Lack of a Living Room

... Well, actually it's a 'front room', a salon or Parlor.

Mountain Dews: 2
Mountain Dew: Code Red 1 (v. long day)
Massive Quantities of Supah Chinese Buffet 1 (ugh, I have Buddha Belly)
Trips back and forth to Ashland 3 (it was a lot of small trips in a tiny pick-up)

Almost the new year and I spent almost all day today hauling furniture down from Ashland in small, pick-up sized loads. My front room is full of stuff and there's barely a path through the huge lawn bags full of clothes and stuff. It'll take a few days to get through all of the stuff and get some sense of order but I'll get it taken care of soon.

For those who might actually care, I've got a new roommate for a while. A friend of mine is going back to school and needed a place to stay for a while - probably just for the term. I have a guest room that's not being used and he was in need. So, voila.

The Lime Green Leisure House is no more, but my place is always a haven for wayward travelers. I'm glad that I can offer my friends a place to stay as the need arises. I've offered people three-nights sanctuary from time to time. Friends from Huntington, Columbus, Parts-Unknown in Kentucky, etc.

"If I have it to give, then I must."

Sometimes I don't have much to offer but what I have is there for those who need it.

The last go-round was a few weekends rest for a friend who needed to talk, before that was a summer escape for a friend who needed to escape, and then before that was a few years of weekends for a friend who needed to game. It's not exactly Rivendel but hopefully it's been a place where people can come and relax and get their feet back underneath themselves once more.

Ok, it's late and I've been hauling furniture all day.

Talk to ya later.

Postcards from the Edge...

... of Eastern Pennsylvania.

I'll admit it. I'm a junkie.

I like getting letters and postcards from my friends; it's the analog side of me.

Some people keep secrets about what they wear when no one's around or if they like to get spanked, but not me. Nope, I wear my Analog Pride button proudly; it's called a journal.

When I'm not writing in my journal I'm writing letters to friends. As not everyone is as 'anaglogically gifted' (yeah, say that one three times fast) as I am, I often get postcards from them. They're short and to the point but it's the thought that counts.

Recently, I received a card from a friend while she was on her way from Connecticut. The trip was cut short with some adventure while she was in Eastern Pennsylvania. I'll leave her to describe the details, but I thought that I'd post the card here.

So if anyone's out there and can grab a postcard while they're out and about - I'd love to hear from ya.

-Tom

Pilgrim / Seeker

While doing a search for lanterns last night, I came across this image of a medieval watchman. There was no reference given to where the image came from on the site and I doubt that I'll be able to track down the mysterious author of the painting by the symbol in the bottom left corner. However, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for it.

The image of the watchman in his cloak and carrying a staff and lantern is mixture of symbolism. The cloak protects him from the wind, cold and the rain. The lantern allows him to see through the darkness - as he is charged to seek out any crime in the city - but also it proclaims his location like a ship's lantern. The staff, a simple object, is also a form of protection in that it can be used to defend one's self from attackers or the occasional large rat.

So the image conveys PROTECTION, SEARCHING, and ASSURANCE.

Because of his search, people can feel assured that they are marginally safer with people like this watchman doing his job. Though given the simplest of tools to aid him in his search (Lantern, cloak and staff), it is none-the-less a Quest. It could be a quest for crime, or fire or just anything out of the ordinary. I would imagine that the nightly quests of the Watch were quite boring, but if they weren't out there there would be little sense of assurance or protection. This lead me to the writings of Edmund Burke.

"All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke

I would take Burke's idea and expand upon it to say:

When people speak of evil, they speak of all the bad forces that affect our life. Fear, Doubt, Anger, etc. Evil is then the collective effect of those things which we can't control in our lives and that limit our choices. Freedom to make one's own choices is a cornerstone of most works concerning civil rights. The restriction of freedom, slavery, has brought nations to its knees. So i simplified the association to state: "If freedom is Good, then restriction as it's opposite, must be Evil." And what, generally, restricts our choices more often than any other force if not Fear. Fear of the unknown, or fear of an unwelcome eventuality.

Therefore, I can begin to re-interpret Burke's maxim about evil to read:

"All that is necessary for fear to succeed is that good men do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke (modified)

To continue my interpretation of Burke's work, I examined the last phrase: "Do nothing". According to Burke, all we (good men) need to do to defeat fear (evil) is to do something. Well, how do you conquer fear? There are far more things in this world that we do not understand than what science and religion have attempted to answer. Therefore, fear of the unknown would seem to be the most crippling, the most limiting, the most powerful form of evil.

Knowledge is the best weapon against fear. As children we are afraid of the dark because we don't know what's "out there". Our vivid imaginations crawl with media-induced phantoms and specters and we succeed in terrorizing ourselves with vagaries of perception. To combat this fear, it is important to learn from ourselves and our environment. A tree which terrorizes our dreams by night can be seen to be little more than a twisted-trunk by day.

So educating ourselves about our world and our own minds is the key to combating these phantoms of shadow and crumpled jeans. Many different religions and philosophies would describe the process of educating one's self as the process of Enlightenment. The path to enlightenment, an understanding of yourself and your world, is the quest for awareness.

"All that is necessary for fear to be defeated is to encourage the search for enlightenment."
-- Thomas Riley

Or, to be put simply:

"Always, the Quest."

or in another sense, "Always seek Enlightenment"

My gods, I think I just said I'm a Buddhist.

A curious tale of Ancient Gods

Ok,

I've heard about the Cthulhu mythos and its author, H.P. Lovecraft, from many of my friends over the years, but I had never read any of his work. I, generally, don't like to read fiction. I'm more of a researcher and fiction leaves me wanting more. I want it to be real.

This past weekend, after a trip to Athens, I was allowed to borrow a book about H.P. "The Cult of Alien Gods: H.P. Lovecraft and Extraterrestrial Pop Culture" by Jason Colavito.

One of the descriptions of H.P. caught me a bit off guard.

In a description of Cthulhu's author, Colavito stated:

"While Lovecraft himself stood in awe of the Eighteenth century, the Enlightenment, and pure reason, his anachronistic love of the past was itself a manifestation of the Romantic spirit. Lovecraft would often fantasize about living in the colonial world and he adopted the mannerisms of an eighteenth-century Georgian gentleman. "

I'm reminded of how I like to write Franklin-style letters to my friends and I wonder...

Some people looked at the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and have adopted them into their own curious religious and magical practices.

Will the "Diciples of Tom" (aka D.o.T.s) turn into a quazi-religious movement? Will there be conspiracy theories about ancient gods that escaped Atlantis and founded Avalon? Will black and silver banners of Spiders unfurl over a new empire?

Hrm......

Grinchy-Poo

Snowy Campus

Campus was a cloaked in a snowy white blanket of fluff yesterday. The flurries in the air stuck to my jacket and tie when I walked from my car to Massie Hall (where my office is).

The University was quick to salt, scrape and clear the walks so that it was easy to walk but there were some icy patches here and there. The campus, though not as scenic as Ohio University, didn't look too bad in the snow.

The trees on the Green (the patch of grass down the center) kind of gave the illusion that the campus was a bit larger than it is. They need some benches around the trees - someplace where you can sit in the warmer months.

I think that Shawnee has potential. It could be a very nice, small campus in time.

-Tom

Snow Fall

Today marks the first day of Snow Fall, the first real snow of the year.

The calls began early this morning as everyone called to tell me of the white death that fell from the sky. The roads were slushly and the ground had a bit of a covering but nothing that would affect any kind of city-wide problems.

However, every school shut down because it was still coming down rather heavily early this morning.

It's now around noon and the snow continues to fall but the roads are clear and everywhere there is concrete or asphalt the snow has melted. It's almost as though the shell of an egg had developed cracks or faults within the frosty white surface.

I'm headed down to campus soon to see if I can get some pictures down there. Class will not be canceled tonight but I have a feeling that no one will show. With a single snow flake in the air most of southern Kentucky shuts down.

So, there should be more of a blog later once I get to the office.

-Tom

New Look

I went with a new look for the blog because I was tired of the old one.

This is a lot cleaner than the first but I'm not sure how I'm going to tweek it just yet.

-Tom

Kitten Update

And finally there was none.

"White Nose", the last of the kittens from Cinder's litter, is gone.

I conveyed the 'Vessel of Sacrifice' (a plastic crate) to Ashland to make the exchange. So long as it's gone I'm fine.

The kitten was the instigator of so many messes in the house it wasn't funny.

-Tom

Corn dog Blues

It all began with a flaming corn dog. However, let me take you back...

Last week, on Black Friday, I was up in Huntington visiting my buddy Chris. It was a cool day and we were deeply involved with a game of Halo 3 on his new X-BOX. And then, in the middle of a mission to liberate a small air base, my phone rang.

Another buddy of mine, Josh, was calling from just outside his apartment. It was somewhat that he called since it was barely 3 p.m. and he usually works (at a bank) until 6. (BTW: He's a collections agent for the bank. Talk about evil.) He was calling me to ask for a favor; I could tell by the sound of his voice.

He asked if he could crash with me for the weekend.

It was no big deal for me since whether the house is known as the "Lime Green Leisure House" or the "Khaki Shack" it's still "Tomcat's home for wayward guys". So I told him how to get into the house (since I was still in Huntington and wouldn't be able to get back in time to let him in myself) and figured that I would get the whole story later that night.

His story begins with a tale of a Corn Dog.

The older man who lived next to him in his apartment complex was a bit absent minded. He was attempting to cook some corn dogs in a skillet. However, he walked outside to talk to the complex's handyman. After a few moments, a lady who lives above the older man came outside to say that she smelled smoke in her apartment. Within a few minutes, they had deduced that the old man had left the corn dogs cooking in the skillet when he went out to talk.

The old man's apartment was gutted.

The apartment above his was severely damaged.

Josh's apartment had the adjoining wall get scorched and a lot of soot damage. Everything smelled of smoke and he had to get most of his stuff out because the fire department obliterated his front door and windows.

The weekend became the week because the apartment complex couldn't find him a new apt to move into until later. So we spent the week washing everything he owned and then this weekend I went back up with him to move him from one building to another. This gave me the opportunity to grab pictures of the damage to the apartment next to his.

So a week with a house-guest, about a dozen or so loads of laundry and a visit from the 'Amazon Moving Company'.

And all for a damn corn dog.

-Tom