Whispers from the Myth Teller

 Today is a day I've been dreading. I'm going to see the dentist to have more teeth pulled, then getting my first denture.

 

I'm going to get emotional. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it together until I get home, but I might lose it in the metro.

 

Herne, give me strength.

On this day in 2025, Tiktok went dark in the US, land of the free. We'll see how long that lasts.

Being fed up with Meta and its shenanigans, I decided to shutter my Instagram account. Facebook is much tougher to shutter because it's useful for events and community building. Until we have a better solution for that, I'm probably going to stick with it.

But for journalling purposes, I want to rediscover Dreamwidth. I'm hoping my community of nerds who are fleeing X, Insta, and even Facebook might find me here. Time will tell.

We have choices, even if our digital oligarchs think they have us trapped. But it's up to us to exercise those choices and flex our buying power.

Join me here and let's give those clods a reason to worry.

Well, it's 12 weeks since I got back from Arizona and I put myself in isolation, just to be on the safe side. 12 long weeks of solitude and living in a tiny square of space, where before this, I felt like there was no where I could not go.

And now, when I look at where we've arrived, it seems like a clash of incongruities. Death, suffering, corruption, and willful ignorance from the top to the bottom of our society, stretching out in all directions.

And at the same time, I've watched the snow melt away and the greenery of spring gush from the once bare trees in my yard. Death and chaos all around, but here in my little corner of the world, new life awakens and flourishes, as it has done like clockwork for 52 springs.

It almost doesn't seem possible that both realities can sit side-by-side. And yet, the beauty of life abounds and it will not be denied.

The fear bombards us from all sides. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the untrue. Fear of what we don't know. The fear is a wildfire that tears through our society, turning us against each other and away from those we have never met or would ever want to meet. And that wildfire is tempering our hearts, hardening them, making us forget who we are or who we aspire to be, as if there is no room left for such dreams.

I'm here to tell you that there is room for these dreams, but you need to hold on. Hold on to your true selves, hold on to hope, hold on to your compassion most of all. Those dreams, those selves, and all that pent up compassion is going to carry us through this.

Everyone is hurting, and if that is all we have left, then let it be enough to form that common ground on which we can gather as family, as brothers and sisters, as fathers and mothers, as friends and lovers, and even those people we don't really know or that we fear.

If you feel yourself slipping away, just connect to the abundance that is springing up around us. Just ... hold on. We need you.

I'm testing out this new media. It's weird how much it looks like LJ.

I used to love posting on LJ. I even paid the membership fees to get the extra icons and stuff! Posting on LJ was simpler, seemed less corporate, and it was quieter overall. It was the community version of Facebook and I miss it.

The problem is that Facebook is great for organizing events, while LJ... not so much. As an amateur Event Organizer, Facebook is powerful and cannot be abandoned.

I think I might restart using my LJ to post my thoughts and musings, and then let it update Facebook as a second tier. To all those who keep their LJ alive, never being able to shut it down completely, I invite you to dust it off and rediscover its innocense.

For the record, I am *not* a fucking typesetter. My job is more than just copying text from one source, pasting it into another, and making it *pretty*. When I am documenting a new feature, I pull the information from multiple sources, rewrite and restructure that information, draw up the illustrations, and I test every single procedure to make sure it works the way it's supposed to.

Unfortunately, this tends to reveal flaws in the code that people would rather no one see. So when I start barking up the trees, trying to get answers, the frightened little engineers either scurry away or they try to dismiss my concerns by saying "Don't you worry about it. Nobody reads that section anyways." *twitch*

I haven't been here long enough to be able to rumble the earth by putting my foot down, but that day is coming, let me tell you.

It takes a brave, confident man to wear jeans the colour of Fighting Salmon at work.

Back on April 14th 1999, the LiveJournal domain officially registered. This year marks the 16th anniversary of that fateful day when LJ used to be the Facebook of its day.

Many of us still have our LJ accounts lying dormant, waiting for us to return. So let's return!

On April 14th, re-open your LJ accounts and post stuff there for one day. Rediscover your old communities and LJ friends. And maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to return to a simpler Social Media experience before it got creepy.

@@ PLEASE SHARE WIDELY @@

Facebook Event

In this meme, people post random things about themselves and if you leave a comment or a Like (on Facebook), they give you a number and then you need to provide that many random facts about yourself.

My friend Alli K., in all her devious sweetness, gave me the number 15. Emily B. was nicer and asked for two, but  I'm hoping they all get covered in this list. Jeepers.

15 Random Facts about me

1. Although I live in Montreal now, I was born in Quebec city. Yes Mme. Marois, I am a part of the tiny Anglophone community that lives and thrives still in Quebec city.

2. I have only ever traveled across the pond twice: once to Ireland and once to France.

3. I am still very scared of the dark and I'm quite claustrophobic.

4. Growing up, I was a proud member of Boy Scouts of Canada. I was a Wolf Cub and a Scout, and when I was an adult, I was a Wolf Cub leader in groups in Quebec city and Sherbrooke.

5. Because my girlfriend Gail was a Jeannettes leader with Guides & Scouts du Quebec, I was also became a leader with the Jeannettes (girls aged 8 to 13) in Sherbrooke, Ottawa, and Montreal. I received my Guide Cross in 1992 and I still have all the scarves from the groups I've worked with during those years. Very happy memories.

6. Before my 20s, my metabolism was in high-gear and I used to be bone-thin. I remember thinking that I wished I could put on some weight. Be careful what you wish for. Now, because of a variety of medical issues, losing weight is especially difficult.

7. I've always been fascinated by ghosts and hauntings, so no matter how crappy it is, if there's a TV show about hauntings and ghosts, I will probably watch it. I have only done a couple of investigations personally. Orbs no longer impress me and I'm not convinced that EVPs should be considered hard evidence. I try to be open-minded, but I am a skeptic.

8. In my childhood years, I was a target for many, many bullies because I was small, skinny, weak, and easily prone to crying. This has left me with a profound sympathy for the underdog and I can sometimes overreact to perceived bullying, either directed at me or others.

9. I have one sister who lives in Ireland, one mother who lives in Quebec city, and one father who passed away in 2007. I also have a niece studying in Montreal, while my two other nieces still live in Quebec, one of whom is my goddaughter. I love these girls somewhat fiercely.

10. My first real acting role was in a high school play where I had the distinct memory of being on stage and hearing someone in the audience whisper to me "Hey... Hey Hickey. You suck!" Despite these blistering words of encouragement, I continued to act and direct plays until 1995 when I discovered storytelling.

11. I have been telling tales since 1995, I've been published a few times, I have won storytelling awards and competitons, and I'm currently hosting my own storytelling competition. I dream of becoming one of Canada's favourite storytellers and performing in various parts of the world.

12. I had to consult a bunch of these other meme lists to figure out what to put in here. Coming up with 15 facts is hard. Darn you, Alli K.

13. I've only ever gotten stoned once (when I was 37, funny story), I don't smoke, and I didn't start drinking beer until after I graduated university.

14. I've always been a huge nerd (shock and surprise). I collect comic books, adore Steampunk costumes and gadgets, play in LARPs (mostly in the spring/summer), play video games (mostly PC), I love animation (more 2D than 3D), and watch Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who, and Mythbusters. I used to play tabletop D&D, but the rules frustrated me. I enjoy board games (Catan!) and Texas Hold'em poker.

15. I don't drink coffee, but I find a hot mug of tea to be comforting.

16. (because #12 was a cheat) When people find out I'm Pagan, I get the weirdest questions including: "Are you a demon?", "Do you drink blood before casting your love spells?", and my personal favorite: "Are you still Pagan or have you found a job?"

My mother should be relieved that this how my mid-life crisis is expressing itself. The artist who put this on my arm is Maery Contrary of Montreal.