Thursday, February 26, 2009

My birthday gift to myself...



Happy 55th to me! : )

Nature Tarot

The Nature Tarot is a deck of 78 full-colour cards. Designed in the ancient Tarot tradition, The Nature Tarot deck is a modern cross-culture deck using images from nature and from human society.

The first two editions of the Nature Tarot deck appeared in 2002 and 2004.

They are in Dutch. The English version is now almost finished (February 2009).

The Nature Tarot has not been published yet. So far each deck has been made by hand.

The deck appears in a little box, along with a booklet describing the deck and each card separately, and also a Tarot guide for beginners. The price of the deck is € 75.

For contact, please send an e-mail

China has managed to track down five of the other statues...


China has condemned what it calls the illegal auction in Paris of two bronze artefacts taken from a Chinese palace 150 years ago.

The strong statement said China did not recognise the 31m euro (£28m, $39m) sale of the bronze rat and rabbit.

It also ordered tighter checks on artefacts that Christie's auction house takes into or out of China.

The bronzes were sold as part of the estate of late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.

China says the animal heads were part of a collection of 12 looted from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860 when it was sacked and burnt by French and British armies during the Second Opium War.

The animals represent the Chinese zodiac, and adorned a fountain built for the Emperor Qianlong.

China has managed to track down five of the other statues, which are now displayed in a Beijing museum. It had earlier called on Christie's to stop the bronzes' sale.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7911691.stm

The Qianlong Emperor (Chinese: 乾隆帝, pinyin: Qiánlóngdì, Wade-Giles: Ch'ien-lung Ti, Mongolian: Tengeriin Tetgesen Khaan, born Hongli (弘曆), September 25, 1711 – February 7, 1799) was the fifth emperor of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China.[1] The fourth son of the Yongzheng Emperor, he reigned officially from October 11, 1736 to February 7, 1795.[2] On February 8 (the first day of that lunar year), he abdicated in favor of his son, the Jiaqing Emperor - a filial act in order not to reign longer than his grandfather, the illustrious Kangxi Emperor.[3] Despite his retirement, however, he retained ultimate power until his death in 1799. Although his early years saw the continuity of an era of prosperity in China, he was of unrelentingly conservative and sinocentric attitude. As a result, the Qing Dynasty's comparative decline began later in his reign.[citation needed]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Qianlong

Saturday, February 21, 2009

We fell in love with a word: peace

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Friday, February 13, 2009

Old Reality from our Right Wing...

Having ruled the nation utterly for many years, the Republican Party now finds itself cast into the role of the minority. In this position it has taken on a gracious new slogan that sums up their feelings about the nation.


Saturday, February 07, 2009

Dysthymia & Depression

This is the first time I've ever seen dysthymia explained so well. Link to whole article below.

For much of my childhood and young adulthood, I suffered from depression. Although I did have some periods of major depression, the bulk of the time my depression was a type called dysthymia.

Photo: Storm Cloud Over Moscow

Dysthymia is a low-grade form of depression that lasts at least two years, with symptom free periods lasting no longer than two months...

...Although dysthymia is not as disabling and the symptoms are not as severe as, major depression, it can still destroy a life, by making the person a shadow of what they could be. The best way I can think of to compare major depression with dysthymia is that major depression is like a thunderstorm in your brain or psyche.

Photo: Rainy Day

Devastating, but of a short duration. Dysthymia is like a steady rain under a perpetually gray sky. While the thunderstorm may be more devastating, imagine living with a gray, rainy day in your brain all day, every day...

by Deborah Gray
Monday, January 05, 2009

No one knows what it's like unless they've lived it. Looking back on my life is squinting at the past and not being able to see anything... I said for years that I didn't remember any of my childhood. This is why. I hope that people who say Don't Live In The Past find a way not to judge what they cannot know.

8 years of republican economics coming home to roost...



http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/02/06/how-bad-is-it/

Tuesday, February 03, 2009