Who We Are∞ About Sheta ♥
I'm Senior Managing Editor of Rending the Veil online occult webzine and archive, which I founded with Nicholas Graham (author of The Four Powers). The first issue premiered December 2006. Some excellent people are involved, including authors Donald Tyson and Assistant Managing Editor Gerald del Campo, and newer faces on the writing scene, Taylor Ellwood, Lupa, and Nick whom I already mentioned.
I am an editor for Megalithica Books, an imprint of Immanion Press (main offices are in the UK). I am also in the midst of writing my first non-fiction work for Megalithica, entitled "Spirit Companions" (working title). See why, below.
I met my spirit companion, Meridjet, in 1994 and I thought I'd lost my mind. Despite my involvement in the occult since puberty and the fact that I was, by then, 33 years old, this was something I'd never heard of and which put me in fear of my sanity. Eventually I found my way online and in 1999 when our relationship took new form I started trying in earnest to find others with similar situations. The search was mostly a failure. I met author Donald Tyson and a couple of other people but nothing really panned out. So I elected to start my own group to hopefully attract others to me.
The first community I formed languished in relative obscurity for a couple of years. Then for reasons unknown it suddenly exploded into a frenzy of activity as people seemed to emerge from the proverbial woodwork. By then I was on LiveJournal and was finally convinced by a friend to create the community there. People found the first community via the second, it all snowballed, and now collectively there are several hundred people involved. Not a huge number but it's considerable growth in a short time for an obscure issue.
To top it all off, I am a skeptic at heart and have a fondness for evidence. This is not to say I've never made a mistake, never projected anything, never been fooled by someone faking evidence or validation. But I keep very good records, of which this journal is one, and I never purge them or edit them (except to make a formerly visible entry private or vice versa) to reflect a change in attitude, as I feel that this is dishonest and invalidates the record. I like to be able to see my progress, and to know where I've made mistakes in the past, as well as to review my successes.
Being a skeptic means that I'm not going to swallow anyone's story immediately. I do, however, try to keep an open mind unless you trigger my bullshit alarms in a serious way. My empathy is excellent and I can read energy signatures directly, via video, via email, via chat, and via proxy (meaning I can read an SC via their human partner). I cannot read energy via chat on cell phones, via photo (or not well), or via telephone (not well). I am extremely sensitive, but I have definitely been fooled by people who've trained themselves to work with empathics. This is rapidly changing as I study to regain my edge.
I am open-minded, again, and willing to stretch my paradigm. I have no issues whatsoever with people living their own lives as they see fit, including embracing whatever delusions rock their boats, but I will only stretch my operative paradigm as seems warranted by my personal growth... however it happens regularly, and I like to think of myself as generally flexible.
I welcome contact and will help in any way I can but keep in mind that I do have personal boundaries and I will maintain them, and that I am very busy a great deal of the time. If you want to contact me, please do -- but realize that I can be as absent-minded as anyone (even worse!) and that I may require a nudge, or I may not have time to chat with everyone every day, and so forth. Patience is extended but also required in return.
∞ About Meridjet ♥
Meridjet is a dead guy of some repute. He is very charming and sure of his own attractiveness, and somehow these qualities combine in the most delicious (rather than annoying) way. He is very wise yet very approachable; don't hesitate to tap us on IM.
March 2009
| 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
| 8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
| 15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
| 22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
| 29 |
30 |
31 |
|
2/4/08 02:36 am
Mississippi says: "Get your fat ass out of that McDonald's!"
Originally from several people, via ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) elfwreck
Mississippi is considering House Bill 282--Description: Food establishments; prohibit from serving food to any person who is obese.
The upshot: "Any food establishment... shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health.... The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese...."
Penalty for non-compliance? Losing their restaurant operating permit.
One blog says that anyone with a BMI of 30 or higher will be considered "obese," but I haven't been able to track that down in MI law. (Calculate your BMI. Note the utter lack of mitigating factors, like "disease," or "muscle tone," or "pregnancy.")
Does anyone--I mean, ANYONE--think that it would somehow "cure" the "obesity crisis" in the US by refusing to allow us to eat in public? (I say "us," because according to the chart, my BMI is 32.)
My BMI is 36. My daughter is the same height, 30 lbs heavier, and her BMI is 41. Egad. According to the above site, I was underweight at 95 lbs, at the bottom end of normal at 105 (which I think is my ideal weight, really), and at the top end of normal at 135 (which gives me a paunch). I weigh 207 at current. I qualify as fat in pretty much anyone's book. How can they pass such a blatantly discriminatory law? What's next? "Sorry, you're butt-ugly, you aren't allowed to buy that dress / makeup / suit /tie. It's illegal. Go to K-Mart, before you make me hurl."
2/4/08, 01:00 pm
I read about that. I believe he's mostly just trying to make a point. Not sure which, exactly. But the point I would like him to be making is that restaurants and the fast food industry in general have a lot to do with our obesity epidemic.
Bars and liquor stores are required by law to refuse service to someone who is intoxicated. I always found this ironic, since they depend on drunks for a lot of their business. Maybe this guy is trying to create some parity? His proposal does seem discriminatory and humiliating, but I don't think he really means for restaurants to set up these scales or have weigh-ins. He may just want to draw attention to their culpability.
2/4/08, 08:39 pm
Forgive the length...
Culpability works for me, but he should focus the attention on the restaurants, not on the consumer. Bars and liquor stores are required to refuse service to anyone who is visibly intoxicated; I used to be a bartender. With the legal blood alcohol limits we currently have, they'd have to refuse to serve anyone a second drink, pretty much, to avoid serving anyone considered too intoxicated to drive. But focusing on the BMI of a person (particularly when going by weight/height factors alone) is ridiculous. BMI can fluctuate wildly between people who look similarly height-weight proportionate. Muscle mass has a lot to do with it, too. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his Mr. Universe days, could easily tip the BMI scale based on his height vs his weight. And bartenders know that a visual check is equally worthless. Some people stay drunk all the time and barely show any signs of intoxication.
Even if you consider that most people can tell grossly obese at a glance, any person who's been thin their entire lives will see "fat" much sooner than anyone who has carried extra poundage. In my skinny days, I would have watched "The Devil Wears Prada" and agreed that Anne Hathaway was the "fat girl." It's a matter of personal perspective. Friends of mine who are larger than I am see me as relatively slender, because they are comparing me to themselves. If a restaurant wanted to visually reject obese people, they'd have to hire all skinny folks or run some sort of visual test on potential hires to determine if their definition of "too fat to eat here" matched the administration's. And if it were a law with one's business license at stake, there would have to be some way to provide evidence of a violation, which necessitates a way to gain consistent consumer BMI information in order to cover one's ass as a restaurateur. And that puts an astounding weight (ha) of focus on the consumer, and encourages restaurants to be discriminatory. After all, changing their menus is a little like shutting the barn door after the horse has escaped, to quote my grandmother.
If he wants to make a point... he needs a way to consistently put the scrutiny on the business, not the consumer. "Super Size Me" running in every restaurant that serves food too high in fat content might be a thought. lol
/soapbox
2/5/08, 02:22 am
Re: Forgive the length...
Yeah, as if I didn't hate McDonald's before watching Super Size Me. That movie put me over the edge!
I see what you mean about the scales putting the blame on the customers. Maybe this guy meant well, but he sure has pissed off a lot of people!
|
surprised