Updates and Controversies
It seems my mind is being pulled in so many directions, I feel like I can't focus it on just on topic, and when I try my mind strays towards something else of equal interest. I'm trying to get back in the groove of working again and I just can't focus on anything for more than a few seconds. So maybe I will just post some things of interesting and updates on what's happening.
I'm back to school, this time for my last semester. In December I will FINALLY be finishing my Bachelor's degree and HOPEFULLY finding a decent job which is close to home. Fingers Crossed. I am now working on a couple electives, both of which focus on religious topics, as well as starting the first draft of my final Study-In-Depth project for degree completion. The topic is on Ritual kinship functions in Geisha life. I chose this topic because of my love for Japanese art as well as my own fascination with the geisha. As a result of this, I have been face deep into a great many academic texts, and am reading voraciously trying to cram as much information in there in order to create a truly stellar paper for my last hurrah. I'm hoping it works.
It's been hard letting go of the summer. My baby girl is back in school and this time, she goes for the full day. I know most parents are happy when school starts, but its been hard for me. I miss her constant companionship and beautiful face during the day. As an academic, I worry about whether or not her teachers are competent or as a pagan if she is being indoctrinated by patriarchal values in our rural school system. Ugh, I must stop worrying about it all and just have faith that no matter what, I am the biggest role model in her life. Hopefully our wonderful American educational system won't do anything to her that can't be undone.
Mr. OD has returned to his native homeland across the sea. I miss him and its so depressing thinking of all the hoops we will have to jump through just so he can move here to the States. But, as the song goes, that's a choice I made long ago.
Between all this I have started writing some fiction again. I have found a story in my head worth telling, and have been dreaming it up for about six months. It's still evolving, but I have written about 20 or 30 pages into that, we will see when and where it goes.
Meanwhile in PAGAN LAND...some interesting stuff has captured my attention lately.
Circle Ansuz has been publishing a sort of expose on Stephen McNallen and the AFA, providing an extensive history of his individual connections to Neo-nazism and the white supremacist movement. You can read all about it here Stephen McNallen and Racialist Asatru: Part 1 . I want to recommend this for all heathens to read and know about. We need to be more vocal about calling out these disgusting bigots and racists who seem to want to claim the gods as their own, to the exclusion of anyone not possessing the correct skintone. Such ideology is outdated and biologically irrelevant. Every person on this planet has had ancestors composed of every color of the spectrum in terms of race. Asserting whiteness as a matter of pride is the mark of the hateful and intellectually lazy.
Another interesting story is concerned with the phenomena of plagiarism within the pagan blogosphere and on social media sites. A blog called stopiptheft here on blogspot ( which has since been removed...hmmm) called out the site Confessions of Crafty Witches (run by a man called Edward Menton) for posting a large amount of pictures and textual sources stolen from various writers and artists and posted without attribution. There are even claims that the site and its facebook mirror have gone as far as to actual crop out artist watermarks and alter images to avoid giving credit to the originators. The drama reached a virtual shitstorm after well known pagan blogger Kallan Kennedy of The Secret Life of the America Witch put out a call on her blog for followers to boycott CoCW and its affiliates until the issue of plagiarism is addressed. The post can be viewed here at mypaganworld.blogspot.com
Other bloggers and pagan figures have responded to the controversy, most taking a firm stance on one side or the other. Some believe such plagiarism is fundamentally wrong, others seem to take it less seriously, citing the social media culture online, many sites such as Facebook and Pinterest whose very popularity depends on it. Out of the shitstorm rises a variety of questions about how we view information and artistic ownership in a relatively new virtual culture. Should individuals be able to report artistic theft, or should copyright litigation be left in the hands of the artist? Do we have responsibility to police those within the pagan community online? Should we be concerned with plagiarism in more casual virtual environments, such as blogs and social media sites? How far does the demonization of plagiarised sources extend into personal vendettas? Is plagiarization the new excuse to troll those we don't agree with?
I can't answer these questions, and frankly I feel the issue of plagiarization is best left to the artists/writers themselves and the standards of the consumer in terms of verifying their own sources. I do not feel like it is my responsibility or desire to police the work of others. Obviously there are plenty of others out there who do feel the need to call attention to it, and that's fine. But for me personally, I feel it is losing battle if one believes they will ever be able to stamp out plagiarism in the virtual world. My philosophy is to know my own shit, and my research is academic for the most part, so the issue of plagiarism really doesn't apply. It's even harder to apply academic standards when one is dealing with esoteric knowledge to begin with.
Of course, I thing plagiarism is wrong, and is some form of theft. However it would be a lie if I said that every image on this blog has been checked for copyright and attribution. Particularly those images I posted in the beginning. I try as often as possible to attribute works of art to the source, but sometimes that information is just not available, and like everyone else, I say fuck it. Does this make me a bad person? I don't think so. Most of the images I use are from stock photo sites, wikimedia commons, or images which have passed their copyright timeframe. Other images come from museum sites, etc, and I attribute them as specified. In terms of written content, there is no plagiarized content on this blog, and never will be. Quotes or passages are cited, as well as direct paraphrasing.
Anyway, that is my update status post. Lots of interesting stuff going on now, and oh yea my birthday is in a few days. I'll be 27 (AGAIN).
IN FRITH
CENA
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| A recent offering to Nerthus for helping me with a spell to relieve pain |
I'm back to school, this time for my last semester. In December I will FINALLY be finishing my Bachelor's degree and HOPEFULLY finding a decent job which is close to home. Fingers Crossed. I am now working on a couple electives, both of which focus on religious topics, as well as starting the first draft of my final Study-In-Depth project for degree completion. The topic is on Ritual kinship functions in Geisha life. I chose this topic because of my love for Japanese art as well as my own fascination with the geisha. As a result of this, I have been face deep into a great many academic texts, and am reading voraciously trying to cram as much information in there in order to create a truly stellar paper for my last hurrah. I'm hoping it works.
It's been hard letting go of the summer. My baby girl is back in school and this time, she goes for the full day. I know most parents are happy when school starts, but its been hard for me. I miss her constant companionship and beautiful face during the day. As an academic, I worry about whether or not her teachers are competent or as a pagan if she is being indoctrinated by patriarchal values in our rural school system. Ugh, I must stop worrying about it all and just have faith that no matter what, I am the biggest role model in her life. Hopefully our wonderful American educational system won't do anything to her that can't be undone.
Mr. OD has returned to his native homeland across the sea. I miss him and its so depressing thinking of all the hoops we will have to jump through just so he can move here to the States. But, as the song goes, that's a choice I made long ago.
Between all this I have started writing some fiction again. I have found a story in my head worth telling, and have been dreaming it up for about six months. It's still evolving, but I have written about 20 or 30 pages into that, we will see when and where it goes.
Meanwhile in PAGAN LAND...some interesting stuff has captured my attention lately.
Circle Ansuz has been publishing a sort of expose on Stephen McNallen and the AFA, providing an extensive history of his individual connections to Neo-nazism and the white supremacist movement. You can read all about it here Stephen McNallen and Racialist Asatru: Part 1 . I want to recommend this for all heathens to read and know about. We need to be more vocal about calling out these disgusting bigots and racists who seem to want to claim the gods as their own, to the exclusion of anyone not possessing the correct skintone. Such ideology is outdated and biologically irrelevant. Every person on this planet has had ancestors composed of every color of the spectrum in terms of race. Asserting whiteness as a matter of pride is the mark of the hateful and intellectually lazy.
Another interesting story is concerned with the phenomena of plagiarism within the pagan blogosphere and on social media sites. A blog called stopiptheft here on blogspot ( which has since been removed...hmmm) called out the site Confessions of Crafty Witches (run by a man called Edward Menton) for posting a large amount of pictures and textual sources stolen from various writers and artists and posted without attribution. There are even claims that the site and its facebook mirror have gone as far as to actual crop out artist watermarks and alter images to avoid giving credit to the originators. The drama reached a virtual shitstorm after well known pagan blogger Kallan Kennedy of The Secret Life of the America Witch put out a call on her blog for followers to boycott CoCW and its affiliates until the issue of plagiarism is addressed. The post can be viewed here at mypaganworld.blogspot.com
Other bloggers and pagan figures have responded to the controversy, most taking a firm stance on one side or the other. Some believe such plagiarism is fundamentally wrong, others seem to take it less seriously, citing the social media culture online, many sites such as Facebook and Pinterest whose very popularity depends on it. Out of the shitstorm rises a variety of questions about how we view information and artistic ownership in a relatively new virtual culture. Should individuals be able to report artistic theft, or should copyright litigation be left in the hands of the artist? Do we have responsibility to police those within the pagan community online? Should we be concerned with plagiarism in more casual virtual environments, such as blogs and social media sites? How far does the demonization of plagiarised sources extend into personal vendettas? Is plagiarization the new excuse to troll those we don't agree with?
I can't answer these questions, and frankly I feel the issue of plagiarization is best left to the artists/writers themselves and the standards of the consumer in terms of verifying their own sources. I do not feel like it is my responsibility or desire to police the work of others. Obviously there are plenty of others out there who do feel the need to call attention to it, and that's fine. But for me personally, I feel it is losing battle if one believes they will ever be able to stamp out plagiarism in the virtual world. My philosophy is to know my own shit, and my research is academic for the most part, so the issue of plagiarism really doesn't apply. It's even harder to apply academic standards when one is dealing with esoteric knowledge to begin with.
Of course, I thing plagiarism is wrong, and is some form of theft. However it would be a lie if I said that every image on this blog has been checked for copyright and attribution. Particularly those images I posted in the beginning. I try as often as possible to attribute works of art to the source, but sometimes that information is just not available, and like everyone else, I say fuck it. Does this make me a bad person? I don't think so. Most of the images I use are from stock photo sites, wikimedia commons, or images which have passed their copyright timeframe. Other images come from museum sites, etc, and I attribute them as specified. In terms of written content, there is no plagiarized content on this blog, and never will be. Quotes or passages are cited, as well as direct paraphrasing.
Anyway, that is my update status post. Lots of interesting stuff going on now, and oh yea my birthday is in a few days. I'll be 27 (AGAIN).
IN FRITH
CENA
Happy birthday Cena!
ReplyDeleteYour Geisha research sounds fascinating, it will be interesting to examine womens' spirituality in a different cultural context.
I can really relate to the scattered mind experience as I do my best to get back into the academic grind beginning my MLIS. But....
Isn't it wonderful to be a woman in this time where we can study and connect with others around the world?
I wish you the best in your career endeavors and leave you with my mother's wisdom on university.
'Remember that the purpose of pursuing a university education was never to get a job - this has been grafted onto it in recent history. It's purpose is twofold: 1) to make you a better citizen with the capacity for critical thinking and informed discourse, and 2) as service, to have the desire and skills to contribute by sharing in the world's knowledge base.
Of course, paying bills is important, but oddly the university courses I use most everyday at work are the 'soft skills' of philosophy.
Enjoy your last term in academia before you foray into the 'working' world.
Haha trust me there is no lack of appreciation for the nonwork related aspects of my education. I would much rather NOT WORK EVER, and spend my days learning and writing. It is why I chose humanities as a major rather than a more profitable career area. My need to work stems mostly from a need to save enough money to help pay for my fiancee to move here to the states, and to be financially independent. Outside of this, my only real goal is to eventually continue my schooling until I have a doctorate under my belt. It may be twenty years before that happens, but I'll get there.
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