screw you too...

These last few weeks, somewhat regularly I have this “screw you all” feeling. I fail to see the humor in things and even the smallest incident gets me worked up. I feel like breaking something, or better yet someone, maybe it’s some weird testosterone imbalance or something, I don’t know. What I do know is that right now I’ve had it up the proverbial “HERE”.

So what to do now? I don't know and I don't really care either, but that's just the point... isn't it?

Free Crowley Toth Tarot! VIVA LA FORA!

Okay, as some of you may have noticed my whole forum plan is falling to bits. And with that massive failure I am also inclined to quit the whole blog thing. It’s an emotional thing really and I know I have to think things through for a bit before actually quitting. The blog does have a steady following, thank you for that, so unlike my forum I am not completely talking to myself. But I have come to terms with the fact that it will not be the great success I would have liked it to be and the effort I put in isn’t really weighing up to the reward I get out of it anymore. I was wondering why the whole forum thing means so much to me and it’s not really that hard to understand, it’s more than just wanting attention.

To explain it all I will have to take you back in time. When I was a young, well younger, lad and internet was not as common as it is today I was a member of the Iron Maiden BB (that’s bulletin board, though at the time it already was a forum) though the music wasn’t really my thing anymore the forum was all kinds of awesome and I spent hours a day there (on a dial up connection, imagine my phone bills). We were a tight knit community and I met some really great people there, among who one of my great loves (Thrice loved) Some time later I came to the After Forever forum, again I spent many hours there, this time on a broadband connection, and if it wasn’t for the people I met there, especially my wife, I might not even have been here today. We became a group of good friends in real life as well, meeting at concerts and festivals and visiting each other all over the country and though it ended in a weird way I still look back at that time with a smile on my face reaching from ear to ear.

Some time ago I joined my wife on the Twilight lexicon forum (yes Twilight), where I once again met some great people, many of who I still see posting daily on facebook. And even though I left the forum, I had some problems accepting the rules they had there, I still regard the lexilly (lexicon family) as some of the greatest people I know online. So thus far forums, or fora, have been places for meeting great people, making awesome friends and sharing bits of your life. And silly me tried to recreate that. Off course I should have known that without a band or book or even anything remotely interesting I would not be able to draw in people. Maybe forum posting is becoming somewhat outdated with all the new social media like facebook and twitter out there. But I hoped.

And now that hope is almost gone, I have become somewhat more realistic. I did some remodeling and editing, trimmed down the forum and for now I will let it be. I have one last card up my sleeve to try and instill life in this forum and I will launch it today. The first person to reach 150 posts on my forum will receive a free Crowley Toth Tarot deck.

That’s right…

A FREE CROWLEY TOTH TAROT DECK
For the first person to reach a 150 posts on nltarot.forum2go.nl
Single word or emoticon posts, copied or double posts and posts containing little more than just a quote do not count. This contest will run till the end of may.

If this works out and the forum will come to live and become the awesome online place I envisioned it to be, I will do something like this again, if it does not, I will pull the plug end of May. So as it has always been, it’s up to you.

Saving toads…

Well since it’s above 5 degrees Celsius in the morning these days, I’m wearing my short sleeves on my bike. So there I was cycling to work being all awesome with my forefathers’ cool cold resisting blood running through my veins, 7 o’ clock in the morning, plants still white from the night’s frost and people looking at me like I am some sort of Celtic, Viking barbarian… or the village idiot, whatever.

All of a sudden, me the village idiot goes to full anchors, breaking

like there’s no tomorrow. And why, you may ask. Well because of a toad. Let me explain this, around spring toads over here travel to water, streams, brooks and such, to lay eggs. This toad migration is something terrible for an animal lover like me, because a lot get killed as they cross roads and bike paths… a big lot. After the eggs have formed into miniature toads, the whole show starts again as they travel back to wherever toads like to live.

So I braked for this huge mother of a toad, literally since they are going to lay eggs they’re mothers right? I put my bike in the middle of the bike path and picked up the creature, who actually looked up at me and walked into my hand, holding tight while I carried her of the road and to the bushes near the water there. The little creature looked as happy as can be expected from a toad and I walked back to my bike feeling like I saved at least a small part of the world. I do these things, getting hedgehogs of the road, ducks out of fishing lines and even fish back in to the water whenever I can.

Now you may call me an idiot, well actually you may not because I would slap you, but metaphorically speaking. But when it comes to animals, especially when they are a victim of the human invasion, I take extra effort to make even the smallest difference. Call me soft, but keep in mind thought that with most of humanity, I couldn’t care less. I am weird that way. I feel humanity is natures tough kid, the bully and should be able to fend for itself, while the smaller kids in nature need someone to stand up for them.

No card today... don't feel like it.... maybe later... sorry.

Meme based Tarot deck? Trollface as fool.

Though I admit, it might be fun, it is off course nonsense. When you think about it though, both popular memes as well as tarot cards are based on basic human emotions and aspects of everyday life. They both represent us and our worlds so when you take some effort you might actually come up with some interesting possibilities. The Hermit is forever alone guy, ten of wands may be high expectations Asian dad… possibilities are limitless. And the fact that internet meme’s are as good as copyright free it could be an easy do it yourself sort of thing.

So today is April fool’s day. Besides a few small pranks I haven’t really done any good pranks, nor have I been pranked… yet. I was planning to switch site appearance with my wife’s blog, but she didn’t like the idea, so there you have it a basically prankfree April fools form a born prankster. I have seen some very well executed pranks on the news today though so it is good to see that April fools is very much alive…. Loki would be proud.

Today’s card, how can it be any other… The Fool Card number zero. The first step of the journey, the fool is more than just an idiot. Though he pays no attention to his surroundings and might very well walk off a cliff in seconds, he is also someone free of judgment and is the incarnation of the statement ignorance is bliss. He has the power to see things the way they are without prejudice, he is innocence. And make no mistake, he may be walking towards the edge, chances are he will turn at last second, or better yet, he might just sprout wings and fly, such is the fool's nature.