amazon_syren

Took my shovel out again today.

Dug up a squash plot (very small - about four square feet, maybe?) and planted eight squash seeds:
1 pumpkin
2 carnival
3 hubbard
2 butternut (I think)

Also planted hollyhocks and lupins (seeds) around the house-near perifery of the back yard (did that make any sense?), so hopefully those will all grow.

Along the side, by the driveway, I planted more hollyhocks and some columbines.

At the front I planted giant marrigolds and brown-eyed-susans plus some Royal Burgundy bush-beans (edible! yay!) in the front garden plots. :-)

So hopefully that will all work out beautifully. :-)

In other news: I appear to have come to a conclusion.

Ami_B mentioned that Algonquin has a horticulture program and my immediate reaction was "I don't wanna go back to school". I think, perhaps, my brain is trying to tell me something. :-)

<*sigh*>

See, at my brother's grad, I was feeling all "Oh, I want that". But the thing is, I want the prestige of the degree. Not the work it takes to get it.
Yeah, I know. Lazy-assed me. Deal. :-P

So...

This may be the death knell of the MA. Alas.

But whatever.

Anyway.

That's my thought for the moment. (It feels really wierd to say that. I mean I've been out of school for almost nine months now, and I still feel really indecisive about this *dispite* little wake-up calls like this one where it becomes *quite* clear that I don't want to go back... I really don't get myself sometimes...)
:-P

Anyway.
Snark-snarkity-snark-snark.

I am stiff and sore (backs of thighs + hands, especially the right one), due to the gardening. I think I need a soothing bath or something tonight. :-)

I'm off to get myself some dinner. :-)

- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)

Current Mood: sore
Current Music: Somewhere - Within Temptation ("The Silent Force")

Tags:

gardening,
thesis

For my own reference, as well as anyone else's:

Call for Essays on Menstruation.

Cool! :-)

From the Site:

***

We are looking for essays and creative nonfiction that analyze, question, and explore all aspects of menstruation and menstruation culture. Potential topics include:

* menstruation and gender – how does menstruation fit into (or conflict with) experiences of gender?
* menstrual products advertising & the “sanitary products” industry
* menstruation, personal relationships, and sex – from phobias to fetishes
* menstrual education – what do we learn and how do we learn it, what do we teach and how to we teach it?
* menstruation as a human rights issue – how are women’s periods dealt with in prisons, shelters, mental institutions, long-term care facilities, and other institutions?
* women who voluntarily/intentionally stop menstruating
* men’s experiences with / attitudes regarding menstruation
* menstruation humor
* menstruation and ridicule/shame
* transmenstruation – what kinds of issues come up around menstruation for intersex, transsexual and transgendered people?
* premature menopause (organic or induced)
* enjoying/appreciating menstruation
* menstruation and/in the workplace
* menstruation through the eyes of Western medicine
* the “menstrual alternatives” movement (e.g. reusable pads/cups/sponges) and its culture
* menstruation in straight vs. queer spheres
* feminist culture and menstruation

GENERAL GUIDELINES:

* NONFICTION only.
* NO fiction, poetry, or memoir. (This means that unless there is a specific reason for it to be in your piece, we do not want to hear about when you got your first period or how bad your PMS is. This is not a collection of first-person narratives.)
* Submissions should be between 1500 and 5000 words in length.
* TWO (2) copies of your submission will be required.
* Hard copy (paper copy) submissions ONLY. No electronic or emailed submissions will be considered.
* Typed or computer printed ONLY.
* Formatting: 12-point type in some generic traditional font (Times, Georgia, Geneva, Courier, etc.), one-inch margins, double spaced. Please include all italics, boldface, blockquotes, section breaks, etc.
* References, if any, may be either footnote or endnote according to author preference and should use Chicago Manual of Style format. No inline references please.
* Please number your pages
* Each submission should be accompanied by a cover sheet that contains ONLY the following data: Author Name, Pseudonym (if used), Title of Submission, Author mailing address, Author e-mail address, and Author telephone number.
* The author’s name or pseudonym should NOT appear anywhere on the submission itself.
* Each submission should be accompanied by a single business-sized self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE, with first class letter postage already affixed). Submissions from outside the USA do not require the SASE.
* Please DO NOT send additional cover letters with your submission,, only the cover sheet as indicated above.
* Please DO NOT send your only copy/copies of your work.
* NOTE: Manuscripts will not be returned. Manuscripts not chosen for the book will simply be recycled.

SUBMISSIONS ADDRESS:
Send all submissions to the following address

Breakthrough Bleeding – SUBMISSIONS
C/o Hanne Blank, Editor
44 E. 26th Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218 USA

***

- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)

Current Music: Never Surender -- Cory Hart

Tags:

theology,
thesis

So, I was writing a bit about Sam Gill's idea of ritual disillusionment as a way of strengthening/deeping faith and its meaningfulness in one's life, and I ended up writing a bit about disillusionment that occurs in Goddess Spirituality, and I came up with this little tidbit of possibility:

Based on the name Junior_Crone (and the person it applies to), and on testimonials of the three ladies who self-identified as ‘Crones’ at the August Goddess Salon in Ottawa:I

t appears that ‘Crone’ means, in part, freedom from having to take care of children, and also the assumption that you *won’t* be having any children (this from the perspective of people who self-identified as ‘Mothers’, but who had grey hair and were sick of having people assume they were post-menopausal and incapable of having kids and that their having kids would be kind of distasteful).

As such, are childless/childfree GS women sprinting towards Cronehood because it will mean they are safely out of ‘Mother’ territory and into a designation where motherhood is no-longer a defining feature of womanhood? Something like that?

I'd like to hear people's thoughts and comments on this subject. :-)

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Random boppy song that I don't recognize. In my head.