Garden of Delights

Toward the end of his life, the Buddha took his disciples to a quiet pond for instruction. As they had done so many times before, the Buddha’s followers sat in a small circle around him, and waited for the teaching. But this time the Buddha had no words. He reached into the muck and pulled up a lotus flower. And he held it silently before them, its roots dripping mud and water.

The disciples were greatly confused. Buddha quietly displayed the lotus to each of them. In turn, the disciples did their best to expound upon the meaning of the flower: what it symbolized, and how it fit into the body of Buddha’s teaching. When at last the Buddha came to his follower Mahakasyapa, the disciple suddenly understood. He smiled and began to laugh. Buddha handed the lotus to Mahakasyapa.


( The Flower Sermon - Lessons I Learned From RP )

I've contemplated this post quite a bit over the past few days. It seems that once again the HP role play world has been overcome with a wave of drama. The who and why is not important, because I have seen this before, and I doubt this will be the last time there is an incident like this. But there is something I have noticed, and it seems that no matter the fandom, the same problems seem to cycle. These are just my observations, and they are by no means complete.

( Five Reasons For Drama... And How to Avoid Them. )

I am totes posting via my phone. This excites me. On my way to Mom and Dad's for thanksgiving.

I wonder if there would be enough interest for a community for game moderators and players to discuss game management ideas and challenges.

( New GC Advert )

Post your current in game ships and a song to represent each one. (With bonus lyric!)

Gilded Court:

Katie Bell/Staci Capper - Power of Two - Indigo Girls
The closer I'm bound in love with you, the closer I am to free

Draco Malfoy/Pansy Parkinson- She Will Be Loved - Maroon 5
My heart is full and my door's always open, You can come anytime you want

Theodore Nott/Mandy Brocklehurst - Wicked Games - Chris Isaak
The world was on fire, no one could save me but you.

Adrian Pucey/Millicent Bullstrode - Life in a Nutshell -BNL
Call me crazy, but it really doesn't matter, All that matters to me is she

Astoria Greengrass/Marcus Flint - Love of a Lifetime - Firehouse
With you I never wonder, will you be there for me. With you I never wonder if you're the right one for me.

Recup:
Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy - Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard
You have suffered enough/And warred with yourself/It's time that you won

Charlie Weasley/Athena McGonagall - The Old Apartment - BNL
She loves me and her body keeps me warm

The Love Boat:
Pansy Parkinson/Draco Malfoy - This Love - Veronicas
Tell me the truth no matter what we're going through, Will you hold on too

I only did half my games... but aww.. I have way too many Draco/Pansy ships. I left off another one.

This is my life.

I've had a sinus/ear infection for the past 2 weeks. The first week I could barely get out of bed. The second week, I was better but still dizzy. I am still dizzy when I wake up in the morning. So when I got up yesterday, I managed to trip, fall and break two toes and sprain my ankle.

Seriously, Fuck My Life.

This weekend starts megaplot on Gilded Court, my Harry Potter AU Royalty game. We have a metaplot of the crown casting a charm on muggleborns at birth to keep them from using their magic, so not to violate the statute of secrecy. Of course, what the public doesn't know is that spell also decreases muggleborn magic. We have done some pretty good set up for the plot, with muggleborn test scores dropping, and Hogwarts forcing muggleborn students to attend mandatory summer tutoring.

A protest group called Muggleborns 4 Justice is forming, and there will be protests in Hogsmeade this weekend that just so happen to be at the same time as the charity quidditch match that Lady Pansy, Prince Draco's fiance has organized for the new Children's Hospital. Well, things are about to get dicey.

( Cut for those in game who wish not to be spoiled )

Is it wrong I am stupidly excited for this plot? It's going to be amazing.

Stolen from tinylegacies

Give me a character from any fandom you know that I know and I will tell you:
a. My favorite thing about that character.
b. My least favorite thing about that character.
c. One person I would ship them with in their own verse.
d. One crossover ship for them I think would be neat.
e. One crossover universe for them I think would be even neater.
f. Their ship from hell.
g. Their song.
h. The title of their biography or autobiography.
i. The last bad dream they had.
j. How they're gonna shuffle off the mortal coil, if they haven't already.

I am seriously questioning WHY I am a Heathen.

There is a lot of discussion of how Heathenry is about community, but I feel very disconnected from the "community" outside of my immediate one. Most of my practice is my own, and I get along much better with Christians and "sane Pagans" than I do with 90% of Heathens.

I honestly no longer want to identify as being Asatru, not because of my own beliefs, but because the religion seems to attract nut jobs. That makes me very sad.

It is time to cull the herd, unfortunately. Since darkke_thoughts and I are starting our new Word of Darkness game, Gehenna, I am going to have to make some hard choices on what to cut.

My panfan is gone, tired of the drama and the lack of tagging.
My MWPP era game is gone, as much as I hate to do it, I'm just not getting into it.
A few others I had one charrie in are gone as well.

Leaving me with

Gilded Court - My baby, my first love, and the game I will play until it is run into the ground.
Eureka Springs - Batman/Supernatural/OC game, I'm the tech mod, and I adore all the players.
Fortunate Isles - Fluff game, doesn't take much time, and is home of my second favorite ship at the moment.
ReAwakened - Post DH game, and home of my one of my strongest muses.

Not too bad, and fairly balanced, though I still have a Narcissa Malfoy muse I need to play somewhere. Preferably against a good, strong Lucius.

I am an insomniac, and not the fun kind that interviews cool people and does stand up. (Double cool points to anyone who gets that)

I've been sleeping 4-5 hours a night for the past week. Eventually my body will give out, and I will sleep for 12 plus hours. I really have no idea why this happens, but it's really getting old, fast.

My family is so willfully ignorant of the fundamentals of science if baffles my mind. My mother actually said carbon dating wasn't true.

*blinks*

I swear, how did I end up so sane?

Trip was good, all things considered. My cousin Daniel and I are the sole holdouts on the "Childfree or Die" side of things, as my cousin Carly is pregnant. It's become obvious that the grandparents are not visiting us because I don't have kids.

I should care about this, right?

Had a blast with darkke_thoughts and there will most certainly be a repeat performance.

I have to register for AP cert classes this week, hit the diet again and get together clothes so Carly and I can do a clothes swap when I go back to DFW since she is my old size and I am her old size.

My family is in fact so much epic fail.

I believe between the comments about how many *fill in minority here* there are at the hotel, the comments about my lack of marriage/kids, my one liberal holdout cousin finding Jesus...

Why did I come again?

Oh right, meeting epic win friend for coffee and stuffs. Because, friends are awesome.

With all this stuff going on with Iran, I can't help but think of this quote from Robert Heinlein, from "If This Goes On":

"I began to sense faintly that secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy...censorship. When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, 'This you may not read, this you may not see, this you are forbidden to know', the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything--you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."

"You will be controlled. You will be subjugated. You will be marginalized. And when subjugation walks in, freedom walks out. Now what do I mean? That means gone will be equal opportunity in the work force. Gone will be equal education. Gone will be equal pay for equal work. Gone will be health care benefits. Gone will be retirement benefits. Your freedoms will be gone. Because this is not about babies, again. It's about subjugation of women by male dominated societies. It's no more; it's no less."

-George Tiller, 2004

After two fairly intense weeks of work for Amy, Abby and I, The Gilded Court opens in two hours. It's been a bit of a surreal journey. It all started about six months ago when Aftermath 1 died. I was looking for a new game to join, and stumbled across That Game. The game looked promising. It was an AU game, based on the Harry Potter fandom with Pansy available. Now, for those of you who have played with me, you know that Pansy is my favorite character to play. So I apped and was accepted, and for the first few months everything was grand. I met three of my favorite RP folks there, Abby, Sean and Tony, as well as a ton of other friends.

After about a month, I began noticing something. Any time anyone disagreed with a player I will call Psycho-Hose-Beast, or PHB for short, they did not last much longer in the game. Also, one of the mods played a key character, and she would guide her RP so that PHB got whatever she wanted. I wasn't the only one to notice this. We attempted to bring this up to the mods, and were branded bullies. So we ignored it and went on with our game because we had some awesome plots going. Unfortunately, PHB was not amused, and began targeting our little group. She cost one character his job, and tried to bait my character into doing something to get me in trouble.

So, Abby, who is the sweetest person I have ever known in RP, went to the mods to complain. This ended up with a chat with all of the mods where they called Abby a bully. So there was a mass "screw you all I quit" and the rest of our friends were booted. (Except Sean, which we found amusing) That night Abby, Amy and I started plotting our new game. We wanted a fresh, well researched game, and after one insane sleepless night, Gilded Court was born. There are other HP-characters-as-royals games out there, so we really strove to set ourselves apart.

And we have done it.

As of right now, two hours before we open we have 45 characters. A normal game has 20-30 characters. This is unreal. I've never seen a game start with this many, and we have another 10 pending apps. We had 22 holds (people who were reserving characters)in the first 24 hours we were open for applications, and those were ALL word of mouth. We have been reviewed by two communities and have been accepted into some selective advertising communities. Over all, I am just floored by how brilliant this entire experience has been. We open tonight with a bang. Theodore Nott will kill his father to gain his place on the Council of Lords and Ladies.

I think we managed to hit on the right concept at the right time. It's going to be one hell of a ride.

Fandom Wank is one of my favorite communities on JournalFen, and always an interesting read. Today, there was a post of yet another Twilight fanfic author faking their death and someone linked me to a list of "Ways to commit Pseudocide." It's quite funny, in a morbid way.

I know most of my F-list is not into RP, but I am very proud of Amy, Abby and my latest project. It's an alternate universe game, using the Harry Potter characters. The writing quality will be high, and I think it might be one of my best projects yet.

	Long after the wars finally settled and the Monarchy had come to existence, there is now another struggle for power coming into play but this is far more dangerous and the outcome has consequences far worse than any war or small skirmish can produce. What kind? How about the complete destruction of the feudal way of life in Wizarding England? When an heir comes into question and families begin fighting for favor, only those who can survive will write the history books.
AVAILABLE | PREMISE | RULES | APPLY | CHARACTER DIRECTORY | CREDIT

I try to do the Belief-o-Matic every six months or so. I enjoy seeing where my personal beliefs fall.

Belief-o-matic for 12 May 2009
1. Liberal Quakers (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (95%)
3. Neo-Pagan (94%)
4. Reform Judaism (93%)
5. New Age (83%)
6. Baha'i Faith (82%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (78%)
8. Mahayana Buddhism (76%)
9. Sikhism (75%)
10. Jainism (62%)

I am not surprised. I almost converted to Reform Judaism, and I am rather fond of Quakers and UU.

• 07:54 @courtneylover79 Welcome to my feed. #
• 08:49 Why am I not surprised Octomom was a stripper? #
• 09:18 Margaret set a new record. She managed to bring up Noel Fielding in less than 2 sentences in our conversation #
• 09:20 Since the Boosh starts on Adult Swim this weekend, she is forgiven #
• 11:04 Follow Friday - @courtneylover79 is amusing, you should follow her #
• 13:46 Life is so good right now. My dream job may be in my sights. #
• 15:31 Vince the ShamWow guy in a hooker brawl www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0327092sham1.html #
• 17:10 @TomFelton Jade looks very pretty in that picture #

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• 13:44 Read #6 tinyurl.com/cu9ljr #
• 16:59 @dizzysyd What's hapened Syd? #
• 18:58 @diablocody That gets canceled? #
• 19:03 @diablocody Yes, but TMZ would follow you, and you could always do a VH1 reality show. Excuse me "Celebreality" show #
• 19:27 Dear Movie Studios - Why must you rape my childhood? tinyurl.com/c748ql #

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• 11:00 I get to go back to working out! Yay! #
• 16:38 I love my dad "When I was your age, I could read a serial number on a gnat's ass at 40 feet" #
• 20:03 @Crowskie Now to get a real job? #
• 22:31 This is just hilarious tinyurl.com/dbv6l4 #
• 22:33 @cafpows That is just trashy #

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• 16:36 Good News! We finally have an answer as to WTF is going on with my eye #
• 17:36 @Bodark Yes I am #
• 17:37 I have iritis en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iritis #
• 17:51 @Bodark Yes, but it is a far cry from "Staph infection, or maybe MRSA, or... herpes! Yes herpies!" that they diagnosed me with over and over #
• 22:38 @tiffofdoom Doc says it is probably tied to the shingles i had about 18 months ago #

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• 20:47 I am far too old to watch Wrasslin' but yet I still watch. #
• 20:52 Health Update - Doctors appontments tomorrow and Wednesday. Eye is better, Kidney Stone is worse. #
• 20:52 Also, pain pills are made of win #

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• 16:36 @TomFelton Do you believe in the cause strongly? If so, they why not? The nude body is nothing to be ashamed of. #
• 22:34 Alby and Lura are awesome. Really, Lura can do anything #biglove #
• 22:51 Bill just declared himself Jesus? And where is Teensy? #biglove #

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• 12:14 Feeling mildly better today, My life is epic boring #
• 12:18 Strike that, I did get drunk dialed last night. I thought I was too old for that #

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• 11:34 Mom just called. My aunt is in the hospital having emergency bypass. Waiting for updates. My family drives me crazy. #
• 13:00 Plans for the weekend - Season 2 of The Tudors. Big Love season finale (OMG, tell me what is up with JJ) and maybe some pizza #

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• 14:13 Well, it looks like my eyesight is improving a bit. I am getting less vampiric in nature #

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• 06:31 The name of the guy they arrested last night in the police shooting "Harley Inthisone" sounds like the fakest name ever #
• 09:44 @tiffofdoom Epic Fail. That is Epic Fail #
• 09:46 Lindsey Lohan goes nuts on Twitter - Proof that this girl needs SERIOUS help tinyurl.com/b5wwtt #
• 19:29 for @mwag Minature Cows milke cuteness for all it is worth at the Memphis Zoo tinyurl.com/deo95p #

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• 06:40 @djazzycool1 USA = L&ONCISHOUSE Network. That's my guess #

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• 11:54 I've been saying this for years. Abolish marriage, civil unions for all : tinyurl.com/cgwtnq #

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• 00:50 Watching The Tudors again. Wow, poor Princess Mary #
• 15:27 How come Twitter tells you when you have new followers but not when you loose them? #

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• 00:13 Rewatching season 1 and 2 of the Tudors this weekend Season 3 starts soon! #
• 00:14 Though season 3 will be sans my girl Natalie. I will miss her Anne #
• 09:06 I have decided that my eyes are just destined to be messed up for good #

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• 12:32 My eye is spazy today #

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• 06:19 Good Morning Twitterites #
• 06:39 Jericho to live on as a comic book! tinyurl.com/czq4d9 Epic win! #
• 07:58 Rare Tornado touches down in Australia tinyurl.com/dlywfx #wxnerd #
• 11:00 @TomFelton I am totally jealous #
• 20:27 @mwag I am sorry you had a bad day. #

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• 08:02 I forgot how much I love the movie Cassanova. Natalie Dormer as Victoria rocks. She is muse worthy.#rp #nataliedormer #
• 08:06 @TomFelton Just think of the long term health benefits of working out. You'll still be in good shape at 89 #
• 11:25 Flaming Lips covering Borderline by Madonna. Epic Win www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m386YV2CNSD51Y #
• 11:46 Alpha Delta Phi vs Westboro Baptist. Frat Boys 1, Bigots 0 tinyurl.com/dmhpgl #

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• 02:36 32 Songs in 8 Minutes tinyurl.com/cv9ocq #
• 04:07 @proudofthefish Get better! #
• 05:15 I am totally into the Tudors now. I think I might have a girl crush on Natalie Dormer. #
• 11:59 @TomFelton Can't wait to hear them. #

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• 01:43 My sleep scheduleis officially fubar #
• 15:48 I am officially defeated by the eye curse. Not an infection they think now. #
• 15:52 @mwag No idea. Waiting on some lab results. #
• 21:05 @djazzycool1 I was thinking the same thing. #wwe #
• 21:12 @djazzycool1 Did you notice the laundry room door was not even attached? #
• 21:21 @djazzycool1 Yeah, Tim and I got a good laugh out of that. At least they used real cops. #

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• 18:50 @TomFelton New Orleans! The food is excellent, the culture and music are exceptional and Mardi Gras is something everyone should do once #

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• 18:48 Buster's school of magic tinyurl.com/6c2okn #
• 18:48 "We have Mudbloods, Mud Crips and Mud Latin Kings" #
• 18:50 "George W Bush forgot about No Muggle Left Behind" #
• 20:20 @proudofthefish Thought you would like that #
• 23:35 ZOMG Law & Order : London is being cast. Bring on the brit dunk dunk #

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• 00:45 I am twitterstalking @TomFelton #
• 00:49 I can see! Eye is getting better FINALLY #
• 19:20 I really want to go out to Hummingbird Mountain tomorrow. Might do so if the eye behaves. Abandoned petting zoo FTW #
• 20:13 @TomFelton I am rather fond of scrabble, but Rock Band is a blast too #
• 20:14 @mwag Sounds like a blast. #
• 22:38 I've seen this episode of House before, yet I stil am watching it #

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• 13:27 I thought I was going to avoid having to go into the hospital, but my eye is much worse today. #
• 13:28 If it is not better in the AM, I have to have IV antibiotics #
• 18:19 Ok, sinus meds are makng my eye better. This makes no sense #
• 18:28 @Sunfell I remember we did a show on this a few years back, and the argument was store owners did not want to open on Sun. I found it odd. #

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• 15:04 @littledupont Keep hydrated, get lots of rest and take some tylenol or ibuprofin. I hope you feel better soon #
• 15:05 Ok, I officially give up. Eye infection is made of suck and awful. Running a 102 degree fever now. If it is not done by tomorrow, doc again #
• 23:43 @solarpowerspork I don't get the RPattz at all. #

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• 02:25 I love middle of the night conversatons about the potential paternity woes of the HP universe #
• 09:39 @Sunfell I like TinyUrl but it might be a situaiton of habit and the fact my twitter client does it automaticly for me. #
• 18:06 Do people in the HP universe get junk mail via owl? #
• 22:12 @proudofthefish Sounds amusing. #
• 22:54 @littledupont Sweet Dreams #

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• 15:26 Watching Face Off - I can't decide if it is a good movie. Survey says no so far #
• 17:44 another 22 pages done on this... thing. It might end up being a novel, or I might consider cutting it into a script #
• 17:45 Either way, I am happily digging the character development. #
• 17:45 @sunfell working just fine. #
• 17:45 @Sunfell working just fine #
• 17:49 New Half Blood Prince footage tinyurl.com/be3xas #
• 19:04 @toryn I feel your pain. Stupid NASCAR wrecks #
• 20:53 New eye medicine makes me look like I have jaundice #

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• 18:08 Both eyes are now infected. Ugh #
• 21:46 And now we know the rest of the story : Paul Harvey dead at 90 abcnews.go.com/?paulharvey #
• 21:49 We all know the real God - the one true God - which is the Mighty Thor. - MATT GROENING tinyurl.com/bar83y #

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• 19:29 I am such an impatient person #
• 22:57 Eye is infected again #

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• 15:08 #sf_d Doing my part for my comm #
• 20:49 Not really digging Obama's speech tonight. Not sure why #

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• 12:57 I am strongly considering removing my eye, for the good of everyone involved. #
• 15:07 Groceries have been bought, now back to working on this new character concept #
• 16:03 @solarpowerspork So? #
• 16:03 @toryn Have a safe and fun trip! #
• 16:11 @solarpowerspork I have $2.50 and a package of non-tainted peanut butter crackers. #
• 21:18 Tonight is very much an Ani Difranco kind of night. Working on an original fic, got about 50 pages done #
• 22:16 @djazzycool1 WWE owns "The Rock" and since he is no longer with them, he can not use it #
• 23:20 @littledupont I hope things get better tomorrow. #

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