30 Days of Witchcraft: Last dream

Last night was very weird.

I was flying with Audie Murphy. For those who don't know, he was one of the most decorated soldiers of WWII, an actor with over 40 feature films to his credit most notably Red Badge of Courage, and a songwriter.

Good looking guy and very sweet.

Until he crashed the plane. He deliberately hit another aircraft, taking out their tail and wing, and sending us into a crash on a city street.

We were trapped in the wrecked plane, with most of the nose and all of the windscreen gone. My legs hurt, bruised but not broken feeling.

A waitress from a nearby McDonalds (what? it's the middle of WWII, McD didn't happen until 1955) came over with some food. She was Linda Carter, for some reason.

We were rescued eventually. It tooks a ridiculously long time, especially for being downed on a major city street.

We were taken to a little yellow house and told it was a place to recover before returning to the airfield. I noticed a holographic sign on the side that said "Rest, eat, recover." It was like one of those old pictures that was only visible from one direction, the kind you turned this way and that to watch the baby open and shut its eyes.

Inside, there was a large, flatscreen Panasonic TV and the rest was done in basic early 1940s.
I kept trying to call Audie's attention to the anachronisms, but he wasn't understanding. They looked normal to him.

I had just been called out of the house by a lady with a clipboard when Mudd woke me.

He said it was a glitch in the Matrix.

Maslow Applies

Rewritten from a blog tour post called "Basic Psychology and the Apocalypse"

Maslow applies. Maslow always applies

If you are around me long enough, you will undoubtedly hear me say that at some point in time. Usually in relation to an apocalypse of some sort. I spent my last few years on the con circuit pounding that point.

I took basic psychology in college, just like every other undergrad. So it never ceases to amaze me when writers ignore the baseline needs of their characters.

An example: in the opening moments of "The Walking Dead" television series, Rick Grimes approaches a gas station, one with a mile of backed up cars, evidence that people were camping there but no longer are, and big signs that say “No Gas.” He goes clear to the pump and checks it. This, to me, is neglecting Maslow. He is looking for gasoline to find his family and neglecting to observe signs that compromise his safety. Safety rates just above basic physical needs on the scale. Belonging is the next step up from safety. Take care of your safety first. Put your own oxygen mask on first, as the airline safety speech says.

The baseline concern in any apocalypse is the lowest level: basic physiological needs. Air, water, food, shelter. The bare essentials of survival. And this is why we like apocalypses. They reduce our very complex lives and worries to the most simple things.

Right now, I have a lot on my mind: can we make it with me working part time? Will my son get into the university in Japan that he wants? Can I make all my deadlines? How am I going to afford all the conventions I committed to? Can I really get my publishing house off the ground? How's chemo going to work for my mom this time around? How much longer is my dad going to be around, and can he survive another week-long nosebleed? You know, all the stuff of the middle-class sandwich Generation X.

An apocalypse would focus all that into several big concerns: is the water safe to drink? Do we have food? Who am I going to have to shoot to keep me and mine safe?

Where we are today:
Maslow still applies as we go through this pandemic.

Money, that which creates food, shelter and safety, is an issue for a lot of people. They are the ones demanding to be allowed to go back to work. They need the baseline needs met before they can worry about other people. They're trying to get their own oxygen masks on first: stay fed and sheltered.

I am personally better rested than I've been in years and my brain is kicking out of survival mode (where it's been for 30 years) and into "what can I do" mode. Money isn't an issue for us and we are very fortunate there. Shelter and food are accomplished. I'm hitting Buckminster Fuller instead of Maslow.



But the people who are more precarious are going to continue to be a problem. There are also the usual "You can't tell me what to do" cranks and those who believe the conspiracy theorists that there is no virus at all, and this is a practice run for tyranny.  The latter two cannot be solved. The first, the answer is money.

If our government can hurl trillions at Wall Street, it can feed 300 million people for the duration.
$1000/month for 1 year is about $3.6 trillion, about what we dropped to keep Wall Street Solvent for an hour.. But when you put money in at the bottom, it circulates upward.

My brother makes $1000/mo as a school bus driver and is going to college full time to be a teacher. He shares a duplex with 5 other people: a bus driver (who makes the same), a college student, a disabled paramedic (disability), his boytoy and a logistics coordinator (who makes an adequate living). Together, hey manage rent and utilities and food. They have 2 car payments and gas is sometimes a struggle. Every one of them has bad medical debt they cannot pay. And he needs new dentures because his were badly made and do not fit.

Adding 6,000/month into this $5000/mo household would change everything. Rent would be paid in advance, medical debt would be cleared, college bills would be paid, cars would get paid off, savings could happen for emergencies. Everything would improve massively for them.

The money would be spent. It would buy groceries and gasoline, books and clothing, household goods and rent. And that is what creates jobs: demand for things.

If people felt secure, if they knew they would be able to pay their bills and eat steadily, they would be more willing to stay at home. Not all of them, true, but there wouldn't be the emergency feeling of "We have to open back up or we will die!"

It came across my facebook that perhaps, the feds could do something really useful:
Send out a box to every person once a month that contains PPE, a debit card for $1000,  and a vote by mail card. Use USPS.

The 1000 isn't even full time minimum wage (there is no such thing as full-time minimum wage and hasn't been for 35 years.) but it would make a huge difference.  It would let people get off the bottom level of Maslow.

And if we ever want to get anywhere as a country and as a people, we have to get off that bottom tier.

Maslow beats everything, because it always applies.

30 Days of Witchcraft: Out of the Book

This prompt is interesting to me. Does it mean what you have taken from books? Does it mean what you have come up with without books?

I am a mostly feral witch. I'm a mostly feral everything: kinkster, drag king, witch.
As a feral, I put together a lot of my own stuff, taking what works and ignoring what doesn't.
I've read a lot of books, good, bad, useless and useful.

Here is the primary bit of out-of-the-book wisdom I have:
Headology.

A psychiatrist will tell you there are no monsters.
A headologist gives you a bat and a chair to stand on.

There's a lot to unpack in that.
1) You have to meet people where they are, not where you want them to be.
The story is told of a young mental patient who locked himself in the bathroom claiming God was angry at him. People argued and persuaded to no avail. The night nurse came on to find this situation. She wrote a note and slipped it under the door. The young man came out, all smiles.  the note read "I'm not angry with you. I love you. --God."

2) You cannot discount their experiences.

3) You have to offer solutions based on their experiences, not yours.
My mother's best friend was having a hard time when Mom died. Her mother told her it was a sin to cry when someone died, because you're just being selfish. I asked her "What's the shortest verse in the Bible?" She said "Jesus wept." I said "Do you know why? It's from the story of Lazarus. They brought Jesus word on the road that Lazarus had died, and Jesus wept. He knew he would be raising Lazarus but he still cried. If Jesus can cry for his friend, you can cry for Mom."  She felt much better.

 Most witchcraft is headology. You must know your will, know what is real, know the outcome and act accordingly.

Where to find me

I'm here, there and everywhere during this thing.

A Long Strange Trip: gay and pagan and other fun stuff

Let's go to Disney for Free: my saving and planning blog

Dreamwidth.  My household and planning blog

Facebook anything and everything

Twitter mostly celebrity stalking

Tumblr  doing daily photodumps during quarantine

Pinterest lots of crafts and recipes. Also a new board for Covid Coping

Instagram My pictures

Patreon writing and crafts and other fun stuff

Bedtime stories me reading for the grandkids

Drag work me being a drag king

30 Days of Witchcraft: Sticks or stones

I have been a rock hound since childhood and ripped out more than one set of coat pockets filling them with rocks.

 

I do the hairnets with glass pearls, or howlite skulls or actual semi-precious beads (amethyst is popular)

And I make tree of life pendants from any pretty chip gems I find.

Oddly,though, I'm not a geomancer. I don't do much with rocks, outside of jewelry making. But I make some lovely jewelry and personal adornment.

I have some soapstone owls on my altar, around the feet of Athena, and then there's my banishing rock. (Any rock is a banishing rock if you throw it hard enough)

My favorite Afghan Pattern

I don't have an actual name for this. I transcribed it years ago from a lost pattern book.

Gorgeous Afghan



40 oz yarn
H hook (I recommend larger. Never again on an H!)

Strip (make 6)

Center:
ch7, join to make ring
Row 1: Ch3, 12 DC in ring; (do not join) 13 dc
Row 2: Ch 4, turn. dc in next dc (ch 1, dc in next DC) across, 12 ch-1 spaces. Mark last DC
Row 3: Ch 3 turn. DC cluster (*YO, insert hook in space, YO and pull a loop, YO, draw through 2 loops, repeat from * once more, draw through all three loops) in next ch-1 space, (ch2, dc cluster in next ch-1 sp) , dc in last dc. 11 ch2 spaces.
Row 4: Ch 5, turn. ( sc in next ch 2 sp, ch 5) 11 times, skip next cluster (sc, ch1, dc in space before last dc)
Row 5: Ch 3 do not turn. 8 dc in last space made. 9 dc
Row 6: Ch 3, slst in beginning ring. ch 1 turn.  dc in next dc (ch 1, dc in next dc) 7 times; 8 ch 1 sp
Row 7: Ch 3, turn. Dc cluster in next ch1 sp (ch 2, dc cluster in space) 7 times, sl st around DC post (end of row 2), 7 ch 2 spaces
Row 8:  Ch 3, do not turn. slst  in top of DC at end of Row 3.  ch 5 , turn (sc in next ch 2  sp, ch 5) 7 times. place marker around last ch 5. Skip next cluster.  sc ch1 dc) in sp before last DC
Row 9: Ch 3 do not turn. 8 dc in last space made. 9 dc
Row 10: Ch 3, skip next 2 rows, sl st around the post of dc at end of next row, ch 1, turn; dc  in next dc, (ch 1, dc in next dc) 7 times, 8 ch 1 spaces
Row 11: Ch 3, turn. Dc cluster in next ch1 sp (ch 2, dc cluster in space) 7 times, sl st around marked DC post, 7 ch 2 spaces
Row 12:  Ch 5, turn. ( sc in next ch 2 sp, ch 5), 7 times, place marker around last ch 5. Skip next cluster.  sc ch1 dc) in sp before last DC
Row 13-88: repeat 9-12, 19 times
Row 89: ch 3 do not turn, 12 dc in last sp made ; 13 dc
Row 90: Ch 3, sk next 2 rows, slst around post of dc at end of next row, ch 1, turn, dc in next dc ( ch 1, dc in next dc) 11 times, slst in marked ch5; 12 ch 1 sp
Row 91: Ch 3 turn. word dc cluster in next ch 1 sp, (ch 2, dc cluster) 11 times slst in marked chain 5 sp
Row 92: Ch 5 turn; (sc in next ch 2 sp, ch 5) 10 times, mark last ch 5 sp. skip cluster, sc in next ch 2 sp.  ch 5, skip next cluster, slst in sp before last DC, finish off.


Border:
Rd 1: With right side facing, join yarn in marked ch5 space. ch 3, (sc in ch5 sp, ch 3) 9 times.

Work TRCluster [(uses 2 ch 5 spaces) *YO twice, insert, Yo and pull up a loop; YO draw through  2 loops twce, repeat from * once more, YO and draw through all loops], ch 3; *(sc in ch5 sp, ch 3) 5 times, work TRC, ch 3, repeat from * 9 times% (sc in next ch 5 sp, ch 3) 16 times, repeat  from % to % once more, slst in beginning sc.

Rd 2: Slst in first ch-3 sp, ch 1 (sc, ch 5, sc, ch 3, sc) in the same sp 5 (sc, ch 3, sc) in each of thee next 3 ch3 sp, (sc, ch3, sc, ch 5, sc) in next ch 3 sp ( sc, ch3, sc) in each of the next 69 ch -3 sp% ( sc, ch 5, sc, ch 3, sc) in next ch 3 sp. Repeat from % to %, join with sl st in first sc

Joining:
Hold 2 strips wrong side together and bottom to the right, join yarn with sc in first corner ch 5 sp on front strip, ch 3, sc in corresponding corner on back strip. ch 2, *sc in next chain 3 sp on front strip, ch 2, sc in next space on back strip, ch 2* repeat to end, finish off. Join all strips

Edging:
Rd 1: With right side of a short edge facing, join with sc  in top right ch 5; ch 7 ( sc in same sp, ch 5) twice, *(sc in next sp, ch 5) across to next corner. [ sc, ch 7 (sc, ch5) twice] in corner ch5, repeat around

Rd 2: Ch 1, sc in same sp, ch 3, (sc, ch5,sc) in next ch  space, ch 3, * ( sc in next ch 5 sp, ch 3) 3 times, (sc, ch 5, sc) in next sp, ch 3; repeat from * around to last 2 ch5 sp. sc in next ch 5 sp, ch3, sc in last ch5 sp, ch 1, hdc in first sc to form last ch3 sp.

Rd 3: Ch 1, sc in same sp, ch 3, sc in nect ch-3 sp, 9 dc in next ch5 sp, sc in next ch3 sp. *(ch 3, sc in next ch 3 sp) 3 times, 9 DC in next ch-5sp, sc in next ch3 sp; repeat fro * around to last ch3 sp. ch3, sc in last sp, ch2, sc in first sc to form last ch3 sp.

Rd 4: Ch 1, sc in same sp and in next ch 3 sp, dc in next dc (ch 1, dc in next dc) 8 times *sc in next ch-3 sp (sc, ch3, sc) in next ch 3 sp, sc in next sp, dc in next dc (ch 1, dc in next dc) 8 times, repeat from * around to last ch-3 sp.  sc in last sp and in same sp as first sc, ch1, hdc in first sc to form last ch3 sp.

Rd 5: Ch 1, sc in same sp and in enxt ch-1 sp, ch 5 (sc in next sp, ch 5) 6 timez *sc on next 3 spaces, ch 5, (sc in next sp, ch 5) 6 times; repeat from * around to lasr ch 1 sp. sc in ch1 sp, join with slst, finish off.