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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
- On 22 October 1843, a crowd of men and women gathered on a hilltop in Massachusetts, led by the prophet William Miller. Miller, a farmer and ardent student of The Book of Daniel, had arrived at the conclusion that the end of the world was at hand. One man tied turkey wings to his shoulders and climbed a tree to be ready for his ascent into heaven; unfortunately, he fell down and broke his arm.
- One Millerite met the writer Ralph Waldo Emerson walking with his friend Theodore Parker, and asked them if they did not realize the world was about to end. "That does not affect me," said Parker. "I live in Boston."
- Sabbatai Zeivi was the son of a wealthy merchant of Smyrna on the coast of Turkey. [...] He suddenly became convinced he was the Messiah. He began his mission by doing something that horrified his orthodox fellow Jews - he stood in the synagogue and pronounced the name of Jehovah.
- On one occasion he went around carrying a basket of fish, explaining that it represented the Age of Pisces, when Jesus would be released from bondage. On another occasion he shocked the rabbis by ... taking the Scroll of Law into his arms as if it were a woman, and carrying it to a marriage canopy he had set up.
- Sabbatai found himself a bride, a Polish girl named Sarah who had escaped the pogrom, become a courtesan, and found herself with the strange conviction that she would be the bride of the Messiah.
- In London, Samuel Pepsy recorded that the Jews were taking ten to one bets that Sabbatai would soon be acknowledged as the King of the World.
- Sabbatai's followers took pride in mortifying the flesh, scourging and starving themselves, rolling naked in the snow, even burying themselves in the earth so only their heads stuck out.
- In September 1666, Sabbatai was brought before Sultan Mehmet, and ordered to convert to Islam or die on the spot. Sabbatai promptly removed his Jewish skullcap and accepted a turban and a new name: Azis Mehmet Effendi. His wife converted too, becoming known as Fatima Radini. The Sultan then granted him a comfortable sinecure as keeper of the palace gates, which carried a generous pension.
- According to Marco Polo, when the Old Man wanted an enemy murdered, he would ask for volunteers. Those men would be drugged and carried into the secret garden. They would awake and find themselves apparently in Paradise, with wine, food, and damsels at their disposal. After a few days of this, they were again drugged and taken back to the Old Man's fortress. "So when the Old Man would have any prince slain, he would say to such a youth; Go thou and slay so-and-so, and the angels shall bear thee to Paradise..."
- The Thugs (pronounced "tug") came to the attention of Europe after the Britsh annexation of India. At first, the conquerors noted simply that the roads of India seemed to be infested with bands of robbers who strangled their victims ... A doctor named Robert Sherwood's article "On the Murderers called Phansigars" appeared in the Asiatic Review in 1820, and alleged that the phansigars or Thugs (phansigar means noose; thug means cheat) committed murders as a religious duty.
- The Thugs lived quietly in their native villages for most of the year, fulfilling their duties as citizens in a manner that aroused no suspicion. But in the month of pilgrimage, they took to the road and slaughtered travellers, always at least a hundred miles from home.
- Thuggee was not a local religious sect, but a nationwide phenomenon that claimed the lives of thousands of travellers every years. The murders were sacrifices offered to the dark mother, Kali, also known as Durga and Bhowani.
- Because he was deeply religious, the Thug was usually scrupulous, honest, kindly and trustworthy. Many were rich men who held responsible positions. The male children of Thugs were automatically initiated into the sect. (It must be emphasized that the killing was only a part of the ritual of Thugs, as Communion is to Christians.)
- The Khlysty and the Skoptzy would not be the only strange sects that Rasputin probably encountered on his journeys through Russia. There was a sect of Ticklers, in which the men tickled the woman to induce religious ecstasy; sometimes the tickling resulted in a state of exhaustion that ended in death, and those who died were regarded as lucky in having achieved salvation.
- Noyes was not a man to keep his ideas secret - religious prophets seldom are - and he preached "male continence" (ie the karezza) and "complex marriage" quite openly. His neighbours were naturally outraged by what they took to be a public rejection of all decency. (Even nowadays, a community with these ideas would probably have a hard time of it if they lived in the vicinity of a small town.)
- Unlike his American contemporary, Noyes, Prince did not actually preach Free Love; but he certainly practised it, regarding his female disciples as Brides of the Lord. He himself did not mind being addressed as God, and letters addressed to Our Lord God, Somerset, reached him without difficulty. One day he summoned all of his disciples to the billiard room to watch a public act of worship - his intimate union with Miss Patterson - on the settee.
- Creffield preached his mission in Corvallis, and acquired a few dozen followers, male and female. For some reason, the males dropped out; it was their wives and daughters who remained. They would all sway and chant, clapping rhythmically, and as the excitement became hysterical, Joshua would cry: "Begone vile clothes", and start to fling his robes around the room. The women would do the same, some of them modestly stripping down to their shifts, others flinging off every stitch. Then they would all roll on the floor, moaning and crying out. Inevitably, the men of Corvallis began to feel uneasy...
- Once established in his Eden, the prophet sent word to former disciples in Corvallis. Without hesitation, half the female population of Corvallis left home and streamed towards Eden.
- On 7 May 1906, Joshua was looking in the window of Quick's Drug Store on First Avenue (in Seattle). George Mitchell stepped up to the prophet, placed a gun against his ear, and pulled the trigger. Joshua collapsed without even turning his head. Maude flew at Mitchell, screaming. When a policeman ran up, she told him, "That is my husband Joshua. He will rise in three days."
- By the 1930s, the Klan was one of the most powerful financial institutions in the USA. The Government seemed powerless or unwilling to stop the persecutions. Then, with the coming of the Second World War, membership began to drop off. In 1944, the Internal Revenue Service charged the Klan with failure to pay massive back taxes; this was the final straw.
- Palo Mayombe, which originates in the Congo region, centers around the nganga: a cauldron filled with blood, a decomposing goat's head, a roasted turtle, sacred stirring sticks, and - most important - a human skull, preferably belonging to a violent person who died a sudden death. The bound spirit is said to be able to curse enemies, foretell the future and provide both magical and physical protection.
- When Constanzo moved to Mexico City in 1982 at the age of twenty-one, he quickly observed that in the corrupt, superstitious atmosphere of the capital's underworld, a "padrino" could become a wealthy man... Observing the huge amount of money being made by the relatively simple, uneducated drug lords, Constanzo decided to break into the protection racket.
- Between May 1988 and March 1989, Constanzo and his followers tortured and murdered at least thirteen people in the deserted Hernandez ranch outside Matamoros. The treatment meted out to them before they were allowed to die would have horrified an Aztec priest.
- Panic reigned among the cultists. Constanzo exchanged machine-gun fire with the police, while Sara Aldrete and another lover of Constanzo's, Omar Ochoa, hid under a bed. Then the hysterial padrino started to pile wads of money into the gas stove and burn them. He and El Dubi continued to fire on the police until they were almost out of ammunition. Then, suddenly calm, Constanzo announced that they all had to kill themselves... He said "Do it or I'll make things tough on you in Hell."
- One day in the summer of 1988, an ex-alcoholic named Dale Adair came to see Vernon Howell and Marc Breault, declaring that he wanted to get back to God. Vernon harangued him for three days, trying to convince him that he, Vernon, was the Messiah. Suddenly Adair's eyes glazed over, and he stared towards heaven. "My God, my God. After all these years I understand. I'm the Messiah. I'm the David. Now I know why I've suffered all these years." "Dale lost his sanity right before our eyes," said Breault. It doesn't seemed to have occurred to anyone that Adair might not be the only one with delusions of divinity.
- Against Howell's advice, Adair hurried to George Roden to tell him that he was the Messiah, but Roden took the news badly, seizing an axe and splitting open Adair's skull. Roden was convicted of murder, and since he owed thousands in taxes, Mount Carmel was put up for sale. Vernon's followers raised the money, and later that year, Vernon, now calling himself David Koresh, at last became owner of the Waco compound. From the time he arrived there as Lois Roden's lowest disciple, it had taken him eight years to gain total control of the sect.
| Monday, May 19th, 2008 | ||
|
matociquala |
6:44a | the chowder tried to kill me... On the way through Rhode Island yesterday, I stopped at a clam shack for food, because it was 7 pm and I was starving. This turned out to be a mistake, and I didn't get much done last night because I was hugging the toilet. At least I know the cat loves me, though, because I woke up this morning with her blue glitterball on the pillow next to my bed. Poor monkey. Here. A nice glitterball always makes me feel better. Current Mood:  better now, thanksCurrent Music: Norah Jones - The Long Way Home |
|
supergee |
6:27a | When all you have is Maxwell's Silver Hammer, everything looks like a head–Stephen Saperstein Frug Thanx to Unqualified Offerings |
|
azhure |
4:54p | Meme Choose one word to describe me ... just one single word. Leave it in my comments. Then post this message on your journal (or not) and see how many strange and interesting things people say about you. Current Mood:  tired |
|
oursin |
8:15a | Happy birthday, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} clanwilliam! |
|
azhure |
3:13p | May 19th 2008 Thought and Memory New words: 2,178 Total words: 61,294 Listening/watching: Nothing. Total words for the year: 212,631 That word count was all due to caffeine. A particularly bad attack of insomnia last night left me feeling like a zombie. The challenge is going to be how those words look tomorrow. I suspect they’ll need a lot of rewriting. But at least I sketched out the scenes, which is something. I have no idea how long this book is going to end up being. I suspect it might be on the shorter side of things. We’ll see. I’m aiming for 100k, as a usual mark, but I don’t know how much more story I have left to fill another 40k. [cross-posted from my website] |
|
dhole |
10:04a | Unlikely to get results, but worth a try. Anyone know where I can get a recording of "Dead Rabbits' Fight with the Bowery Boys" or "One of the B'hoys"? |
| Sunday, May 18th, 2008 | ||
|
yhlee |
11:41p | "Heath Bar" cookies Made these Saturday. They were excellent. ( Recipe under cut. ) |
|
yhlee |
11:26p | Battlestar Galactica 3.3-3.4 "Exodus" (parts I & II) Battlestar Galactica 3.3-3.4 "Exodus" (parts I & II). ( Spoilers! ) |
| Monday, May 19th, 2008 | ||
|
stillsostrange |
1:13a | Sorcery and Sudden Brain-worms Coming soon to a story near you: She's a poor old woman with the rheumatics and some little skill in spells and cantrips. He is hunger and thirst, and where he bites he holds till he dies. They (Guest-starring their spunky sidekick, the vengeful black dwarf.) And now that this idea has eaten my brain, I won't be happy till I've written the wacky adventures of the hag and the werewolf with the dull grey voice. Apparently I've been in love that werewolf for 20 years now and only just noticed. (I actually had a childhood phobia of werewolves that developed around the time I read that book. I'd never thought of that before.) I also won't rest easy till I've written the Tombs of Atuan/ Current Mood:  sleepy |
|
stillsostrange |
12:30a | I'm hunger. I'm thirst. Where I bite, I hold till I die, and even after death they must cut out my mouthful from my enemy's body and bury it with me. I can fast a hundred years and not die. I can lie a hundred nights on the ice and not freeze. I can drink a river of blood and not burst. Show me your enemies. Prince Caspian is not without flaws, but I like Ben Barnes, and hearing the werewolf's speech (even missing a line) was worth it. That was always my favorite scene. And "action transvestite mouse" is the best possible variant on "gay and martial mouse". Ever. Except that I had to bite my tongue to keep from shouting out things like "No one's built a howe like that ever since. No one knows what the fuck a howe is!" For I hate 'em. Oh, yes. No one hates better than me. Current Mood:  Hunger. Thirst. |
| Sunday, May 18th, 2008 | ||
|
copperwise |
10:47p | Sunday Follies ( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) |
|
ellarien |
10:15p | Hot The West Coast heatwave seems to be moving this way, perhaps just on time to deliver our first 100-degree day right about on schedule in spite of the unusually cool spring we've been having. I'm as ready as I can be; I stumbled across a small treasure trove of those dresses I like in Sears yesterday, and grabbed the three they had in my size; one predominantly purple, one predominantly red, one a bit of both, all on black grounds. It's a shame I don't have any black sandals, really ... or at least, the only pair I have is not really practical for walking any distance. I was seriously contemplating an evening two-piece outfit I found on the clearance racks in a different store -- a long sheath dress with embroidered jacket -- but I decided that it was too old for me, not really my color (I like dusky rose or crushed strawberry or whatever they're calling it this year, but don't think it goes with my skin tone), and in any case much too formal for the kind of conference dinner that would be my only opportunity to wear something like that. And I couldn't get a fitting room, anyway. I also took advantage of what may be the last halfway cool evening for a while yesterday, by cooking up a batch of chicken stew. I can't live on salad all the time -- that just leads to over-dependence on the student-union Mexican and pizza places. Current Mood:  hot |
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timprov |
11:32p | Randomish things. 1. I got my first two photos into Flickr Explore this week, probably thanks to a bunch of clicks from here. I think just about everybody clicked through to Nicollet Island Pedestrian Bridge HDR when I made the comparison post. That's been getting a bunch of views from the Interestingness page the last few days, and some of them have been spilling over into the rest of my stream, which was apparently enough to get Obama's Message in as well. (Since that one's older it probably won't help it as much.) That's one of the ones I printed at 16x20 last week, and it's extremely awesome that way. I like it on the computer but it really pops in print. (Oddly, that one and Square Snow Leopard Eyes were uploaded on the same day, and the Leopard shows up as more interesting in my stream, but is not in Explore, at least according to Scout. Which just goes to show that Flickr is weird and none of this should be taken too seriously.) 2. You know how awful PT Cruisers are to look at? They're a hundred times worse to ride in. Just driving from PA up to the city and back tonight I feel extraordinarily battered. Getting in and out is a humongous problem, and the interior space is just awful in many, many ways. 3. Otherwise, extremely tired, but having a good time. Our hotel is just across the street from Hangar One, and I'm a bit frustrated that I can't go over and shoot it. (Then again, I'm not all that anxious for significant PCB exposure either.) But I did get some good photos in at San Gregorio yesterday (though there were people there, which was bizarre). Also, had lángos with lunch and House of Nanking for dinner tonight, so pretty food-happy. 4. Getting extremely frustrated with my laptop. Not really anxious to buy a new one, but I'd like to be able to look at my photos without it overheating. Given that basic browsing is about all it can do anymore anyway, I probably ought to try putting Linux on it. 5. There isn't really a fifth thing. Best to everybody. |
|
yhlee |
9:34p | Battlestar Galactica 3.2 "Precipice" Battlestar Galactica 3.2 "Precipice." ( Spoilers. ) Meanwhile, off to enjoy the delicious toffee bar cookies rachelmanija and I baked yesterday! |
| Monday, May 19th, 2008 | ||
|
farthingparty [ ckd ] |
12:04a | hotel block? Boston travelers? Has anyone actually been able to get a booking in the room block? The website says it's "unavailable", which could mean "already full" or could mean "still doesn't exist". I haven't tried calling the hotel directly yet. They're offering a "Get Going Canada / Voyez Du Pays" rate that's not too much higher, but requires a (non-refundable) first night's deposit and "reservations are non-transferable". Also, who's planning to go from the Boston area, and how? Last year I think we had planes (me), rushthatspeaks?), and automobiles (xiphias and cheshyre). Since at the moment Air Canada wants almost $700 for round-trip flights (and I expect that to go up if it goes anywhere), I'd be more than happy to share the driving and expenses if anyone's planning to drive up this year. (For that matter, if enough people are going, a rental car might total out cheaper than bus fare.) |
| xkcd_rss | 4:00a | Fortune Cookies  |
| Sunday, May 18th, 2008 | ||
|
alecaustin |
8:32p | So after having slept pretty much all day in an attempt to finally recover from the cold/general malaise I picked up after flying to and from the Bay Area last weekend, I'm feeling much better. Hopefully that'll carry over into next week, given that I'm on call for jury duty. It'll be nice to feel well enough to go exercise again, too, which is something I never thought I'd say. I've been poking around game designer's blogs and sites like Elitist Jerks recently, both out of curiosity and because I haven't been in a head-space that's been conducive to writing or actually playing games. One thing that struck me as I did this poking is how out of place a post like this one is in my experience of the industry. It's not that no one talks about the tension between narrative & gameplay - even on my team, we do that pretty often - but rather that the academic language of "ludology/ludonarrative" just isn't present. This is part of a larger disconnect between academic game studies and game design as it's actually practiced: We read Raph Koster's Theory of Fun (for game design) at MIT, and while I don't think the book is worthless, I've found that Raph himself is almost universally derided within the design community. A good part of that is the result of his work - Star Wars Galaxies and (to a lesser extent) Ultima Online weren't particularly fun games to play for core gamers and fans of those particular IPs (unless they really liked cantina dancing or woodcutting, I suppose) - and part of it is the corrolary thought that "If you can't even make a fun game, why should we let you tell us how to do it?" I hope to explore this savage disjoint between industry & academia more later, though given the lag time on my Gaunt's Ghosts post, who knows when it'll happen. Also, while I'm here, I wanted to bring this participatory play-through of the first Lone Wolf adventure book to your attention - in addition to amusing meta-commentary, it's got some highly amusing illustations. |
|
yhlee |
8:30p | Wiscon preparations Poll #1190126 Duo? Open to: All, results viewable to: All Yoon should bring Duo to Wiscon?
View Answers Yes! Shiny! No, are you nuts? Remember what happened to the last laptop! [1] Something else I will enumerate in comments What book(s) should Yoon bring for plane-reading/relaxation-reading?
View Answers Andree's _Selections from Modern Abstract Algebra_ Jones's _Learn Ancient Greek_ Erikson's _Midnight Tides_ K.J. Parker's _Shadow_ Lee & Ramsey's _The Korean Language_ (reread) Also, I went clothes-shopping today so I will have something to wear at Wiscon that is not my raggedly falling-apart T-shirts. Tomorrow I will have to sort through the mess in our bedroom and try to figure out where the BPAL Phoenix Steamworks tee went. [1] I lost my last laptop, iceGard, on the way to a Wiscon. Seriously, how badly am I going to need to check email/LJ when I'm at the con? I'll probably be busy hanging out with friends and/or going to the occasional panel, and I can take notes perfectly well in a paper notebook. Plus, I can bring my courtesan!novel brainstorming notes and Rokugan 3000 notebooks with me sans Duo. |
|
elisem |
10:26p | calling my WisCon posse.... Hey, if you have asked me about helping out, I have a definite Thing that needs helping with. It's on Saturday night, preparing for the Haiku Earring Party. I am trying to make sure I get dinner, by the simple expedient of accepting a dinner invitation I have been offered, but I also confess that setting up for the Haiku Earring Party is the time I am most prone to melancholy missing of Mike. I keep looking over to the little kitchen space and expecting to see him there slicing cheese and broccoli and stuff, and making his Fordean observations. So it occurred to me that I could, you know, ask if my various helpy friends who have been asking what's needed might want to help out with this particular task. (A bunch of you have done it before, and are wonderful and experienced; it's not as much prep as some parties, as our decor is mostly Earrings On A Table and some Food On A Different Table, plus a Table At Which To Write Haiku.) Not sure yet on the timing of dinner and all, but as I find out, I'll let you know. Probably I'd set up the team with a diagram, and then join you as soon as I have et. Let me know if you might want to lend a hand. Thank you a lot. A lot a lot a lot. (There's a little other prep on Saturday morning, going with me to the Farmer's Market, maybe. But Saturday night is the big thing. Set-up of the table is no longer a mad scramble, now that I have Katie along with me. In fact, she mostly chases me away once I get to the fidget stage, so she can set up in peace. Hee! |
| Monday, May 19th, 2008 | ||
| dragonseptarts | 2:35a | I can’t believe I did it
Written by hand, with fountain pens, into two Norcomm notebooks. It still has to be transcribed, polished, and probably heavily reworked in places. Still, I did it. Wow. |
| Sunday, May 18th, 2008 | ||
|
fairmer |
11:05p | So, like, uh, thud. I finished two stories this weekend, "The Spring at Spellwinter Inn" and "Zebulon Vance Sings the Alphabet Songs of Love." I'm kind of in love with writing right now. I wonder what else I could do if I didn't have to go to bed right now... |
|
callunav |
10:35p | Photoshop crashed my computer, but that's okay. Have to call it quits for editing images from the day, now. There's about 90 of them, only about 15 of which will be any good at all, and my bed has been calling me for an hour. Today included-- - good advanced planning - getting pleasantly lost in beautiful places - 3 egrets - 2 mystery birds (will post the best pics, but they're not the greatest) with black, gray, and white bands on the underside of the wings - one surprise sitting bunny in a mystery bird picture, which I didn't know was there until I enlarged the picture - many ducks - many geese, two of them with a string of goslings - marsh - rushes - a bumblebee - two to four muskrats - hard to tell if you're only seeing them one at a time. I'd just been commenting that the narrow winding gaps in the rushes looked like deer paths, except that they were a couple feet of water deep. - many stumps and downed trees either beaver-chewed or ranger-hewn, we're still not sure. - one to three long-tailed weasels, one with a meal in its jaws - a distant cormorant - light rain - several small, elastic, very blond children, with a paternal figure who had an indeterminate accent. - many birds I do not know - one running bunny at the side of the road, just to see us on our way as we left. It was fabulous. I think it would have been fabulous with no critter-sitings at all - in fact, I know it would, since we didn't see any (except for the innumerable and inevitable birds) the last time, and we loved it. Still. Weasels bounding past and muskrats swimming almost directly under one's feet don't come along every day. Possibly I should arrange my life so that they do. Shall consider. |
|
fmi_agent |
9:41p | Baghdad amusement park is in the works I've had this bookmarked for a while. It's called the Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience. It sounds a little surreal to me.... |
|
rezendi |
9:54p | World Famous Cults & Fanatics! Highlights from World Famous Cults & Fanatics, by Colin Wilson, which I picked up for $2 (brand new!) at Chapters today. "That's not your ordinary everyday light reading," remarked the dude behind the counter. Says him. "It's for research," I reassured him. He didn't seem reassured. It is not a reliable source, but it is a fun one: Also, I buckled down and sorted tax documents and with some trepidation did a rough calculation, and am pleased by the result. With a little mojo from my accountant I might not even have to transfer money over from my UK bank. |
|
orbitalmechanic |
9:27p | 100 recipes Recipe 34: Tortellini soup. Chicken and vegetable broth, Trader Joe's jalapeno sausage, a can of tomatoes, the last of the frozen kale and corn from last year's farm share, and tortellini (cooked separately). It was good, not really exciting, but pretty easy. T. ate it without broth because he doesn't eat soup, and Violet ate only the tortellini. |
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I finished the first draft of Celerity tonight.![[Furl]](http://www.furl.net/images/logo-favicon.ico){kind=logo}
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