Munden's Bar

Last night I dreamed of being part of a Survivor-style "reality" TV show. I don't remember details, but it was not very restful. Led to a bleh day, yawny and boring at work.

But anyway let's pimp a local writing web site. I know a certain section of you will already be aware of it, but for the rest give Quantum Muse a go! I have a soft spot for them since they picked up Bar Crawl of the Damned

People may remember when the picture the icon I'm currently using turned up, but recently I ran into ( this picture ) which shows both the artist and the model for that pic!:)

cha0sslave may enjoy this description of chaos magic. I think if I was to be a magician, I would have to be a chaos magician, if only because of the humour, for instance it takes a lot to of control to write something like the following from the article with a straight face :

However, chaos magic in general is among the least organized branches of magic.

My colleague G, cooked beef curry for dinner this evening. This means I may have to cook for him, the poor lad

Recently things have been a bit mundane, I have been distracted by numerous things, but this morning, having to ride into work alone because of a phone call to the US (which again got cancelled at the last minute, damn them!) I got a goodly way through Charles De Lint's juvenile The Harp of the Grey Rose.

It is most definitely a juvenile, and yet it reads much like a real myth, a lot of coincidence and luck and unexpected help for the hero, but it still captures the magic, and as people know De Lint can use words well. On one or two occasions he used them in ways that I have not seen, such as his use of the word "fane" and yet on investigation I discover it is a correct usage. I love it when a writer can show me a new usage for a word i thought I knew, conversely I hate it when a writer decides to misuse a word, perhaps because they don't know what it means or because they invented a word without knowing it already existed.

Still, it's discussion of the wild weren, and it's introduction of races that are ursine or stag, not were-creatures, actual ursines, who are to bears what we are to the apes, put me in the frame of mind of to really notice the black dog on Pomare station.

I was reading, head down, and I don't normally even glance up at stations if I'm doing that. This time, for some reason, I felt that someone was watching me, glanced up and looked straight at this huge black dog. And it seemed to look at me.

Dogs are unusual on stations, unless they are guide dogs. This dog was more unusual than most. It was large, completely black and looked like a great dane. It was lying, but alertly, in the pose of a sphinx, head and ears erect. More interesting was where it was lying, which was right on the edge of the platform, on the opposite side to where our train was parked, metres from anyone on the platform.

It seemed to be alone, no person on the station looked like they owned or knew the dog, in fact they might just as well have not been able to see it, they were not reacting to it any way. It sat there purposefully, as if it's human had got on the train earlier and the dog had been left behind and told to stay there. And yet what dog would do that, and sit where it was sitting, with people and trains passing all the time? Surely it must have had it's own reasons to be there.

Paranoiacally, I toyed with the idea that it had been sent to me as a sign, to check up on me, or to warn me of impending danger, and that no-one else could even see the dog.

But other than noting the dog's presence and resolving to write here about it, it did not prevent me from getting back into The Harp of the Grey Rose, and in fact I had a much bigger read than I might otherwise have had, as at Taita the express became 'stop at all stations', and 'twas mightily packed by the time we hit Ava.

After arriving at Wellington station, I walked out of it with a greater sense of strength & calmness than I have in some time, and for the first time in a while, my path became a fluid and efficient one again. I feel as if for some time now my connection to the flow has been disrupted, my sense of the earth had been lost, and that now, this morning, I have just realized that, and now I have it back again, that i can again see the things that others miss.

Or perhaps I just haven't read a fantasy novel for far too long! :)

On arriving home from the FF LARP last night, I drove over a mandarin orange positioned in the exact centre of our driveway, just past the bridge.

It showed up really well in the headlights as I drove in and I was intrigued. My first thought was that it was some sort of physical component for a spell. Later I thought that perhaps it was some form of warning or sign, perhaps from the local Orangemen.

But there is something I vaguely recall from mediaeval times about oranges, something I can't remember, just that there was some information I knew about them. Was it something related to the usage of cloves in oranges, as often re-enacted at SCA events?

Still, if it is a spell, on the off chance that the person(s) responsible are reading this, and in the interests of scientific research into the efficacy of magic, here's whats happened so far : I drove over it, went back and picked it up, and placed it on the top of a book shelf in our hall. No-one has so far been game to eat it.

Sure and I know that if I suspect a spell, especially an offensive one, it's rather stupid to bring the component inside, but I like risk and I'm interested! Not to mention fully confident of my magical abilities inside my own sanctum!

What to people reckon? Should I eat it too? Or is it perhaps not targeted at me? Should Ele or one of my sons eat it?