to old to stay out half the night, even when not drinking profusely. I have no idea how I used to do this 6-7 nights a week. I can't imagine that I had that much more energy or whatever when I was in my 20s. But I guess I didn't have near the stress that I have now, since I could afford my life without feeling like I had to "sell out to the man". :(

Anyhoo, once again being in a parade with the Krewe is much better than going to the parade, and the after-party with the rest of the krewes was interesting...I just wish Susan and I had been able to mingle more. And that I had been able to talk more with the cute guy who gave me a kiss for my beads at the front door!

Good Samaritans

Back a couple months ago, I was scheduled to be a vendor at a two-day art show in St. Petersburg. I went to my car on Sunday morning & lo and behold...I had a COMPLETELY flat tire. There happened to be a gas station a few blocks from my place, so I drove very slowly to the gas station, hoping to inflate the tire and drive to the show. Of course, their air machine was out of order.

Plan B - change the tire. Not my favorite thing to do, but I started unpacking everything from my car so I could get to my spare tire. While I was doing this, a local homeless man who I had seen at this particular gas station before offered to help me change the tire...I graciously accepted, as I had to get to the show by a certain time. I had never unearthed the spare in my current vehicle, as I never had a flat since I owned it. When I finally dug out the spare, I couldn't find the jack. Being a Sunday morning at a relatively busy gas station, there were quite a few people stopping to get gas, dressed (it appeared) to go to church. I asked quite a few different "church-going" men if they had a jack in their car that I could use to change my tire...not one of them would help me. After a while, the man who did offer to help me stated that he had to go because he was getting a meal at the local shelter, so I thanked him for the offer to help. I continued to search through my car and finally found the jack after finding the manual buried in the glove box of my car. I asked a couple more people who stopped...again, no luck. I guess getting to church was more important than helping someone with a problem.

Finally, a car that had passed on the street turned around and pulled up. A young guy stepped out and offered to help. He had a bottle of the tire-fixing spray in his car, and although he put half a can in the tire, it didn't work. So he set to work on changing the tire, and asked if he could use my cell phone to call his wife to let her know he had stopped to help me. He told me he was on his way back from spending the night in the hospital with his grandfather, and his wife would be worried if he didn't get home soon, as he had told her when he was leaving the hospital. I let him use the phone, I talked to his wife for a moment (thanking her for letting me "borrow" her husband), and he changed the tire in a couple of minutes. I thanked him profusely, and told him about all the people who refused to even try to help me with the problem. He and I agreed that there are many people out there in the world who like to talk the talk about being righteous and religious, but when it comes down to it they do not follow the "WWJD" concept.

Just my little take on the "Good Samaritan" parable...thanks to the two gentlemen who offered their help that Sunday. You are appreciated and will not be forgotten.

No, I'm not winking at you

OK, for over a month now my left eye has been "twitching". I know EVERYONE has had this happen to them before, but this has never gone on for this long...i feel like the "hiccup" girl that was all over the news a while ago. I have been pretty much trying to ignore it, but now I am starting to wonder if it is related to my migraines since it is on the same side of my head. My neurologist told me he didn't think so, but he was pretty much in a hurry to get rid of me since I arrived so late on Tuesday (damn job!).

I guess I will try to get an appointment with my general doc (always nice to see him anyway!) and see what he thinks. Mom was giving me a hard time (whether she thinks so or not) about it today and said her opthamologist thinks I should see a neuro-opthamologist. Of course, the only one I can find around here is at USF...great.

On the plus side, maybe some hot guy will think I'm winking at him Saturday at the St. Patrick's Day night parade. LOL

Really a heretic

This dude ROCKS:

There was a segment on one of the cable news shows a while ago about a preacher named Calvin Pearson who used to be one of the up-and-coming people in the evangelical movement...he had been singing in the choir and preaching since he was but a child...he was expected to be the next huge on-air "personality" in that movement. He had a huge church, he had Oral Roberts and his people behind him...but he always had something nagging at the back of his mind. He always questioned why a "loving God" would send certain people to Hell...people who had not heard of Jesus...people who 'backslid' and did not come around before they died, etc. One day, he was watching a tv show about children in Africa and he was horribly saddened. How could God send these people to hell after living such a life of suffering? Then he heard the "voice of the Holy Ghost" who told him..."no one goes to hell...this is hell for these people. When they die, everyone is saved." A weight was lifted off his shoulders...he couldn't wait to tell the congregation...what a marvelous thing! Everyone in the entire world would have salvation, no matter what! But the funny thing was...many people did not want to hear this. They were upset, angry...they began to argue with him...then they began to go above his head to other church leaders. They began to leave in droves. The leaders above him told him that he needed to stop preaching this "evil"...that it was heretical, and he was wrong. It was the Devil telling him this! The preacher didn't stop...he didn't believe this was evil or that the devil was behind it...what could possibly be wrong with telling everyone that they would be saved? It was the best message ever...there would be no more reason to hate, no more reason to fight, no more reason to be suspicious or judgemental of other beliefs! This could not possibly be a bad thing!

So what happened to this preacher? He lost 80% of his church membership. He was removed from his "post" with the Evangelical church and was labeled a "Heretic" for teaching the message of "Inclusionism" (this surprised me...I was not aware that Protestant churches even "defrocked" people for being heretics). He basically became a pariah amongst the movement in which he had spent his whole life.

He's still preaching his new-found "revelation"...to a smaller congregation, and without the backing of a large religious group. But he refuses to give up...he believes what the "holy spirit" has revealed to him is important to get out to as many people as possible. He truly has the courage of his convictions...

With someone like this man being called a heretic, I can only hope that I am worthy to be called one...

Always the heretic

I really wish my parents would realize that their continual nagging of me to believe the way they do about religion just makes me really uncomfortable. That ship has sailed long, long ago. I know they feel they have to try to "save" me from burning in hell, but frankly it is extremely tiring to try to fake interest in the religious tracts and books they keep sending me. It's a waste of their time and money.

I can't even explain to them that I feel more at peace now than I ever did growing up in their church...for god's sake, all we ever heard about then was how we were all sinners and going to burn in hell. I had nightmares my entire childhood about it. It took me YEARS to get over them.

The logic of it makes no sense...my mother made a statement to me about how "we are all sinners" after I spent half an hour talking about some evil shit that has been going down around here. I'm sorry, I refuse to cover myself in the same mantle as the people who have been backstabbing and treating others like complete dog shit. I am not an innately evil person as some of these people are, and I won't equate myself to them. I'll never understand the masochistic tendencies of that religion...it's just a ploy to make everyone feel like crap about themselves so they can be controlled. There's a reason the church basically told me they never wanted me back...I was too smart to fall for their line of doohickey. It always seemed rather like a game to me...'this is the only way we can keep them in line'.

If not being able to see myself as evil as those other MF's is being a heretic, so be it.

Maybe

Is the universe trying to tell me that I finally need to get off my a$$ and try to become a real working photographer? Things are getting progressively worse in the mortgage business in general and at our office specifically, and I keep getting "hints" thrown at me from all directions.

The offer to rent out space at the really cool new age store for a studio as well as setting up some of my work there keeps nagging at me...it is one thing to have the owner want me to set up some artwork, another for her to basically say she WANTS me there as a renter of one of the rooms. She must have received a good word from our mutual friend.

I just wish I had more money saved up right now so I didn't have to worry about where the cash will come from...time to do my taxes, I guess...

Chillin with the kitties

Sometimes, the best thing to do is to come home from a horrible day at work and just chill with the cats.

Buku - my "old lady" - is the meanest Torti to walk the face of the earth. But she loves her "mom". And men...she has no use for other women, but boy does she love men! It could be the cable guy, the mailman, whoever...as long as it is a man, she is the friendliest cat on the face of the earth! She is a big fan of giving kitty kisses...within the last year or so, they've become increasingly drooly, though. I finally figured out why yesterday. She has lost her bottom left "canine" (is that what you call it on a cat?) tooth. I guess she's allowed...she would be over 100 years old in people years, but still acts like a kitten sometimes.

Tipper, the Bombay bomber, never ceases to amaze me with her silliness. At times she seems to have no brain in her head at all...but she is the sweetest cat in the world. She loves to snuggle, and is definitely a "lap kitty". She would flop on me all day if I would stay still. I'll never forget taking her to the vet for the first time...my regular vet was not in, and the vet on duty always came across to me as more of a "dog person" - he was not a bad vet, but never seemed to be very warm towards my cats in the past. When Tipper stepped out of the cage, he picked her up, looked at her, turned her towards me and said (in his Eastern-Indian accent), "Look at that face! Have you ever seen such a precious face? She is the most beautiful kitten I have ever seen!" And Tipper has never forgotten it...

I don't think I could survive some days without coming home and getting some unconditional love from "my girls".

My, How Time Flies

OK...I knew it had been a while since I posted, but a year & 3 months? Holy crap.

What is it about getting older that makes time move at supersonic speed? And it increases exponentially with each year. Ick.

Anyway, back later with more. After caffeine and breakfast. My body says it's only 9:40 after all...I hate the Sunday after the "spring forward" time change. Like I am not already tired enough.