rhionnach

There seems to be a lot of people moving from Livejournal to Dreamwidth. I have a Dreamwidth account which I created out of curiosity when DW started up. I haven't really used it but I guess this is to let you know that I am here, if anyone is interested.

There has been much discussion on the subject but someone seems to have come up with a fix for the problem of the tick boxes which would allow crossposting. The information can be found here http://lupinity87.livejournal.com/9308.html

I've followed the instructions and I hope it has worked.

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What does that mean????? It won't allow me to do anything other than the action which gives me the above result! Argh! Why did LJ footer with something which was working fine until today?

I stood in a Viking camp last weekend watching, along with the Romans next door, as a Dakota from the Battle of Britain flight flew overhead. No Tardis was required to achieve this anachronistic feat as I was participating in the Lanark Festival of History. We had groups covering most periods from the Romans right through to WWII. In fact, if you want to include the Army cadets and the Air cadets we had 21st century groups as well!

I spent the weekend in kit so have no photos of the event but there are a few places on line with some good ones such as http://www.flickr.com/photos/photographybyduncanholmes/sets/72157624665283495/ or the slideshow selection of images at http://www.carlukegazette.co.uk/video.aspx?VideoPath=CARL%2Ffestival+of+history+2010.wmv&VideoID=49286&ArticleID=6499429 but be warned with this last one that you have to click on it to get it to open up fully and the music accompanying it is twee.

I tended the fire, I made soup in the big cauldron over it, and I made butter. This is a lot harder than simply turning a butter churn over and over as Viking-age butter making involved using something that looks like a small bucket with a lid and a plunger and giving the cream lots of welly. I also carried drinking horns onto the battlefield to give water to the warriors.This did have the the effect of making me feel a bit like a Valkyrie carrying mead to the Einherjar.

When the public went home on the Saturday we had a ceilidh in the beer tent, and much fun was had all round. I have smoky smelling kit sitting in my house but there's no point in cleaning it yet as next weekend we have the Battle of Largs. Should be some more good fun.

I see the Amish teenagers are on the TV again tonight (Channel 4) and this time they're taking them to a Pagan festival in Cornwall. With predictable results, I would imagine. They really aren't very aware of anything outside the varying degrees of strict Amish communities in which they live. Understandably so, as they are taught Amish ways by Amish teachers and so never get a chance to learn about anything else. I can't help wondering if this could be described as abusive behaviour, given that the Amish seem to tick most of the boxes in The Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (http://www.neopagan.net/ABCDEF.html).

I know the Amish have the tradition of Rumspringa, where they allow their children to mix with the outside world. However, at the end of the day they are expected to return to the fold or else find themselves shunned and cut off from everyone and everything they've ever known. It would take a strong person to be able to make that kind of decision.

I can't see why their god wants them to live such a backward way of life, but then again, their god is certainly not one of mine and never will be.

Last night I went to another meeting of Yggdrasil Moot. It was originally set up in 2003 by a small number of people who felt that a Heathen moot was something that was needed in the Glasgow area. The original website is still up and running although the contact details are somewhat out of date. http://www.yggdrasil.omnia.co.uk/

Over the years the moot has catered for a varying number of people. It's had its ups and downs. It has held blots and sumbels. We've gone on outings to such places as Vikingar in Largs (not advised, by the way). And the moot has met on the last Thursday of the month since it began.

There is no way to avoid the fact that things went a bit wobbly when tanngrisnir and myself split up in 2007. In fact, I was in two minds as to whether or not I ought to turn up to the moot that last Thursday in June. Especially so when tanngrisnir had called me and more or less ordered me not to turn up. And his display of anger when I did only led to everyone there upping sticks and leaving the pub.

He then put out a message to say that Yggdrasil would not meet in July and August. However, we did, in fact, meet. I sent a text to everyone to say that we may as well meet as we would have been doing so anyway, and people turned up. I did this as I felt obliged to continue the moot. I did not see why something that ought to be have been between him and me should affect everyone else.

And when he apparently dropped out of running the moot in any shape or form I felt even more obligated to ensure that it continued. Which it did, even if on the Thursday between Xmas and Hogmanay that year I was the only person to turn up that night!

Since then the moot has been running for the past three years. However, I now feel that perhaps it has run its course. Numbers have been dropping even although there are a reasonable number of Heathens in the Glasgow area. (In fact, numbers have dropped for all moots, even as online numbers have been rising.) Yggdrasil now consists of a very small regular core of attendees. I now must consider if there is any further need to continue the moot or recognise that it has run its course. I've had thoughts like this before and each time something has happened to make me change my mind. That may yet happen again.

I feel I have carried out my obligation to ensure the moot didn't die because of a personal situation which should not have been allowed to affect other people. I've felt obliged to ensure that the gods are honoured. Now I feel I have come to a point where a decision has to be made.

For any Star Trek fans in the Glasgow area this weekend there is Midsummer Trek, a small get together to replace the ill-fated (and ill-advised) Constellation.

I have to admit I've never read any of his stuff. He has never appealed to me.

Then again, feed another batch of my tripe into it and it says:





or even

The local TV news has announced that 27 people have been arrested so far during the Orange march which disrupted most of Glasgow today. No doubt that number will be added to as the marchers get further tanked up in assorted pubs across the region. Incidents of domestic violence will add to the total.

I tried my best to avoid the marching morons. I managed quite well until I decided to go to High St as I wanted to go to 23 Enigma and Aldi. I caught a train to High St station and realised that the march was on its way when I came out onto the street which was filling with Orange supporters and hangers on. I realised that I had to get to 23 Enigma quickly and back across Duke St before the parade appeared or else I would be forced to watch it go past, surrounded by the kind of people you really want to have nothing to do with.

I managed it - just. I was in Aldi picking up some shopping as the first of the bands went past. I managed to walk along the pavement to the train station as it was in the direction that the march was going. Then I got a train back to the city centre where I caught a bus home which was held up as yet another offshoot of the Orange parade made its way along Clyde Street, past the Roman Catholic cathedral where they no doubt struck up one of their very offensive tunes. The bus then made its way across the Clyde where we narrowly avoided being held up by yet another group of marching morons. I imagine the same scenario was repeated across the city.

It's not merely a march which is over in an hour or two, it seems to go on all day. They can't just meet in a central point, march and then go home. No, it begins early on, in their local areas, marching and banging drums and then heading into the city centre to meet up with others of their kind. Once in the city centre they seem to take the most roundabout route they can to Glasgow Green where they spout their bigoted filth for a few hours. Then they march back again. It spreads across the city like a bad smell as they break into smaller groups who insist on spreading their bigotry further afield as they head off to their local Orange hall.

It's 2010 not 1690. Why are these marches allowed to take place? Would the BNP be allowed to do this? (Of course, there is a high proportion of Orange members who are also BNP members.) I cannot think of any other bigoted group who would be allowed to behave like this.

I say all this in the knowledge that my grandparents and my uncle were members of the Orange Lodge and marched in these kind of parades. In fact, I even have a flute! My uncle played the flute in one of these bands and I inherited his old flute when he died. The only thing I can play on it is "The Sash"! But I recall my uncle refusing to believe the fact that the Pope backed William of Orange against James II. These Orange people don't know their history and don't want to hear the truth of it, preferring to go along with the crap they want to listen to.

They have nothing to do with Scotland. They are an embarrassment to us all.

The Star Trek convention planned for July this year has been postponed until 2011. This is disappointing but not really surprising. I have to say that the committee seemed to do their best to put the convention together but they also seemed to do their best to work against themselves. They did not allow sufficient time to advertise and recruit the required membership for the size of event they were planning.

I think I first heard about this convention in September last year when it was announced that they hoped to have Zachary Quinto attending. Having been a member of Warped Out, the forerunner of the old Away Team who used to run Glasgow Star Trek conventions, I was quite looking forward to a new Star Trek convention taking place in Glasgow once more.

I took the time to send out notifications on Facebook to quite a wide number of people in order to get the word out. However, it seems to me that I was the only one actually doing so. I never once saw a member of the committee bothering to turn up to any meetings of Trout to advertise their convention. I was also somewhat concerned about the timescale, given that they only had about 11 months to get a budget together and the convention up to speed and their website was not up and running at that point. The website didn't get sorted until about December. Given that they were asking fans for £129.25 for a weekend membership (or "Pass" as they describe it on the website) it really was very expensive, more expensive than an Eastercon. I would have liked to go but the price was extremely off-putting. People simply do not have that sort of money sitting about. And given that I had job issues in December there was no way I could afford to shell out for that.

I kept in touch with the committee, reminding them about Trout meetings and asking them about the convention. Then in April they posted on a Trek forum a message which basically read to me as though they were giving reluctant fans a bit of a telling off for not signing up fast enough. It said that the days are gone of being able to get guests to commit without paying at least a deposit on their fee so the ball was now in our court. They said that they had managed to do all that they have so far but they cannot do anymore. I replied with what I have said above. This was meant as constructive and helpful criticism but this was ignored as, to my astonishment, they went on to announce three more expensive guests! I was astonished.

At this point I decided not to comment further. There was clearly no point in saying anything. Today I found out that they have decided to postpone the event until 2011. I'm not surprised, I hope that they will now take on board some of what I've said and that they might rethink their strategy. I'm not setting myself up as some kind of convention guru but I'm simply someone who would quite like to see Star Trek conventions being run successfully once more in Scotland.