Just to let everyone know(at least, everyone who bothers to check my blog), I'll be away from the 'puter today due to extreme concertage. We're on our way to Baltimore for a Tori Amos concert, and I expect much fun to be had by all. I hope you all have a great day, and I'll log back on tonight, barring unforeseen circumstances. In other news, I am now editor for another show. It's the 1980s horror/adventure "Werewolf." I'm terribly excited about this, and will probably devote another blog entry to it tomorrow or tonight. I also have a new banner in the works to celebrate. :D Talk to you soon, guys. Don't have too much fun without me. Hurdy gur, -Marc

I finally broke down and took my old copy of Photoshop out of mothballs. The new banner is about as simple as simple can be, but it was fun trying to teach myself how to do simple photo manipulation again. This one is just a generic Jossian banner, with my regular totem/familiar/animal-I-think-is-really-cool off in the far right. I'm working on getting to edit a few shows, and I might make special banners to celebrate if I ever collect enough points to claim them. For now, however, this seemed like a good place to start. :)

Just a bleah day today. Saw the movie "Cursed" last night. Not bad, sort of a post-modern take on the classic werewolf tale. Amusing yet still respectful. Probably a little scary at points as well, but my DVD player was having some sort of seizure and the constant stutters and pauses sort of damaged the atmosphere. The only problem was that it kept me up far later than I'd planned. Had a devil of a time waking up and got to work late (meaning, just on time instead of a few minutes early). For the first time since the Conference Center opened, every single room was in use and I'm trying to juggle everyone. Oh, and keep my eyes open. See, it looks sort of bad if one of the big bosses walks by and I'm face-down on my keyboard. Though that might improve my forum posts... Anyway, just picked up a Starbucks Doubleshot and a Monster energy drink. I just hope they'll do the trick. Once more I wonder what ever happened to the days when I could stay out all night and go to school the next morning. Also wondering why we force children to take naps but don't let the adults have one. Does that seem right to you?

More casual entry today than my last couple. We had a nice weekend, much more restful than our usual. The only problem was that S'Gypsy has been getting really bad migraines, so much of our laziness was so that she could recover. However, we did go to a friend's place on Saturday. Hung out for a few hours, ate pizza, met his girlfriend, and showed them the first episode of Firefly. I'm not sure, but I think we may have two browncoats in the making. Really cool people, and much fun was had by all. And now begins our time of vacations. A week from Tuesday we'll be going to Baltimore to see Tori Amos. Then we'll be taking the next day off to recuperate (and just when, I ask you, did I get too old to stay out late and then go to work the next day? :( ). Around the end of September we'll be heading out to Vegas for a longish weekend (leave Thursday, get back Sunday, take off Monday) and in November we'll be doing Thanksgiving with S'Gypsy's family in Oklahoma. Then, we'll collapse. And maybe die. Still, it should be fun. :)

As a reply to my last blog entry, HappyYellowBall asked, "Is it the Craft or is it Wicca?" This made me realize that I hadn't defined my terms, so I will now try to correct that error. Anyone who is not interested, please feel free to ignore this.

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The words Witch, Witchcraft, and Wicca are all bound together in knots of definition. I told part of the story in the last blog entry, so I'll just summarize that part. Basically, Saxons came to the British Isles and found people who presided over the folk religion of the people. They were told that these priests, priestesses, healers, and oracles were "Wise Ones" (or something similar). The Saxons translated this into their own tongue as "Wicca". Thus, "wicca" means a male Witch and "wicce" means a female Witch. These became the common terms, and as time went by the 'cc' became a 'ch' sound and the word "witch" was born. After the persecutions caused Witchcraft to fade away (either because all the practitioners went into hiding or because they were dead) we took the new definition of the term which was offered by the victors. Witches were people who used magick, particularly to harm people, and more particularly if they gained their power from the Devil. Anthropologists used the term whenever they came across people in any country who claimed to be able to use magick, thus further muddying the waters. Then the Witches came back. In modern times, one of the preeminent authors about Witchcraft was Gerald Gardner (I'll talk about him more if I ever get a chance to write part 2 of my history article). Gardner made the observation that "Witch" came from "Wicca" and therefore the religion could be called "The Craft of the Wicca" or "Wiccacraft". Many readers misread this or misheard it from other sources and began to simply use the word "Wicca" to refer to the religion. Many people practiced the religion but were uncomfortable with the negative connotations of the word "Witchcraft" so they began to use this new/old term instead. Now there have been two backlashes against this, and they are polar opposites. Some Witches, especially those raised in a family tradition or Famtrad, have eschewed the use of the term "Wicca" because they believe that it refers only to the type of Witchcraft practiced (and perhaps created) by Gerald Gardner. In contrast, they believe their tradition to be more "pure" and... well, traditional. Meanwhile, another smaller group are claiming that "Wicca" should be the correct term because "Witchcraft" refers to any type of magick (they have been confused by the anthropological use of the word). This view is opined by the author of the Wicca article on About.com whose only comment on my explanatory emails has been "I disagree." So much for scholarship. So, to sum up. "Wicca" means "a male Witch" but is now used to refer to the religion of Witchcraft. If used this way, a practitioner is called a "Wiccan". These terms refer to the same religion as the terms "Witchcraft" and "Witch". Because "Witchcraft" is a reasonably long word to write or say, the term "The Craft" is often substituted (perhaps less so since the movie came out). There are some people who prefer one term or another, and as far as I'm concerned that is just fine. My only objection is when people start telling others what term they should use. There are other terms out there, but this is the most confusing distinction. I hope this was somewhat clear (as much as a history this long can be). Oh, and it should go without saying at this point that "Witchcraft" and "magick" are two different things. "Witchcraft" is a religion while "magick" is a practice which can be used by anyone in any religion. Feel free, once again, to ask any questions you may have. Blessed be and Hurdy gur, -Marc

This is a post that I made in my "Ask a Witch" thread a while back. I keep seeing the thread fall farther and farther back with no questions being asked, so I decided it was time to let it slip away with dignity. However, I never finished this post, so I thought I'd store part one here so that I could eventually get around to posting part two and it would make some sort of sense. Anyone who isn't interested in this sort of thing, please just ignore this entry.

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There are many different viewpoints relating to the history of Witchcraft. Virtually no ancient people kept written records, so it is impossible to be certain of what the past held. The following is my best guess. At some time in pre-history, people began to honor a Goddess. She was likely the Goddess of childbirth, because that seems to have been their idea of the greatest magick. Thousands of small goddess statues have been found all over Europe and into Asia, dating anywhere from 25000 to 30000 BCE (though some seem to be older and there are theories that the dates may be as early as 50000 or even older). The best known of these statues is the "Venus of Willendorf" and you can see a picture of it here. This Goddess represented the fertility of the people, the animals, and the Earth itself. Some time later we see evidence of a God as well. He is a bit harder to describe, but is basically a God of the hunt, of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Being both the hunter and the hunted, he wore on his head a rack of antlers, just like the deer who were one of the main sources of meat on the European plains. A complex figure, I'll devote at least one whole post just to him if people are interested. One of the earliest and most well-known depictions of the God is the "sorcerer" painting in Ariege, France. You can see a fairly good rendering of it here. The worship of these two figures went on in various forms through the millenia, generally being the relgion of the people throughout Western Europe. The priests and priestesses of this faith may have had a name for themselves, but if so then we have lost it in the mists of time. When Saxon invaders came to the shores of England, they encountered some of these priests and priestesses, and were curious. They inquired about them and were told that these were the "wise ones" who guided religious ceremonies and kept the knowledge of harbs and divination. They translated this into their language as "wicca" for the males and "wicce" for the females (both words mean, roughly, "wise one"). Over time, the Saxon 'cc' became a 'ch' sound, and we got the word "Witch". When Christianity moved into Western Europe for the second time (the first time they were a wave of immigrants, often given shelter by the Witches who honored all seekers of wisdom) they started to claim territory by converting the rulers of each area so that the entire area would be considered Christian. Eventually they came into conflict with the local religions, and even some from back home. All non-Christian religions were demonized, but none worse than Witchcraft. When Witches would try to heal, it was said that they were cursing; when they would bless the crops, they were accused of blighting them; even the image of the Christian devil was altered during this time to look more like the Witches horned God of the hunt (remember, Satan was an angel so horns really made no sense). Eventually, the persecution began in earnest. Whole villages would be slaughtered if it was believed that even one Witch lived there (the battle cry of the Witchfinder was "kill them all, God will know His own.") We will never know how many people were put to death during the time Witches now call "The Burning Times" but the number was probably in the low millions. The craze soon lost all semblance of sanity, and it's certain that almost no Witches were actually caught except perhaps early in the hunts. The Witches themselves went underground, seemingly vanishing from the face of the earth...

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This ends part one. I've been trying to find time to write up part two for almost a month, but I will keep trying and I promise it will happen at some point. Meanwhile, if anything in the above is unclear, or anyone notices any goofs, please let me know. Blessed be and Hurdy gur, -Marc

This is a delayed statement about how happy I am to be a Regal Beagle. First of all, it's level 13, and that's always been a lucky number for me. Second, Three's Company was a guilty pleasure during much of my formative years. And finally, I've just always like the name. It makes me think of Snoopy in a crown. I know that I've just been submitting too much stuff, so I'll probably lose the title today or tomorrow, so I wanted to celebrate while the celebratin' was good. Back up, folks, I'm gonna do the Snoopy dance. :D Hurdy gur, -Marc

A little rant about work. Sorry, feel free to ignore this. First let me explain that I work in a Regional Conference Center for a major financial institution. I take the appointments for the conference rooms and make sure everything is running smoothly (all the time answering phones and being a receptionist, because that way they can pay me far less than I would otherwise be making). Now the people who sign out these rooms are usually fairly powerful people and are always... well, adults. But you wouldn't know it to look at the condition in which they leave the rooms. Just last night we had a conference which went past the 5:00 closing time, so they had to close up themselves. I grabbed the person who was in charge of the meeting and told him that the doors would automatically be locked at 5 and that they could let people in and out but the doors must be left closed and locked when they leave. I get here this morning and both the front and back door are propped open. For the front door, they used one of the books which has been loaned to us so that clients will have reading material while they wait. The back door just stuck open, but the magazine they had used to prop it was on the floor inside the center. Meanwhile, in the room, the chairs were scattered hither and yon and papers were left all over the tables. In short, I've seen kindergartners who clean up after themselves with more care and consideration. I fully expect to walk into a room one of these days and find that the chairs are all in the center of the room being used to support a blanket and pillow "fort". I shudder for the financial well-being of our nation. Hurdy gur, -Marc

Sorry I've been so AWOL yesterday and today. I'm just concentrating on editing, and on grabbing credits from various shows. See, I have a DVD drive on my computer at work, so on the rare days (like yesterday, today, and maybe tomorrow) when I have no people around, I can just stick a DVD in the drive and grab all those credits. I save them in a Word document, print them, and then mark off which ones are already present in the guide. Then I enter any that are left. Right now, we cannot enter any credits which do not exactly match the options on the drop-down menu. For example, there are no audio jobs listed at all (except, there might be a "sound" category). This leaves audio engineers, foley artists, boom operators, and dozens of others which we cannot enter if we are being at all accurate. I am sure that eventually there will be a way to enter these oddities, so when I'm done with the Word document, I'm leaving it as a record of which credits have not yet been entered. I hope that a write-in category becomes available soon. Anyway, I'm trying to flit over to the Angel board when I can, and to keep an eye on other goings-on. That's "flit" in a manly way, of course. But the above drudgery is what is taking up most of my time. Hope your days are going well. Hurdy gur, -Marc

Go figure. I just finished compiling some massive amounts of data to enter into various guides, and now every time I try to post anywhere I am getting this plain white screen that erases my work. If I try to refresh the screen it double posts/double submits, and that's almost worse. And I've already been yelled at (sorta) for entering little bits of info at a time, but I'm scared to enter it all at once for fear that I'll lose it and have to start over. All in all, it's looking to be an interesting day.