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I think....
Back from Pride in the Twin Cities. It was an awesome time and I loved spending nearly a week with my bff. gonna upload my zillon photos to photobucket or something..when i finally the energy too.
In other news i try my first 20 min. yoga for weight lost DVD today. I'm still fairly flexible from marital arts so the exercises didn't seem hard at the time but boy when i got done all my muscle were shaking! Gonna have to keep with this and see if it does any good!
For those in the heat wave zones stay cool!
~Bug
(::)0<
So some things just line up crazy sometimes...& I just had to share a few from my life that are pretty amazing to me.
37+ years ago my grandmother gave birth to a baby boy. The hospital decided her & her husband were too poor & had too many children to take care of already & would not allow the baby boy to leave the hospital with them, they threatened to take away the children that were at home already. My grandparents left the hospital empty handed & packed up their children & things at home, fled the state to drop the children off with someone & came back to fight for their baby boy. They weren't able to get him back. Their older children never knew what happened, just that they went to have a baby & no baby came home so they assumed a stillbirth & that it was a very sensitive topic so they never asked about it. After my grandfather died my grandmother wrote letters to the adoption agencies where her baby boy was placed, inviting him to our yearly family reunions, saying she wanted to see all of her children together before she passed. She died within a year of my grandfather passing. The lost baby boy (now a grown man with his own family) finally received the letters but was unable to contact anyone because of her passing away. His step-sister used facebook to find people with the same last name as the women who wrote the letter & found one of my cousins, messaged her, & was reunited with our family & has made it to the last 2 years of reunions. It's really crazy how it all has finally come together & we have found our long lost uncle that no one really had known anything about!!!
Our family reunion is every year, it's 16 hours away from where we are currently living. It used to be my grandparents & on down, my grandparents passed away & we continued the events, because they would have wanted it & it's a great time for everyone. Due to finances & time away from work we weren't going to be able to make it this year. I had accepted that fact & just hoped we might make it the next year, maybe I could save up. Then my husband got a promotion & needed to be sent to training for work, in the same area as my reunion, the week before the weekend of the reunion! It all just lined up so perfectly. We were able to make the trip after all, & his work paid for a rental/gas instead of his plane ticket, we only had to pay the different if we went over. Worked out all well 
When I was 15 I picked the name Ixchel for my acolyte/monk character in IRO with my boyfriend (now husband). I chose her because she was the Mayan goddess of healing & water & I was a healer. At this age I was determined I would never have children, EVER. Over time my boyfriend changed my mind (I realized he would make a wonderful father, & that he really wanted children, & I loved him enough that I couldn't deny him that even if he said I was enough for him), we married, we had children & I became increasingly active in the pregnancy/childbirthing community & couldn't imagine my life without our little ones. The name Ixchel stuck with me as my gamer tag/online name for the years. I even debated when I married & changed my last name changing my first name as well. I search for fertility statuary & find Ixchel listed as Mayan goddess of pregnancy, protector of childbirthing women, & the water/healing. I had never noticed the pregnancy/childbirth aspects of Ixchel before, but now I feel like I'm living it. I will be getting her statue for my home
So...this whole thing started with myself getting a neat cool little something from someone...to stick in my hair, naturally. It doesn't weight too much, but more than your average bead...and it's on a particularly thin amount of hair as it's a braid, not a dread. I do small braids for sentimental beads that simply will not fit on a dreadlock. Anyways...
Skittering about the internet looking for information on how strong the average human hair is, I found something pretty sweet:
Hair as a Lifesaver
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Human hair can actually guard against bullets and arrows. Although Kevlar is now used in protective vests, Dr. Frdric Leroy of the London Museum of Natural History claims that human hair is, pound for pound, about as strong as Kevlar. In April of 2009, a Missouri woman reported to My Fox News that her weave saved her life. After an attacker shot a would-be fatal bullet, the bullet bounced off of her fake hair, making a weave (or fake hair attached to human hair) essentially become a lifesaver.
I found this at... http://www.ehow.com/about_5312860_much-one-human-hair-hold.html
But yeah...that site has some other pretty interesting information regarding hair and such.
Yall take care and all that kinda good stuff...
*sucks at ending these things*
Bye.
This really is an emergency blog post.
I'm dangerously close to comb out my dreads. I have put a lot of conditioner and lavender oil into it and undreaded some of the ends and at least one whole dread.
This is stupid because I myself kind of asked for this. I was stupid enough to ask my mother, what does she think of my hair. And she said that she herself and also some other people have been wondering why I have such a messy hair, which looks like a raven's nest or something. Why would I want to have something like that instead of shiny, straight hair.
And I suppose this started the whole mess.. or something like that. I also became inspired by some old photos.. you know those lovely photos from the 1800 or something with the women with long hair and lovely hairdos and everything. I find something magical in those photos and I'd love to be able to have my hair done in that old style.
Sooo.. here I am. Most of this day I haven been 100 % sure that I will comb these dreads out BUTnow I just saw a picture of a lovely dreadhead and I got confused yet again. Sometimes I think I should just cut all my hair out, because this seems like a battle for me all the time.. more or less.
Good evening my cherished otherbeasts! Aren't you glad it's 'Hump Day' Wednesday? I know I am.
I decided I'd like to share something with you that not many people have seen and that many less have understood. I graduated with a BFA in Studio Art, emphasis in Jewelry/Metalsmithing and even though I should have majored in Psychology, I realize that really turned my thesis into a psychological thriller - so I suppose, mission accomplished. I'd like to share that with you now.
I have always been fascinated by human emotion: what drives it, what affects it, the reasoning behind it; I just really am enthralled with the whole idea. I have always loved to provoke thought in people and the goal of my thesis was to do just that.
Let's see if YOU can piece the puzzle together. Challenge issued!
There will be a quiz following this blog! Kidding. Kind of.
In Latin, Septem Peccata Mortalia is translated to mean The Seven Deadly Sins. This series, SALIGIA, is about exploring the relationships between the institution of human emotion and psychological, as well as emotional, threats to social 'normality.' This idea is explored by using precious metals such as fine and sterling silver as well as yellow gold. These materials, often employed in 'typical' or 'classical' jewelry, evoke the feeling of preciousness, value, sentiment, and sometimes, as a symbol of financial status. Since precious materials such as the ones being used already have implied connotations, to use them to idolize and glorify symbols of social 'depravity' presents the observer with an internal struggle: wrestling with and caught between admiring the adornments as artistic jewelry and coping with the uncomfortable ideology wrought with consequences that we learned growing up.
Conversely, when juxtaposed against the opposing Seven Holy Virtues, which are executed precisely with the intent to convey tattered and neglected brooches in seemingly 'lesser' materials such as copper and brass, the viewer is forced once again to question their emotional and psychological state. The intent of these pieces are to be easily ignored or unnoticed when in direct viewing with the more 'precious' and larger pieces. These brooches can easily sit in the palm of one's hand and since materials like copper, brass, paper, and plastic are used more commonly for plumbing or 'less virtuous' tasks, it coerces the viewer to consider that without such basic materials our lives would be in much less of a clean state - the point to which is that without the morals that the Virtues teach, our humanity would be thrown severely out of balance, and a world paradigm would shift bringing much havoc.
These works are multi-layered, rich in concept and narrative, leaving the viewer to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Each individual work can stand alone as its own statement, articulated in a precise manner, but when the pieces are viewed together as a cohesive body of work, a shift occurs in our subconscious: we recognize the artistic value yet struggle to cope with how the actual themes behind the work resonate within our own psyche.Through subtle dualities, incongruities, and potential physical hazards presented in a jewelry setting meant to adorn the body, an internal shift of realization takes place inside the viewer. Since this collection is deliberately quiescent and covert, this body of work will not overtly or directly 'scream' an answer to the observer; rather, each piece of the puzzle lies in wait, letting each individual form their own unique opinions and take what they want or choose to take from the collective presentation - that is the freedom of human emotion.
So, my lovely otherbeasts, did you fit together the puzzle? Do you know which one of the deadly sins is which? 5 points is on the line.
Until Next Time,
~ Shade <3
so guys its been a whole month already. its been full of frizz, shrinkage, knots, dryness and tangles. and you know what.. i love it. i have to admit the reality of how fast these attributes hit me were a bit overwhelming for the first two weeks.
i was a person that hated shrinkage (which is very natural with my hair type, matter of fact in its loose state it shrinks to about 90% of its length), frizz, and tangles and would redo her hair in a flash so it could look "fresh" again. i made sure that it was moisturized so that it could stay with a sheen and nice and "presentable". well this journey has taught me to let my hair just be.
locs were meant for me. it allows for my hair to be free to do what it does (all of the above) and allows me to not battle against it. and me physically and most of all my soul is benefiting from me. this is teaching me to just let self be.. and thats what i hope to gain completely throughout this journey.
now today, i wear my hair out with pride .. tam free and its been that way for two weeks now. ive learned to love everything that i try to fight against and that everything that i fight against goes against the nature of who i am and now i just let nature be its true purpose.. free. this is my first entry and please encourage me to do one every month because i can suck at being consistent.
until next month.. happy loc journey!!
Hello my lovely little otherbeasts! Was your weekend a swell one and did you go out and shake the town up? If you didn't, there's always next weekend. Dedicate some time to doing what YOU want to do today and what makes YOU happy. After all, you deserve it.
Now then, I know recently some of you were shocked to hear that I dreaded my hair and now have dreadlocks. Let me clear the air a bit by quoting something from a site that I'm going to mention here in this blog, this is the truth about dreadlocks to try and get rid of that nasty stigma attached to having dreads in the first place; most of you are MISINFORMED.
Quote:
"Dreadlocks are often misunderstood, and have caused much discrimination. Dreads may be thought of as dirty, but dreadlocks must be clean to dread. Often dreads are cleaner then straight hair. Dreadlocks are beautiful, dreads are natural, and dreads are low maintenance - they are care free and spiritual. In today's society, dreadlocks are misunderstood. They are often thought of as dirty, low-class, representing homelessness, drug use, or a desire to be part of another culture. However, the truth is that dreads were often the sign of royalty and holiness throughout history. They predate the Jamaican / Rastafarian culture they are most often associated with today by thousands of years. Dreads were worn by kings and pharaohs, prophets, holy men, gurus, and philosophers since the earliest known times. They were a part of every civilization, religion and culture. Dreadlocks were worn by many figures in the bible as well as famous pharaohs of Egypt; King Tut's dreadlocks still survive to this day."
I had the fortunate luck to have a good friend of mine recommend a "Dread Head" site to me. I thought, 'Oh boo, it'll be another site waving around products and asking you to buy them to maintain your dreads. How boring.' Goodie for me that I was wrong. I was dead wrong. When I went to the home page for The Dread Site the first thing I saw was a picture of a man sitting and his dreads were grazing his feet! This guy had dreads for 22 years and the picture was taken when his dreads were only 18. This guy must know exactly what's going on about dreads so the site must be good. Well, good news everyone!
This site is the cat's meow, the bee's knees, it's fab, it's switched on, it's a bit of alright! In other words, and not to sound trite, it's pretty groovy.
Let me tell you, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. The members are way awesome and easy to talk to. How do I talk to members, you ask? It's not your usual post something, introduce yourself, hope someone responds, etc, ad nauseam. It's a bit like Facebook where it has an in-site chat buddy program thingy. I started talking to people immediately! I was getting tips, conversing like I did when AIM was totally still cool, suggesting things to people when the Head Honcho, The Law, The Owner of The Site, The Soaring Eagle came swooping down and said, "Hi." I was interested that the Main Dude in Charge was singling me out and conversing with me. I had barely begun typing a warm hello when another message came across, "I gotta warn you, you made two huge mistakes." I stared at the screen. That was a heavy message. My first thought was, "I made mistakes?"
My heart sped up. I erased my original greeting I had typed out. Another message from Soaring Eagle came through and showed up on my screen, "Devastating mistakes." My eyes widened as I thought, "Oh Sh!t! What did I do wrong?!... I made more than one?"
I started running through possibilities in my mind. I hadn't read the chat rules, I hadn't looked over the protocol for engaging on the in-site chat program; maybe I screwed up by suggesting things or somehow had stepped on someone's toes, and now I was going to get banned! My heart was racing.
I was in the middle of typing an apology for something I didn't quite understand when his next message came through, "Wax is a dread killer and crocheting is extremely destructive."
"Wait, what?" I reread it. "My dreads? Oh! My dreads." He was concerned about my dreadlocks. Unbeknownst to me he had read my sign-up information and saw that into the "Products Used" field I had entered "Backcombing, wax, palm rolling, and crocheting." This guy that didn't know me from Eve had read my information and cared enough to immediately contact me about the possible damage I had done to my hair. Wow! I was so relieved I hadn't pissed anyone off.
The ensuing conversation consisted of talking about getting the wax out of my hair, making sure it was gone, why wax is bad for your hair , why crocheting is bad for your hair, and what I could do now to maintain them. Basically Dreadlocks 101 . Once we had established that I hadn't ruined my hair or put my health in jeopardy, he relaxed and we started talking about random things and he started telling me about a gathering they had been doing since 1972 out in National Parks nation wide, they even have a mini-movie on how awesome it is for everyone involved. This guy was awesome.
Needless to say, I was - and still am - amazed at how welcoming and laid back everyone in the community is. I was also so impressed by the Site Owner's concern over my dreads and my health concerning my dreads. (Here's a little hint of why wax is bad for your dreads: if it accumulates long enough you can develop mold inside your dreads, which can in turn, lead to dire health consequences.) This amazing man was the guy in the picture with dreads at least five feet long! Somehow I was talking with Soaring Eagle and he was so chill and kind. My Dread Hero for life. If you have dreadlocks and you haven't talked to this man, or have never been to Dreadlocks Site , then my friend, you are missing out big time. This is, in my opinion, the BEST site to visit to learn from, make some dread friends, and really just relax around people. It has a wealth of knowledge and even more people willing to help out and offer methods that may work for you. I've probably visited well over 100+ sites about dreads and this one takes the cake. The cake isn't a lie.
Portal Reference FTW .
In conclusion, my lovely otherbeasts, regardless of whether or not you have dreads, I wanted to at least share with you about the Gathering that about eleventy billion people attend each year, out in the wilderness, camping, bonfires, singing, dancing, eating, relaxing, having a good time with good people and good nature... heck, it's basically like the Renaissance Festival without the costumes, just really amazing.
There's no admission and everyone works in the 'community' out in the wilderness for a period of one week up to three months. It's like belonging to a tribe. Amazing. Just go check it out, I promise you won't be disappointed.
Until Next Time,
~ Shade <3
Dreadlock Status Update: My dreads are almost a month old and they're still freakin' awesome! They're in the juvenile phase so they're acting a bit like unruly teenagers and wanting to do their own thing regardless of what I tell them, so I'm just gently coaxing them and letting them settle down. They haven't begun to lock up themselves yet but I know they'll get there.
Sorry, Charlie.
Wow. What a day! Today has been super busy since I updated earlier this morning. I movedfurniturein 90 degree weather allll day long! I'm relatively certain that my hair withstood the heat much better than my body
That's all for today, folks!
xx,
Lo
I found an old blog and remembered somtheing that happend to me about a month ago at my work place. Funny story I am in the nursing field and we get random drug tests. My boss approched me and said hey "I am not supposed to tell you this but, I really like you and your work ethic. We are having a random drug test this afternoon so I am going to send you home early so you won't have to take it and get one of those detox thingies" So I just smile at her and said "really I can go home early nice" so i show up the next day to work and she said "are you ready go down to the lab so you can take your UA (urine analysis)" I said "yes maam". Well i belive that dreads and weed go hand in hand but, not every dread head is a stoner or every stoner a dread head. Moral of the story is be a great person don't let people judge you by your apperance or judge anyone else,love life, respect it respect other,live it and enjoy it. You never know you might get to go home early one dayand enjoy some much needed rest