Swiped from ![[personal profile]](https://i0.wp.com/s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
veedub
by Michael thomas
This entry was originally posted at http://pj.dreamwidth.org/332856.html. Please comment here or there there using your LJ ID or OpenID.
Art Day!!
The hubster and I went to The Mattress Factory Art Museum.
Because I have permission to share any of her public entries
This is so very excellent, in so many ways!
| elf (elf) wrote, @ 2011–12–29 10:41 am UTC |
| Entry tags: | #occupy, communication, kyriarchy |
A few days ago, Cory Doctorow gave a speech at 28c3, the Chaos Computer Congress in Berlin, and he talked about, among other things, the Occupy movement. That part caught my attention so hard I had to transcribe it. This begins 45 minutes in, during the Q&A portion, in which he starts by comparing the laws against computer freedoms to the war on drugs, and then tangents somewhat:
I’m much more optimistic about what computers can do for justice struggles because by definition, people in charge have already figured out how to coordinate their actions, right; that’s how they got to be in charge. So, giving them technology to make them better-coordinated is a small, incremental improvement, whereas people who are oppressed, by definition, have no capacity to steer the state and work collectively. Adding the capacity to work collectively to people who are at the bottom is a phase change for them in a way that it’s not [for the ones on top] – it’s a difference in kind and not just a difference in degree. And so I think that computers and networks allow us to do stuff together that we could never have done before, and the more computers and networks we get, the more things we can do together with them.
There is this kind of tedious thing that happened, about 6 or 8 months ago, whenever I mentioned the word "anonymous" in public. I would say, "anonymous is a group that…," and someone would come along and go, "they’re not a group." And I’d say, "anonymous, last week, did…" and they’d say "anonymous never does anything." And I’d say, "People using the name anonymous did–" "Well, they didn’t all call themselves anonymous; some of them called themselves ‘lulsec’ and some of them called themselves ‘anti-sec’," and like that and on and on and on. And for a while I thought it was just this sort of tedious word game, you know it’s "free/libre/open-source," you know, this kind of endless kind of "correct speak."
[applause]
But then I realized that it was actually because anonymous and many other new kinds of institutions that we’ve seen in the last year are novel. That we don’t actually have a vocabulary; there’s something new on this earth. This kind of affinity organization that doesn’t have the same hierarchical structures even if there are pockets of leadership the way that there are with anon-offs or bits of Occupy being spokespeople or coordinators, that it’s not anything like what these institutions would’ve been ten or twenty years ago.
You couldn’t have had anything on the scale of Occupy, you know, simultaneous coordinated actions in cities all over the world—you couldn’t possibly have had that without a big, sort-of military-style command and control organization prior to the network, prior to the internet. And so we lack a vocabulary to describe them; we lack a vocabulary even to think about them in some ways. So we say, oh, "Occupy doesn’t have a set of unitary goals; they must not be serious." What’s interesting is that prior to this, assembling a big organization without first agreeing on your goals was cosmically insane because you’d put all this energy into organizing and then it would turn out you weren’t all there for the same reason and you’d have all to go home again.
[laughter]
And now what we can do, is we can all get together and figure out the stuff that we agree on–our minimum common agreement, our TCP-IP of protest–and then we can work on that stuff, and when we come to some stuff that we don’t agree on we can all go off and have a different Occupy over there to do that stuff, because the organizing itself has been cheap. It’s no longer the case that the job of an activist is 98% stuffing envelopes and 2% figuring out what to put in them. Now we get the envelope-stuffing for free, and we get to spend a hundred percent of our time figuring out how to do stuff together. And so I do think that there is hope, because the terrain is not the same as the terrain in the war on drugs.
[end excerpt]
I hadn’t thought of it that way–that internet-based communication allows for the exact opposite of "if you build it, they will come." It allows for, "bring them here; then we’ll decide what to build."
This entry was originally posted at http://pj.dreamwidth.org/332473.html. Please comment here or there there using your LJ ID or OpenID.
*bounce bounce bounce* Guess what I’m buying!!
A giclee of this!!
*bounce!!*
This entry was originally posted at http://pj.dreamwidth.org/331860.html. Please comment here or there there using your LJ ID or OpenID.
Some of those thinky thoughts pestering about my head
Weird mood in the wake of this holiday. I think I’m a bit too reflective at the moment and it is all too much of a jumble to get out in pixels coherently. It’s not a hectic jumble by any means, just a bit of tumbling together in a shallow pool of "ooooohhhhhhm".
The holiday mayhem was completed by the 18th for the Family Solstice dinner. The week between my holiday and the Mate’s family’s holiday was rather serene and calm. Coven was lovely and insights came with the Yule fire, as they always do. 🙂
Christmas Eve was dinner at the Daughter’s house after I was done working and the food was tasty and the conversation hilarious. They all looked much more exhausted than I felt and I was grateful for the bit of energy I still had with me. I made the Oreo truffles who’s recipe has been everywhere on the Internet and treats were very warmly received. Limited quantities can be consumed as they are so very rich.
Christmas day brought a leisurely morning and a very pleasant afternoon at my s-i-l’s house. There were some sugared up toddlers laughing their way through the house and that brought needed gaiety to the first Christmas without my f-i-l. His absence was clearly felt even as his spirit weaved through the rooms touching each of his grown children in some way: his one daughter gesturing like him, his eldest smiling like him, his youngest daughter poking fun and his only son with twinkling eyes stirring the pot between mother and child with an offhand "sounds like Papa Jones" remark. I sat back and enjoyed the feel of the decades long woven family connection that pulsed around me and was grateful to be able to witness it.
I’ve had a stunningly drama-free few weeks that has left me calm and settled at my core, my purpose for the coming year exceedingly clear, with an opening and blossoming unfolding from my bones that feels more Absolute Me than ever in my life thus far.
Life is Good. All is Well. May We All be Wrapped in Love. ~smile~
This entry was originally posted at http://pj.dreamwidth.org/331713.html. Please comment here or there there using your LJ ID or OpenID.
Good word things, that I wear, around my neck even
A hundred years ago when I worked for Hallmark and we had a Showcase store here in the ‘Burgh I bought a pendant. I cannot find a photo of it online and I can’t be arsed to take a proper pic myself, so – it is metal and shaped like a book. The "cover" says, "Life’s too short to be ordinary", inside left: "Do the unexpected … Bend the rules …"; inside right: "Go a little bit wild … Make this moment count!" (A necklace made for me, ellipses and all. Ha!) Over the years I’ve received many laughs at its appropriateness for me.
Now I have a second "word" necklace, gifted by one of my coveners and I expect more chuckles at how well it fits. It is a bar pendant and the front says, "I believe", then it goes around the other 3 sides like this: "in joy", "in happiness", "in today". *quietly laughing*
Words. They are my friends. I even wear them around my neck.
This entry was originally posted at http://pj.dreamwidth.org/331407.html. Please comment here or there there using your LJ ID or OpenID.
Oh yes, yes, you are, my friends!
Your light is seen, your heart is known, your soul is cherished by more people than you might imagine. If you knew how many others have been touched in wonderful ways by you, you would be astonished. If you knew how many people feel so much for you, you would be shocked. You are far more wonderful than you think you are. Rest easy with that. Breathe again. You are doing fine. More than fine. Better than fine. You’re doing great and don’t let anything or anyone steal your right to feel good about yourself.
— Neale Donald Walsch
— Neale Donald Walsch
Posted on BJM’s FB wall
This entry was originally posted at http://pj.dreamwidth.org/331176.html. Please comment here or there there using your LJ ID or OpenID.
Releasing resentments
Coven work last night was about letting go of resentments being held so tightly they become embedded in the soul. At least, that’s how mine were and it was my request to do this work. I was holding them, oh yes oh my, stacked up to my nose they were, making it difficult for me to breathe to say nothing of clogging up the people around me.
Trance, replica images, pouring of golden light for clearing, remembering. The important part always is the remembering. Because we know. We always always know. We’ve learned this before, we’ve worked it before. It is part and parcel of choosing to tramp through this world as a human. We know humans are a mix of good and not-so-good. We know that people always are doing the best that they can at any given moment. And in some of those moments we feel they fall so very short of our expectations. That right there is the hook. The thing that keeps us in resentment. The forgetting. It is our expectations that have not been met. Not theirs. Our distress comes from what is in us, not from what is in them.
So. Letting go of resentment always means letting go of our expectations for others and returning our focus to where it should it be. To us, the only person we have control over. Forgetting that causes unrest and distress. We bring ourselves back to now, this moment. The only time we have control over. When we’ve returned our focus, our attention, our Self back to where it should be an amazing thing happens:
Resentments fall away as easily as maple leaves from branches in Autumn.
We can observe them carpeting the ground around us. And we can rake them away and dispose of them allowing them to compost and become useful in their changed state. When we release our resentments we also allow ourselves to see other people as they are, as they always were. This is a very good thing.
And yet again – All is Well, As It Always Is.
This entry was originally posted at http://pj.dreamwidth.org/330146.html. Please comment here or there there using your LJ ID or OpenID.
December’s work
Usually I sort whatever work was achieved at coven in the back of my brain on the ride home (or hour afterward if we were here) and things sift to the surface with clarity. But it was enough of chore just driving at night with the Headache. (I promise next time to cancel and not worry about the DM I felt it would be.)
Anyhow, this is what I remember …. um …. anger and how we choose to deal with it in Self and others. Remember not to take on others’ anger ~ it’s theirs, let them have it, you don’t need it or do you need to "fix" it.
And being stewards of our own self care. Which brought me to this from Diana’s Grove:
To own: to possess, to have and hold property. To have command of… To Steward: to be a guardian; a Steward is one who is employed to take care of…
Aside from the obvious responsibility of being a guardian, a Steward is employed to do a job. What if taking care of yourself – your body, soul, talent, time, and energy was your job? There is an implication that you are accountable to some higher being for this charge.
…………………………………….
How would your life change if, you did not own yourself but were the steward of your body, talent, time and soul? As steward, what changes would you make? What priorities would shift? If… If you were the Steward of Yourself…
So December’s work. Interesting.
This entry was originally posted at http://pj.dreamwidth.org/329609.html. Please comment here or there there using your LJ ID or OpenID.
Oh dark year and shadow work – how I’ve missed thee
Or not.
Regardless, here ya go:
Intermittent Childhood Floats on Lily-of-the-Valley Fumes
Last night, tonight, everysinglenight,
I slip in the bedroom door,
and the scent curls around me,
flicking my nose, my forebrain.
Stirrings shift and purr,
youth leaps from age 3 to 8
no memories in between,
then slides again from 8 to 14.
Black holes strain to fill with red,
and blue and green and indigo,
Yellow.
Rainbows just out of reach.
They exist as a tease,
full frontal remembrance
only on a need to know basis.
Trust when I say, "I don’t need to know".
~Pamela V Jones ©2011
This entry was originally posted at http://pj.dreamwidth.org/329066.html. Please comment here or there there using your LJ ID or OpenID.
Bone and Briar 