Skylar Smythe's Barn, 14 November 2011

A quick catnap amongst the other residents of Skylar's barn, before going off to visit friends at the beach.

Paklena Sailworks, 10 November 2011

Dum de doo, meow meow, the things cats do... now to get this in the water...

We Will Always Have A Place To Remember

A new day begins always, somewhere.

sometimes

sometimes there is only one thing that makes sense

sometimes there is only one thing that can really be done

sometimes the one thing you want to do is the one thing you can never bring yourself to do

 

because you don't want to go.

 

 

 

 

 

so instead there must be change.

Unseasonal, 16 October 2011

Curuoskar, I think, doesn't have too much seasonal variation - certainly not anywhere near as much as Agni does.  It was something I had to get used to when I emigrated.  It gets cold in the Fall!  (There's a concept of 'Fall!')  And snow doesn't just happen up in the mountains or near the poles.  It happens pretty much everywhere that there aren't palm trees, if you let the calendar get to that end of the year.  But I've lived here for a while now, and am starting to get used to the slide of temperatures down in the later months of the year.

The East River does get some snow through the Winter months-- my trees were fairly blanketed with it last winter and it was a glorious time of snowball fights and hot chocolate and fires-- but in general we're fairly temperate enough that the most it gets is chilly and a little blustery and rainy.  Certainly the palms seem none the worse for wear around then.

Every year it seems, as temperatures fall, there's a brief period of time when things warm back up for a day or two despite the downward trend.  A day when you just know, in your bones, that it'll probably not be this warm again until Springtime; a day of unseasonable warmth in which you know that, even though most likely you'll be diving back into snuggly warm pajamas by nightfall, in the midday it's warm enough to wear the fabulous dress you'd originally been thinking would have to wait until after Winter.  Today was that day, for me.

Dress: JANE - tank dress.hello again.graphite (mesh)
Shoes: OuTRage! - Ballet Slipper (Black Glitter)
Hair: DrLife Healthy Hair Leena(All Color)

Goofing around at home, 10 October 2011

Playing around with my phone and mirror while a bemused Wendy (both of us fresh back from the beach and into the autumn chill that is the East River community) watches on.

Top: DCNY_Soft Scoop Tank from Hair Fair 2011
Jeans: fri.day - Designer Jean (Regular Wash)
Jacket: JANE - aviator jacket in raven
Shoes (unseen): ETD Kristin Booties (Chocolate)
Hair: DrLife Hair Leah. Claret

Sailworks, Kirkstone, 8 Oct 2011

Things the cat does when nobody is looking...

Waiting for my next delivery of GRP.  I've never had to order it in such quantity before.

08/29/11, Abbotts Aerodrome

Saying goodbye to an old friend on the eve of its reincarnation.

Strange Sands Beach, 8/18/11

The following morning finds Miss Kitty and her husband lounging on the Community beach, enjoying the sun and waves in mostly silence punctuated by the odd occational mrewl of idle conversation...   

Sit and Think

If you don’t love yourself, you cannot love others. You will not be able to love others. If you have no compassion for yourself then you are not able of developing compassion for others.

- The Dalai Lama

 

I rarely go to Lauks Nest.  It is a place of very specific private meaning to me, full of my own memories.  Therefore, it was the only place I could go to consider, in depth, myself.

I don't think I like what I find.

But there is someone who thinks much more of me than I think of myself, and I have to consider that they may be right.  I could not think, could not comprehend, that they could be lying to me, when they say how I am loved.  Therefore, logic says either they are telling the truth, and I am more than I think, or they are lying, and I am exactly how I think, and I already know they cannot be lying.

So, I must learn to love myself as much as they do, that I may understand what it is to be worthy of that depth of love.  It's the only fair thing to do.

 

I am Me. In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it -- I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or myself. I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes. Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know -- but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me. However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded. I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me. I am me, and I am Okay.

- Virginia Satir

Oh, wow, I hadn't thought about that time when...

digging pictures out from random corners of random drawers; how much younger were we then?  had followed you, that perfect day, seeing where we would go and you spun on a heel and captured my soul unsuspecting (fortunately it was one I would willingly give) laughing as the shutter clicked... stunned expression frozen forever in halides and gelatin not betraying the laughter and hug to follow that will live on only in my memory

(Hoodie: Dutch Touch Woolen Cardigan Dark Grey; Shorts: fri.day Denim Shorts Light Wash; Socks: dcg; Shoes: Detour MixFlip Sneakers Pink Hearts; outfit inspired by http://lookbook.nu/look/2274423-All-the-truth-in-the-world-adds-up-to-one-big-lie)

In My Sky At Twilight

In my sky at twilight you are like a cloud
and your form and colour are the way I love them.
You are mine, mine, woman with sweet lips
and in your life my infinite dreams live.

The lamp of my soul dyes your feet,
the sour wine is sweeter on your lips,
oh reaper of my evening song,
how solitary dreams believe you to be mine!

You are mine, mine, I go shouting it to the afternoon's
wind, and the wind hauls on my widowed voice.
Huntress of the depth of my eyes, your plunder
stills your nocturnal regard as though it were water.

You are taken in the net of my music, my love,
and my nets of music are wide as the sky.
My soul is born on the shore of your eyes of mourning.
In your eyes of mourning the land of dreams begin.

- Pablo Neruda

8/1/11, at home in the garden

Lounging out in the garden below the Great Tree; warm air, cooler breezes in the shade of the trees, good book, hearing birds on the wind and the distant whispering of the Bay.  Cat, stealing a few quiet moments to herself, between storms of being tugged around by the inanities of real life that, alas, keep her fed and sheltered.  Dress: ~ imbue. vintage floral dress pink; Shoes: Pennywise Black Heart Sandal; Hair: *ARGRACE* Passion (Black).

*warmfuzzycloud*

The catface is an exceptionally powerful tool.  I am currently being catfaced by grey kitteh, who is sitting on the floor next to my leg pawing softly at my foot.  Am sure she wants crunchies but she's not precisely starving and I think she can wait a minute for mommy to gush.

It was date afternoon :3 my pixie came up and she was wearing green which made her look a little bit like a redhaired Tinker Belle, which I avoided mentioning but am sure somehow she did on purpose.  We went to Borders.  I tweeted about that.  Save for perhaps around Catmas, it was the busiest I can recall seeing that store since I was in my late teens.  That's pretty damn sad.

I'm not even going to get into the whole digital/physical book debate.  Book stores are magical.  We need them, not to get rid of them.  I might get an e-reader at some point, or a tablet with same functions, but I cannot imagine ever having no books in my house.  I grew up in a house that had an upstairs hall fairly lined with shelves full of all sorts of books (some of which having found their way into my own collection).  It just feels wrong.

Oh well, there's always B&N, even though the smell of Starbucks gives me a headache, and they're always so crowded by trendoids.  Amazon is ok too for cat.  Junglecat, rawr.

My little ubuntu machine fell over at some point last night.  Locking up with flashing capslock and scroll lock.  I know that means oddball kernel panic.  No idea why, nothing has changed on it.  Tried running it from a livecd and it did the same thing after a few.  Praying it's not CPU, but if it comes to that I can replace that.  Am hoping it's just RAM, am running memtest now and will let that go overnight and on into tomorrow afternoon.  However, this means, at least inworld for SL, that my bot is offline, since she ran from a vm on that machine.  Which means no automatic group-joins for East River Community rentals that I manage (the Great Trees and the airport).  Oh well.  She needs a vacation, perhaps, standing around in the terminal all the time with only the occational traveler saying hi.

I said gush, hm, maybe I should gush.  After Borders we went to a couple of other stores (new top!  it's swishygauzy!) and then dinner at Olive Garden.  Of course I ate too much of their salad, so I couldn't finish my entree.  Gets me every time.

If you haven't guessed, this is an attempt at me getting myself to make a blog entry.  But I'm sleepy enough now that all I can manage is a woozy ramble of my day.

And now I think I'm just going to go to bed.  After I give grey poofball her crunchies.  We must serve the kitteh...

 

Miao!

7/18/11, Burandt

7/18/11, Burandt Out riding up in the mountains of southern Sansara. Gas break to feed the bike and some fish treats to feed the cat. Visit Burandt (233, 113, 105)

Cat's Home in the Clouds, Kirkstone, 07/01/11

Quiet lounging in my home away from home; freshly painted amethyst toenails, brand new purple silk jammies, hair being tended to, and a good book to pass the time... purrrrrrr.

(Pajamas: 'Silken Carress: Purple Silk PJ' from Blacklace; Hair: 'Curlers - Blackberry' from Curl Up and Dye)

Visiwa, 6/23/11

Later that same day, secluded empty beach with my wife, all night spent talking and morniing dancing by the firelight to one side and dawn to the other, sound of heart and purr and wind and surf crashing.

Fire Beach, 6/23/11

An afternoon spent doing nothing at Fire Beach.  Two cats cuddled on a hammock.  It was a day for just love.

6/11/11, just a day trip to the isles

6/11/11, just a day trip to the isles Waiting on the dock with my little bag, ready for some sun and solitude in the Sea of Fables. Can I get this right? Let's see. Top: Renegade 'Frisky Hook-Ups Tank'; Shorts: *ARGRACE 'Lady short denim'; Undies: *tesoromio* bra and Markova 'Lavender Cali Girl' boy briefs; Hair: =ROGE= 'Hair60_A'; Barefeet: SLink Jolie Pied Flat Bare Visit Mowry (192, 220, 23)

Mowry Village

Mowry Village Spending a day in the sunshine at Mowry Village; relaxing with my partner and contemplating another cup of coffee. Visit Mowry (188, 173, 45)

*waving olive branch*

I've decided I'm not going to let things go this way that easily.  Whether I care about the place or not, the principle of the thing is the same - it was my sailing home for a long time.  The place is sacred.  I want it to be great.  So I will not give up my personal fight.  Have offered assistance, on a personal level.  I have no authority in this matter to speak for others, only myself, but I will do what I think I must.

I would like to think that, for any that the place mattered to, they would agree with me.

Goodbye, Mowry

"Maritime update: Port and dock facilities in Mowry (traditionally the Mowry Bay Yacht Club and other related things) are closed: land owner has wiped the parcel clean for redevelopment and/or resale.  Distribute freely for the notification of others." - message I just sent out on the SL Coast Guard and Leeward Cruising Club group chats.

This wipe includes the bench that had been the memorial for Djduerer Zou, the SL and RL sailor who passed away a couple of years ago.

The parcels are labeled as being intended for redevelopment for the sailing community; however I have been informed that this redevelopment hinges on the purchase of parcels owned by neighboring landowners (the East River Community) who have already stated a clear desire to assist mutually with the land, but to not sell that.  Further, if the land sale cannot happen, it appears the owner intends to seek other owners of the property.

I am disheartened by such a total wipe of land that, while admittedly being unused, is a significant piece of SL sailing history as well as a tribute to sailors gone from these spheres.  It saddens me that attempts and offers to coordinate development of the Mowry region with neighbors with a sincere wish to help create a community environment for all have gone ignored in lieu of the concept of 'own all the land and that's the only way this will work and only if re-leased to the sailing community.'

I am also sickened, and wish to take back, my propagation of Saxxon's original sale offer, as had I not mentioned it, perhaps the land would not have met this particular fate.

Spoiler

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False Dawn at the East Gate

False Dawn at the East Gate Watching the sunrise over the ancient East Gate of Muirhead. Visit Muirhead (130, 36, 40)

East River Municipal Airport Update 6 May 2011

Structure for new waiting area has been completed, over the excavation that will partially be a water feature backing to the cliff adjacent to the terminal.  An openair courtyard has been installed that will connect the new waiting area to the old; the original terminal's security checkpoint and baggage area will not be relocated; however the baggage processing equipment behind the walls (formerly in the open service yard) has been relocated down into maintenance level under the terminal.  Airport operations are not being affected by these renovations; once the apron has been paved up to the new waiting area and windows installed, the new gates will take the place of the old and the decomissioning of the old waiting area will begin.

East River Municipal Airport Update 5 May 2011

Construction on the terminal configuration is underway.  With the final removal of the last remnants of old Munck Field's runway 18/36 (replaced by a taxiway to a private hangar), the time has come to finish enhancements to the terminal.  Under construction is a new 2-level boarding area, which will replace the old waiting room.  Final plans as to the rearrangement of the baggage claim area are still under consideration but the new waiting area is expected to be made functional in the meantime.  No changes are expected to occur to the original ticketing area and security checkpoint.

As preparation to the new terminal expansion, the old Aeromiao hangar has been relocated to the NE corner of the airfield.  It is also anticipated that the rock outcropping west of the terminal will eventually be demolished.

Taylor

Queen Elisha's royal handmaiden, relaxing during some off-time.

The Prettiest Cat

Azure and I disagree over which of us is prettier.  I don't say I'm not out of modesty.  I really think my wife is the most beautiful cat in the world.  And here is why: pictures of her on an unseasonably warm late Winter day in the meadows outside the East River community.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Love, rain on me...

Love, rain on me... Only love Can make it rain The way the beach is kissed by the sea Only love Can make it rain Like the sweat of lovers Laying in the fields. Visit Kirkstone (77, 87, 202)

Princess Sue

Princess Sue The explosively radiant Princess Sue Visit Hardknott (49, 239, 75)

Professional kitty is professional

Professional kitty is professional Working in my office at the boatyard as the sun comes up over Port Kirkstone outside. Another hopefully beautiful day in the East River. Visit Kirkstone (54, 73, 28)

The Queen of the Royal Trees

Queen Elisha Paklena Cassini-Niosaki de Montpardien, photograph, taken while idly watching the bay and considering the future.

M

Lunchtime in the Tree

Lunchtime in the Tree Eating a lunch of stew and drinking tea in the great hall of the Tree; a purple-clad handmaiden working in the kitchen behind me. Visit Hardknott (45, 238, 75)

East River Federation Air Guard

East River Federation Air Guard Preparing to depart on a night sortie to preserve the security of fishing rights... Visit Munck (108, 223, 37)

Azure

Azure Is mah wifey meow I love her so much! Visit Hardknott (69, 225, 75)

Cat by the Window

Cat by the Window Meow. Visit Hardknott (44, 246, 75)

SLCG Patrol 010611, Ice Bay

SLCG Patrol 010611, Ice Bay Dolphin 1004 gently landed on an ice pack in the Ice bay of Sansara. Almost long enough to be a runway, and definitely sturdy enough at this time... Visit Barents (193, 139, 45)