Twice recently I’ve received the Inspiring Blogger Award, which surprised me, cause of all the words I’d use to describe it inspiring isn’t what comes to mind, unless you’re dealing with the origin of the word. The first came from Dying for a Diagnosis which houses an eclectic mix of discussion on mental/physical wellness of the author, and where they intersect with spiritual and kink. The second came from The Crossroads Companion written by someone who while I don’t know what label they use strikes me as a cross between a Hermetic magickian and an ecstatic witch, also fun and crafty type of person.
One of the rules is I have to nominate seven other blogs. I’m going to skip that. Check the list to the right (which needs to be updated severely), or pay attention to my Wednesday Webshares to see what is interesting me.
Last rule was to post seven interesting things about myself. Figured why not, you don’t always get a sense of who someone is through their niche writing, so interesting things, trying to avoid heavy woogity.
1. I have long blue hair that currently is just shy of reaching my belly button. I’ve had blue hair for almost twelve years at this point. Currently I’m like Marge Simpson, I have a surprising amount of white hair for my age, but the blue hides it nicely.
2. I’ve died several times (I’ll only discuss two). I choked on the umbilical cord and fluids during birth, came out deep blue (as my father points, the same colour as my hair), and was dead for roughly fifteen minutes before they revived me. My original name was something horrendous, but during that time in panic my mother changed my name to keep herself occupied. To this day I maintain I refused to live with the original name. I drowned when I was four. It was my first Near-Death Experience. I didn’t see the light, instead I saw a Dark Woman and black flames. At the time I coded her as Maleficent (how else would a four year old understand that?) but I’ve come to understand Her as Kali.
3. I used to be a stage magician, and somewhat of a prodigy. I don’t mean I knew a few card tricks, and some sleight of hand. I was a full blown making things float, people disappear, cutting women in thirds type of magician. Fortune favoured me and I actually trained with some big names, and used to attend, and later teach/counsel at a summer camp for young magicians. For the most part I’m fine that I stopped performing, I donated about $1000 worth of equipment to the camp, but occasionally I miss it. On that note, never ask me to perform.
4. As a child I had a belief in reincarnation, even when I didn’t understand the concept. Twice in early grade school I identified people who knew from another place/time. One I identified as my brother from a life in Ireland, the other was someone I worked with in an American life. In both cases I didn’t get the concept of reincarnation, that whole death and rebirth thing, so I explained it as “We used to be X back in Y, and we were sent forward here.” I had no idea of the mechanism of being sent forward, nor why I didn’t remember those lives that much and was suddenly a child rather than an adult.
5. I’m not an emotional person at all, but there are two things that will always get me to cry. A VNV Nation concert, and Sleeping in the Light, the final episode of Babylon 5. At some point during a VNV Nation concert I’ll cry, just a little, but it will happen when it sweeps over me. In Sleeping in the Light, when John and Delenn say good-bye, when John “dies,” and when Babylon 5 blows up, all of those scenes make me cry for some reason.
6. My family has lived in the Toronto area for almost two hundred years (1820s). One relative owned 400 acres just west of what is now downtown (at the time it was outside of the city limits), another owned the 200 acre farm that was bought to become the first non-Catholic/Anglican cemetery in the city, and it is now Mount Pleasant cemetery, a must see if you’re in the city. Currently the house I sit in is one of two pieces of property owned by my family, being a small three bedroom house. I don’t know how the 400 acres vanished, but I’m not amused.
7. I play the theremin. When I first started I ran a youtube channel filming my progress of learning, but my speakers died, then my mic, and I got out of the habit of doing it. I try to practice regularly but I doubt I play more than twice a month at this point. For me it is the most difficult thing I’ve ever tried to learn (I even wrote an A paper on it in my psychology of learning course) because it is so freeform, and I’m…a set of contacts and face paint away from being Data. Theremins have no set notes, they exist on a spectrum in the air with nothing marking them, and where the notes are shifts as you play due to the instrument warming up, ambient temperature, humidity and things in close proximity. It’s exceedingly frustrating, I love it. (On that note I plan on learning on playing the saw, which also has a similar issue of not quite having set notes) I won’t link to a video of me playing, but instead to Grieg with the first performance of a theremin I ever saw and that wom my mechanical heart.
Inspirational? Interesting Facts About Kalagni
