I gotta answer this with as much vigor as I can: It's all what you make of it.

As soon as you can tap into that knowledge and really grok it, you own yourself. I say this as someone who has habitually given her power away over the years.

Fuck "luck".

<p align="center"><img src="http://www.flarn.com/~warlock/tarot/fantastical/3.jpg"></p>
You are The Empress
Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.
The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.
The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.
<p align="center"><font size="2" face="Verdana"><b>What Tarot Card are You?</b><br><a href="http://www.flarn.com/~warlock/tarot">Take the Test to Find Out.</a></font></p>

So, I came across a charming tshirt last night while celebrating a friend's birthday in Seaside: It had the phrase, "Hump and Dump," with an image of a man throwing a woman into a garbage can.

I wrote a note that said, "This degrades women," and as I was looking for a way to attach it to the display, the manager, a Hispanic man in his early 20's, came up to me. He was pleasant enough, and I kept my tone even, acknowledging that it's not his fault that the owners would buy and display this tshirt, but that it was patently offensive. He first said that there were plenty of offensive tshirts there, and pointed at the one that said, "I support single mothers, 1 dollar at a time," with an image of a stripper. I told him that while a bit objectifying (and hey, we on lj could go back and forth with 2nd vs. 3rd wave feminist rhetoric about that), it wasn't equating women with garbage and promoting using them sexually. At the end, he said it was just a joke, at which point I ended up asking him how he would feel if it was directed at his mother or sister, or if it was a "joke," in a similar vein pointed at his race. 

My litmus test for a lot of this is, if it were directed at an ethnic or religious group, would there or would there not be outrage? 
 
Here's my deal: Is finding something like this really fucked up and offensive indicative of having any political viewpoint, or, at the least, subscribing to any "ism"? Can you get pissed off about something that happens to be directed at the subsection of humanity you belong to without being accused of having an agenda, or moreover, that  possibly having said agenda means that you are at odds with what is "normal" and therefore the dreaded "too sensitive"?

I'm sick of how our culture seems to be going out of its way to promote men to be fucking assholes. I don't know if that tshirt is more damaging to impressionable young women, or the impressionable young men who feel they must be this way or not be "man enough". 

In either event, I think the designer of the shirt needs a kick in the crotch. Maybe I should send them a shipment of Hothead Paisan tshirts.

You can use you illusion, let it take you where it may
We live and learn and then sometimes it's best to walk away
Me I'm just here hangin' on, it's my only place to stay
At least for now anyway I've worked too hard for my illusions
Just to throw them all away.

I once was one of you, and for some reason, my muse seems to have blocked my number. (In all seriousness, I think I've become my own psyche-mechanic over the past couple of years, and I fill in enough journals, both online and paper, with all of my introspective musings.) But you can get lost in that forever, and it's time to create again.

What do you do to get back into creative mode after a dry spell?

I wish I could find a way to track down Valerie Hernandez, Tiger Lily's owner, and offer her my support. She can't possibly be doing all that well, considering what happened.

I was so furious about this when I found out yesterday, and now I can't stop crying.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25717069-38200,00.html

It never ceases to make me smile. For those of you who don't feel like clicking, it's another story of some young punk attacking an elderly man who just happened to be a boxer when he was younger--with delightful consequences!

If I'm a happy man today, I don't know about tomorrow,
Will I be in ecstasy or deep in debt and sorrow,
There's a pint upon the table, there's another on the way
And with the girl beside me, I'm a happy man today.

There are some who rush about in a panic and a hurry,
While others lie in bed on their backs and worry,
And with all that care and worry,
Bolted doors and locked-up locks,
We'll all end up in safety pushing daisies in a box.

(chorus)

I suppose that there are those whose life is only roses,
And they only have to pluck to hold them to their noses
And there's others on the slag heap,
And if they search and pray,
There's a chip of glass might glisten like a diamond in the day.

Now I don't have all the answers,
And I don't have all the questions
And the worries of the world be solved by my suggestions.
But this is one suggestion,
That you raise your glass and say,
I don't know about tomorrow, I'm a happy man today.

We started with our customary Sunday morning breakfast at the bagel shop, where C. pointed outside to show me the patch of land outside the window was carpeted with cherry blossoms of the most luscious creamy crispness of lavenderish pink, even as the trees yielding this bounty were still lushly full of petals. I sat in one of the oversized chairs, sipping my coffee until our food came, and remarked to him that it was one of the reasons I loved him so, that he could see this and appreciate it, know it was special enough that he wanted to share it with me, too.

Even though it was raining and not very warm, we headed to the arboretum where we'd taken our pictures right after our wedding (a day that had blessed us with one of the few sunny days of May '03, setting off the trippy fairyland blooming and blossoming of fuschias, pinks, purples, and greens). We wore our raincoats and called it an adventure, and found the place where 6 years earlier, we declared our meeting place for our next lifetime, as was tradition in my temple. So much has changed since then, but those kisses, deep and sweet and full of a joy that made us both wriggle, just highlighted how we still have so much love for each other, how everything, even after all these years, has a certain vitality and freshness.

As we drove home for a Heroes marathon, a line from a Prodigals song stood out to me: "I don't have all the answers/I don't know all the questions/And the worries of this world/Won't be solved by my suggestions." The song went on to say that all we have is today to be happy, that we have no control over all the tomorrows, and it stuck with me through our dinner and cuddling.

"I'm with the girl beside me, I'm a happy man today."

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2172612.ece

Sorry, dumbass, but you had it coming.

One must sometimes commit a sin out of hate and contempt for the Devil, so as not to give him the chance to make one scrupulous over mere nothings... Martin Luther

What fictional character do I remind you of?

+5 if you manage to come up with something other than Magenta. ;)

I'm never going to not be how I am. :)

Meme bandwagon:

If you saw ME in a police car, what would you think I had been arrested for?

Post in your journal, and I'll tell you what I'd think if it was you.

Thank you for helping me overcome my procrastination these past two weeks. :)

...I believe the word I am looking for is YES!!!!!!

I'm still feeling pretty flippin' exuberant. :)

Peace, joy, and love :)