The Blockade of Mowry Harbor

The Blockade of Mowry Harbor On New Year's Eve 2010 the Royal Court of the Mowry Trees commenced a naval blockade of the Mowry Harbor, on the grounds that its fishing fleets were exceeding their rightful catches and depriving the cats of the Royal Court of their dinner. The blockade quickly became a bombardment by the HMS Fortuna (at the west end of the harbor) and the HMS Helvellyn Hellcat (at the east)  that ended in the destruction of the Mowry fleet, as their only defence was a tank that swiftly retreated from the field. And a school bus, which was odder. Visit Hepurn (90, 66, 31)

Cats at home

Cats at home Midnight chattery in the common living room of the Great Tree, warmed and lit by the fireplaces and ovens. Visit Hardknott (34, 0, 77)

Eira, the silly kitty

Eira, the silly kitty ...that's not a bed, kitty. Your bed is right behind you... Visit Hardknott (61, 231, 74)

Poseidon Island

Poseidon Island Exotic port of call so astonishingly close to home -- as the dragon flies, anyway. WIth the winds we had Skies of Azure had to take the looong way around out of Grant, all the way down to Mirtoon and then back up, and very nearly swamped rounding Aegean Island -- but soon the welcoming deep harbor at Bohol town, where Sue took her leave and I headed to find fresh fish for dinner and a nap... Visit Bohol (195, 48, 24)

Sea of Fables

Sea of Fables I learned to sail on you, and love to wander your trackless paths still... (me and Sue on Skies of Azure). Visit Banda (104, 96, 20)

Off to sail...

Off to sail... Leg two, Grant to Poseidon I; Sue and Shadow come to see me off...waiting for Sue to change for the seas to join me, while Shadow looks on... Visit Grant (184, 78, 24)

Aboard 'Skies of Azure'

Aboard 'Skies of Azure' Catmas present from Markkitty this year: a new leetle catboat for his leetle kitty. Tiny and cute and so deserving of being named after my wife. Maiden sails around Helvellyn Roads and up and down the east river yesterday... today beginning a voyage around with no particular place to go. Writing from the docks of the Free Adriatic in Grant. Quiet, peaceful, middle of the night. Rough crossing through Takes, had to seek shelter behind the breakwater for a while. Clothes were soaked but I had spares in a waterproof bag. Now bundled in a sweater and getting ready to nap for the night. Visit Grant (189, 78, 20)

The Ladycats of the Royal Court

Me, dancing with my wife Azure (in the teal qipao) and my love Chakku (decked out in uniform) at the after-party for the Sailor of the Year Awards at the Hollywood Bowl.  Not present in the picture at this particular time is Princess Sue, who was off on a secret mission for the Queen and The Trees (obtaining tuna).

Happy Catoween!

Happy Catoween, everybody!  Give me candy!  Or fish!  I'll take fish...

"Dance of the Lovers," Elisha Paklena 2010

Primoil on primcanvas, based on photograph by Azure Niosaki.

@SYSKPodcast, that's not how it works! (mostly)

First: shame on you, @SYSKPodcast, for distilling polyamory down to being basically "a bunch of people cohabitating, not married, who all have sexual access to each other."  (Words paraphrased, but not by very much.)

Not to sound stereotypical, but is it always about sex with you being guys? :3

 

First, please take a look at the root words implicit in the word 'polyamory.'  Poly-, meaning 'many.'  -amory, as in, love.  Multiple love.  And that's it.

What about 'sexual access?'  Well, sure, that can be implied.  People in love, who are of a desire to have sex with each other, generally tend to at some point.  But just being in a polyamorous relationship does not necessarily mandate that orgies can break out at the drop of a hat.  I believe you have even said in a few of your podcasts, "correlation does not imply causation" and words to the effect.  Poly people might have sex.  That doesn't mean that's why they're poly. 

Now, I know, by 'sexual access,' you are being clinical and probably intended to be correct and probably (hopefully?) wanted so badly to imply 'access means the ability to have sex, not necessarily the absolute constant act.'  But my friends, that's not how the podcast played the concept out.  You spoke at length about reproductive issues, family planning, etc.  It was rapidly clear that by 'sexual access,' intentionally or no, you were iplying that sex is something that is definitely going on in said relationship and was a defining part of it, just by talking about sex to the length you did.

I am poly, both in my real life (as A) and in my virtual life (as Elisha).  Does that mean that I have sex with everyone in my poly group that I come in contact with?

Ha!  They only wish. (tongue in cheek -- my own)

In my real life, I am in a fairly committed relationship with one man.  This committed relationship, for what its worth, does include (rather good) sex.  However, I have at various times, been in relationships with others at the same time.  Others who all knew of each other, approved of each other, but -- and this is the important part -- did not necessarily want to do the boinkity boink with each other.  Further, at the moment, there are another two people I am madly in love with, who reciprocate, and none of the three of us have any desire to necessarily "have sexual access" with each other.  These two are purely romantic, supportive, emotional relationships that have effectively no sexual motive at all whatsoever.

Virtually, I am also in a strong relationship with a small rosette of people.  There are moderate romantic and affectionate relationships with a few others.  And do we all have cybersex, and cyber orgies?  Frankly: some of the people in my 'polyamorous cloud' actually strongly dislike each other.  Or are of the incorrect sexual preference to even be desirable.  They're not in the relationship to have sexual access to each other.  They're in it because they're in love with me, and I love them as well.

(An aside: yes, online relationships are just as able to contain love and passion and tenderness and emotion as physical ones.  Even if the online selves never meet in meatspace.  Love is love is love no matter how, or where, it is expressed.  Desire too.  Affection as well.)

So, if you were to ask me if either of my poly clouds (virtual or real) fit your definition, I would have to smile and say, "no."

What my clouds are, are are groups of people who may, or may not, love other portions of the rest of the group in varying degrees, who may or may not have sex with each other in whatever manner appropriate to the medium, but who in some way do feature me either as a beloved girlfriend, partner, mate, playmate, caregiver, confidante, friend, and what have you.  That's what polyamory is.

To me, anyway.

I love your podcast, I don't want to think that you two are flawed in your research and thinking.  You have a lot of stuff to distill down into a short format to hit the essentials (and really, it was about polygamy and bigamy law, and not polyamory specifically) but... maybe a better concise summary of polyamory that you could have used without making it seem like a casa de orgy could have been "polyamory is a group of people in a multiply-committed relationship sans marriage."  It's much more correct, much more accurate, and doesn't read like a potential slight on the poly community

I would like to think of this as more of a correction, and clarification, and chance for further research and introspection on the topic, than a criticism.  Therefore, I suggest http://www.polyamorysociety.org/page6.html for some information about what polyamory is, and isn't.  http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-polyamory.htm is also very good too, as is http://www.lovemore.com/faq.php, which is generally my go-to page when I need to explain what poly is, and isn't.

And I leave you with this though: if it were all about the sex, being poly wouldn't be hard work.  And it is very, very hard work.  Enough people have hard enough time maintaining one stable relationship, but who would agree it is worth doing so if they can pull it off.

Try maintaining three, or more.

But when it works, it is so definitely worth it.

And that said: I love you, Scott.  And Mark.  And Rachael.  And Vanora.  And Azure.  And Sue.  And Chakku.  And Amanda.  And Starry.  And Sarny.  And Drav...

 

Hang onto your cat, it's a time machine!

So, looong ago, a younger me had an in-character (for the most part) LiveJournal.  I'm pretty much done with LJ as a platform - it was too much to maintain that as a personal blog, and my blogger as a semi-professional-inchar blog; and I haven't really done anything with it in years.

But Posterous will let me import, oh yes.  So, import I shall.

Which means there is going to be a deluge of old, somewhat more juvenile (it's the Elisha from her late teens and early twenties, after all (note: I said, in-character)) postings in here.  Fair warning.  I had set the 'adult' flag in LJ for my diary, and there is probably a bit of embarrassing stuff in there as well as stuff that is no longer relevant to the modern me.  But it's still part of the Elisha mythos, and should be preserved somewhere (as, eventually, I'm going to tear down the livejournal and the blogger accounts).

Shermeow, set the wayback machine!

A little slow on the get-go...

So, Indigo turned me on to the idea of Posterous some time ago, in conjunction with the East River Community blog - so I created one for myself too.

Of course, half a year later and I have barely used it.  Perhaps I should change that.  Sometimes things happen that I just cannot keep my mouth shut about anymore.

 

Hello, world!

East River Municipal Airport Approach Chart (old but still valid)

5/26/10, Holly's

5/26/10, Holly's
Originally uploaded by elishakitty

Another wonderful Wednesday at Holly Golightly's in Helvellyn Town, listening to Shannon perform...

5/24/10, Port Kirkstone

5/24/10, Port Kirkstone
Originally uploaded by elishakitty

"Can you hear me meow? Good!"

The East River Community suddenly found itself blanketed with mobile broadband coverage on CatComm's award-winning 9G network... one G for each life. More cats in more places...

5/21/10, Strange Sands Beach

5/21/10, Strange Sands Beach
Originally uploaded by elishakitty

Welcome to The Elishacat Diaries

elishacat

April 21st, 12:16

Current Mood:

creative

Hello.  I wanted to welcome you to my roleplaying project, The Elishacat Diaries.  My name is... not important, but you can call me A.  It's one of my initials, anyway, and I'm not going to tell you which. =^_^= 

I am a furry.  Before you go all stupid on me with preconcieved notions about what that means, do yourself a favor and actually ask me.  I'm on record as being rather vocative about what furriness actually is, as opposed to what the cretinous degenerates of the mainstream media and their lackies profess it to be.

That said:  This LiveJournal is intended to be the in-character blog of one Elisha Paklena-Montpardien, a half-panthress half-dragoness lady living in the wilds of nonexistentia.  She is my furry alter-ego, and is very remarkably similar to me in terms of temperament, intelligence, behavior, and mannerisms.  There are differences, but she is a large part of me and I am a large part of her.  For the record, if you read it in print here: take everything with a grain of salt.  Elisha's background is not mine.  My experiences as hers are.  I will explain this in more detail later.

If you're familiar with me from TapestriesMUCK, you already know the very in-character Elisha.  If you're more familiar with me from Second Life, chances are you've never seen me 100% in character.  There are shades of it that I choose to make manifest there, but not to everyone and not in many places.

So, welcome.  And if you see me inworld, in either place, don't be afraid to say 'Hello.'  I don't bite.  Much. =^_^=

- A, a.k.a. Elisha's Player

Tags: ooc

1/18/10, Permafrost

1/18/10, Permafrost
Originally uploaded by elishakitty

The cabin we're staying in on our vacation.

1/14/10, Ohno

1/14/10, Ohno
Originally uploaded by elishakitty

Brought reinforcements. Bunny still too huge though.

1/12/10, Ohno

1/12/10, Ohno
Originally uploaded by elishakitty

I caught it! But... I'm not exactly sure what to do now. It looked much
smaller from the trolley...

1/12/10, Permafrost

1/12/10, Permafrost
Originally uploaded by elishakitty

That's MISS Wintercat to you.... *mrowr*

1/11/10, Holly Golightly's

1/11/10, Holly Golightly's
Originally uploaded by elishakitty

Dancing on top of an advertising box, to the DJing of Louise Giano (every
Monday from 2pm to 4pm SLT).

1/7/10, Permafrost Resort

1/7/10, Permafrost Resort
Originally uploaded by elishakitty

So, Sue, Mark, and I are on vacation for the next few days in southwestern Sansara. This is the snowy end of the continent. I flew us down (along with Indigo) a couple of days ago; Indi wanted to see the new SLCG Air Station at Anton Airport, and she caught a return flight back to Helvellyn later that day. Mark and Sue and I have been spending most of our time skiing and riding the trolley up and down the valley; tomorrow Sue and I might go visit the area cathedrals. They've gone to bed now, but I'm not tired yet so am playing a quiet game of solo pool in the resort's lodge.