Spring

You know how when you go to the beach and wade out into the surf, if you watch the water instead of keeping your head up to orient between sand and water and sky, the sea tries to coax you out deeper and deeper, and you don't even quite realize it until a bigger wave nearly lifts you off your feet, and you look up suddenly, remembering that you're supposed to be watching that--that the ocean will swallow you up--and you realize you're much further from dry land than you meant to go?

That's what spring is like, for me. I understand why adults, kids, and teens, Christians, pagans and neo pagans alike, all want to build bonfires and stay out in the newly-warming nights. Chasing around, playing tag as dark falls, watching the flames dance, breathing deeply of the rising tide of green.

I wish I knew the constellations better, to understand the seasonal differences in their positions.

So that's where I've been, just lately.

I've been listening to that siren call that would take me far out to sea.

Gift Song Meme

This was Medievalist's idea, and I think it sounds like really a serious lot of fun.

1. Pick one or more of your friends who listens to digital music; preferably someone who already has iTunes and an iTunes account, and who has a blog or Live Journal or somthing similar.

Songs are .99 cents on iTunes; if people want to send MP3s directly, that's up to them, but post the song title, artist, and album anyway. You can use a credit card or PayPal to purchase songs. I suspect it's possible give music with other music services, but I don't know. There are also lots of good sources for free music on the net; feel free to use those, or to publicize indie artists you like a lot. Oh, and there are
free songs at Amazon too.

2. Select the song you want to give.

3. Post this meme on your blog or Live Journal, and list your friends, the song you've chosen for them, (keep the song a secret until after you friend receives it, if you'd like), a link to their blog, and these instructions. Feel free to add a comment about why you chose the song.

4. Purchase the single song for each friend, one at a time, (that is don't buy three songs for three friends.) If you use the iTunes store, find the song, then click on the link for the album; you will see a link near the top of the screen that says "Gift This Music"; click it, then click the Gift button that's included in the link for the song. When you check out, you'll see a form with spaces for your name, your friend's name and email address, and a short message. This will be emailed to your friend, with instructions about how to download their gift song. Use the message to send them a link to the permalink for your blog post about the meme so they'll know to blog about the song. If you use Tags, tag the post as "Gift Music."

5. If you decide to "gift back" to someone who tags you, please also tag someone else, so we can have a variety of musical tastes, journals, blogs, and people.

So I'm tagging Mark Pettus, at The Bluff; Dawno, at NVNC ID VIDES, NVNC NE VIDES; Jenna Glatzer at Hot Diggety; and Ray Wong. Also, I'm sending one to Medievalist, cuz it was her idea--but it might show up in her LJ, instead. (Of all these, I think Lisa is the only one likely to have whatever I send. She's already doing the meme, too.)

ETA: If you have trouble with the links in your email, try recopying the actual link (double checking that there are no line breaks or extra spaces) into your browser address bar, and navigating to pick up your gifted song that way.

gift music meme

For your contemplation

Five Reasons Torture is always wrong.

Christianity Today is an unlikely source for me. I've deep and long-term philosophical differences with self-identified Christianity. Nonetheless, many of my friends profess to be Christians, which declaration always makes me squirm a bit--then I feel sort of dirty, as if I'd said "some of my best friends are straight...(or black, or queer, or fill-in-the-blank.)"

So a thank you nod to TNH over at Making Light, for her Particles in the sidebar.

At some point we must, all of us, make a stand that wrong is wrong is wrong.

Torture is wrong.

The WA State Highway 2 trestle, from beneath.

The moon is high, and there are cars up there, going somewhere.

April Fools' Day

One possible origin for April Fools' Day, or All Fools' Day.

My favorite explanation for this holiday, and the likeliest sounding, is found here:

Another explanation of the origins of April Fools' Day was provided by Joseph Boskin, a professor of history at Boston University. He explained that the practice began during the reign of Constantine, when a group of court jesters and fools told the Roman emperor that they could do a better job of running the empire. Constantine, amused, allowed a jester named Kugel to be king for one day. Kugel passed an edict calling for absurdity on that day, and the custom became an annual event.

The problem with that explanation is that the good professor invented it. Never happened. Was, itself, an April Fools' joke.

As not a particularly subtle person, I've played my share of practical jokes, over the years.

Just wanted to remind y'all to be a bit skeptical, today.

Happy April.