Arbor Intrat

In Roman times, this was part of series of celebrations related to Cybele and Attis, representing a cycle of death and rebirth.

The seven following days the Canna Intrat (15th March) were famous as Castus Matris ("Fast of the Mother"). On March 22nd the procession of the Arbor Intrat took place.  Before sunrise, a pine tree was felled in a sacred grove of Cybele. An effigy of Attis was attached to it and decorated in violets and ribbons. It was then carried in procession through Rome by the dendophori (to the weeping of the gallae) to the sanctuary, where it was exposed to the adoration of the crowd before being laid in state. </P><P>The following day was a "day or mourning" and lamentation. The Salli (who were priest dancers of Mars) went in procession sounding their trumpets and beating their shields.

In our life we undergo many transformations and transitions, not just ones that we focus on. They are not always wanted and often we defer them (if we can) through fear and insecurity. Sometimes we embrace and initiate these changes, making them the centres of our lives for better or worse. And with change (even change we desire) there often comes grief and mourning. Grief can come over lost relationships, or expectations and ideas of ourselves that have proven either false or unbearable.

One can deny such grief, pretend it's not there or that it doesn't matter, but by doing so we also depreciate the worth of what we grieve for, and deny our history. Rather, it is often better to mourn for things lost, because this is ourselves owning our pain. In doing so we can acknowledge the role that such relationships and expectations played in our lives, and in doing so can also accept the good that came from them.

Mourning takes - however long it takes. And when mourning finishes, if we've paid attention  to ourselves, often we can be refreshed and ready to move on.

This image was created in Paint Tool SAI with some help from Photoshop. The figure at fore is a bust of Attis, and the landscape at back is taken from Mount Ida.

Project Green Screen

Read about this on Deviant Art this morning (though you can get the details direct as well)..

It's a Blackberry promo where Robert Rodriguez is making a short action film about monster hunters whose day job is in an ice-cream truck. You get involved (in the first act) by sending them a video of you saying the lines of an "agent", or a mugshot of you as a missing person. I sent my mugshot in. Be quite happy to have my face on a milk carton (which seems to be a USA thing) or a poster stuck on a wall, along with dozens of other "missing people".

Apparently in the 2nd act they want some fake tweets, and in the 3rd act they want some illustrations. Might get back to them for the 3rd act.

Yes, it's a promo thing, but it seems like fun.

Exhaustion / Confusion?

Yesterday after I went out was a mess. I felt vaguely ill. I could barely stand up at the reception at the uni, and when I left to go shopping at Glendale I just got confused, nearly forgetting what I was intending to buy.

Got home, fed the pets and went to bed. Woke up about 7:30am and walked the dogs. Have been hot and sweaty when I got back - more so than usually. I feel like I'm "in a heap" today. Got NONE of the research I should be doing done this week. Feel tired and cranky, and run down. Feel an urge to go out today but I suspect I'll end up confused and frustrated.

PVR Weirdness

There's an annoying glitch with my Telefunken STB/PVR in the lounge.

For some reason it refuses to program-record shows on certain channels and and also certain channels at certain times. In particular I can't seem to schedule recordings on NITV, and schedule recordings of anything on ABC2 very early mornings! This is mighty peculiar because the Bedroom Set Top Box does both, and they are both the same model. This is frustrating because I want to record Welcome to Wapos Bay in the mornings, and repeats of Sanctuary in the very early mornings.

Can't quite see why this should happen. The last time I had troubles like this, the lounge-room STB wouldn't record anything! Tried everything including swapping over the teo PVRs and had the same result. It transpired however that the fault was with the HDMI cable I had attached to the TV. When I tried a cheap (but shorter) cable it worked! Normally what happens with ABC2 is that it'll record the first program on that night, but skip the one scheduled for the following early  morning. Strange.

Of course writing this now, I know that the one in the lounge has a BIOS update and the one in the bedroom doesn't.  I guess my choices are to a) devise a work-around; do extensive tests; or c) replace them. I'd rather keep them because I find in general they work quite well and I like the remotes. One reason I'm recording Sanctuary in the lounge and not the bedroom is that ONE have been showing Defying Gravity at the the same timeslot. (a show about a manned space flight to the planets). If I screw up with Sanctuary I can still watch episodes off the net, but they don't seem to exist for Defying Gravity. However, the last episode's on next week.

Think I'm just a bit obsessed with recording/watching shows? Maybe, but I've found "watching my show" to be a reliable way of relaxing and unwinding - things I often have trouble doing.