I’ve been droning on and on about this for months, annoying all of my friends who aren’t in what Josh calls “The Same Line of Faith” as we are, about the upcoming Ghost Month or Seventh Moon, which isn’t so upcoming anymore.

Last night was the festival for Wodenshund, a festival I did not get to attend, but we did feed our hungry ghosts to ease their suffering and appease them the way we always do. Our incense in the doorway, the rice, noodles and spirit money in red paper envelopes burning in a ceramic bowl on the porch while Laota is sleeping. The fear of sundown, the flicker of tiny white candles in red lotus lanterns – it’s an odd way to live, I suppose.

But we are tempting fate. Due to idiots beyond our control, we live in the only private home on a crossroads shared with a mini mart, a bank and a cemetery on two sides. Weird things happen out here. People will randomly just walk out of the cemetery in the middle of the night and head down the highway. There are odd noises, strange weather, golden lights that appear in the cemetery just after sundown but disappear if you get too close. Even tail lights and car engine sounds, but we assume that’s just local kids blowing off steam.

It still scares me, I still burn the money and make the food for them in hopes that they stay out there and we can live without crossing paths. Which doesn’t always work out, but I’ll save those stories for Halloween.

Tagged with: Ghost Festival • Ghost Month • Hungry Ghost Festival • Hungry Ghost Month • Hungry Ghosts • Seventh Moon

Posted by Faith on at 6:50 am

I know this is a bit old, but I’ve been on a Bill Maher and Michael Moore kick this week to cleanse my soul after having been subjected to months of local soul putrifying Conservative hate mongering. I found this while I was Youtube walking through Atheist Experience videos (love those guys, and no, I am not an Atheist) and couldn’t agree more with what’s being said:

Thank you! Terrorism shouldn’t control our lives and it really does, even 10 years after the September 11th attacks on the World trade Center. I’m still hearing about how the Jews (my people, ethnically speaking) are responsible, or it was an inside job, or Islam is a religion of hate (just shut up about that). We have to learn to get on with our lives and not let this change us fundamentally or allow our liberties and freedoms to be taken from us because some ass munch declares marshal law.

Tagged with: Bill Maher • Conservative Hate Speech • Islam • Liberal • Michael Moore • Religion • September 11th • Terrorist Attacks

Posted by Faith on at 8:08 pm

I’m stopping Netflix instant play about halfway through an episode of Frontline called, “The Suicide Tourist” because the whole thing is greatly disturbing me.

It’s not the subject matter of what I’m watching, which centers on a middle aged man suffering from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease who decides to end his life with the help of an assisted suicide group in, I believe, Switzerland.

It’s not the fact that he’s so calm about setting a date to die. It’s not even the fact that his wife doesn’t seem to care all that much (yet – as the date draws near that may change). It’s that I find myself wondering what I would do in the situation, and when I play my answer to that back in my head I don’t know that I like what I hear.

Now, I’m not going to get religiously preachy – Thor knows you hear enough of that, and if someone has a valid, sane (yes, sane) reason for wanting to let go of an unbearable life – I wouldn’t recommend it, I’d try to talk them out of it, but if they had to do it I would understand.

No, my reason for thinking that I’d want to endure the pain and humiliation of a life with ALS isn’t noble, moral, ethical or anything like that – I flat out don’t want to go. I’m the kind of person who finishes the last drip of Pepsi in the bottle, even if it’s warm and flat. I find I approach life with the same greed, even though my life is absolutely horrible. It’s still my life, you can’t have it, I’m not done playing with it yet.

Set aside that I’m an Odinist of sorts and that giving in to an easy death doesn’t win you brownie points if you’re trying to make it to The Twilight, just want the last drop of life in the bottle – even this life. I feel for the man in the story, he’s expressed the want to live and go on though he seems determined to end it all. He’s braver than me.

Posted by Faith on at 1:44 am

We’re on, what, day two(? Day three?) of the worst blizzard the Midwestern United States has seen in years and years. We’re snowed the hell in, I mean that exactly like I said it, too. We don’t even have a drive way anymore. The snow plows have been bravely soldiering on almost non stop to keep the roads clear, the wind is still going at nine billion miles per hour. It’s a mess, and with no real emergency crews to speak of in this town, someone’s bound to get really hurt.

But we should be on the last legs of this thing, though I’m sure it’ll get worse before it gets better. In one day we’re supposed to go from negative numbers and jump 30 degrees into the positive, but that’s not until tomorrow. What to do until then?

Well there’s work, work and more work. Oh, and did I mention work? I have so much stuff to do I’m about to blow my tiny, fragile top. And on top of all of that I’ve got to finish designs on 3 official music artists websites (two paid, one not) and I have no idea how I’ll fit it all into my schedule.

On the bright side tomorrow should be the first day of the year of the rabbit, much luck and prosperity to everyone in the new year! Laota and I couldn’t wait for new year bento so we made new years eve bento, lol. I only have one tier photographed (I already ate the one with the bunny rice — my bad!), but it’s cute anyway!

It’s wasabi tuna salad stuffed in onirgiri and that’s not furikake, it’s bacon bits – yes this is a fat bento, lol. The brown bits around the outside are peanut butter stuffed pretzle bites. The top tier had more rice with egg and bonito furikai and a cheese bunny to celebrate the year of the tiger becoming the year of the rabbit (yay!), and tomato salad mixed with the extra tuna salad to fill it up. Heart bento. Will have a better one with better pics on Hanamachi Lights tomorrow (I hope, lol).

Tagged with: 2011 Blizzard • Bento • Blizzard • Chinese New Year • New Year • Obento • Spring Festival • Year of the Rabbit

Posted by Faith on at 7:38 am