Internet postings are forever

Occasionally, I get requests (emails) asking me to delete old postings of mine. The latest was from someone concerned that the posts were going to be indexed by search engines, and that their employer and friends were going to discover their religion. Of course, they did not indicate what postings I mentioned them in, or the site or forum, or even what the postings were about. Given the fact that I have been involved on the internet for ten years now (I think), and average several posts and comments a week, that is a lot of posts that I would have to go though if I was even remotely inclined to delete things.

There was also the little fact that I did not recognize the name or email address of the person making the request. So without more information, I have no idea where (or how far back) to even start looking.

And this is assuming that I even have the authority to delete the postings that this person is concerned about in the first place. Often on forums, the only people who have the authority to delete anything are the list owners. So both I and this party would have to ask for the posts to be removed...and if they do not give them any more information than they did me...well, there is an new old saying "Things you say and do on the internet are forever."

This is something I think a lot of people forget. The things that you post on internet forums, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are forever. Between internet caches, system backups, saved emails and files, and the occasional hard-copy printout, your activity on the internet has the potential to be around much longer than you might think it does.

(This is one of the hidden reasons that we will never see the various Golden Dawn groups clean up their internet past. It is a lot of work for very little gain considering that someone could come along and create a new website and put it all back up online shortly after they do their cleanup.)

Before you start posting on the internet, especially if you are doing and saying things that might cost you a job or a relationship later, you need to decide what you are willing and unwilling to deal with. What are you willing to have be public knowledge for the rest of your life and beyond? Know your limits and stay in your limits...and don't change your mind (because it is really hard to change your mind later).

And don't plan on getting a lot of help from people like me who have busy lives either if you change your mind later. Between my college homework and being a freelance writer I do not have time for a fishing trip to locate an unknown post. Remember you are responsible for your own internet reputation: Don't post anything that you don't want your boss, lover or grandmother to read.

My own experience with invisibilty

The subject of invisibility had cropped in a couple of places on the internet lately, so perhaps I should share the little experience I have with the subject.

(For the record, the reason I kept silent when Pat Zalewski recently stated his opinion was simply the fact that I heard someone else say something really inane on the subject a few years ago. After hearing their opinion, it takes a lot to get me to step forward and say anything about the subject. What Pat said was nothing in comparsion to this another opinion.)

For the record, I have not tried the full-blown Z operation for invisibility (another reason to remain silent). What I have tried is more in line with the "Do not notice me" or "I am someone else's problem" school of invisibilty. My results for the most part might be completely delusional; after all, it is impossible to field-test this under strict scientific conditions.

(Since then, I had a few choice tidbits fall into my lap...but considering I have not the time to test them yet, who really knows if they are tidbits or just more crackpot theories.)

Some of my results may also be pure paranoia. For instance, after doing some of this work, I thought that drivers had a hard time seeing me for quite some time. I never had so many people try to run me over in my entire life in the space of a couple of weeks...and cell phones were not common yet (at the time, they were still pretty big and almost no one had them). But it may just be paranoia and not an actual result.

I learned not to "go invisible" when someone I did not want to talk to had not noticed me yet, but was in line-of-sight of me...for some reason, they could see me instantly if I tried. On the other hand, if someone passed between us, I could "go invisible" and not be troubled at all.

I have noticed that a lot of people do not notice my presence whan I am "deep in my own world."

The strangest story I have to tell involves the grocery store and a week that I had very little time to mediate. I have learned to mediate in less than ideal conditions; much like a cat I can keep a partial eye on the world while deep in my own ponderings. (Ok, it is not mediation if your mind is not a complete blank...I know, I know.) Anyway, I am resting my brain while keeping one eye on the cashier. (No matter how I tell this story, someone is going to say that I am in the wrong...hence why I did not share it on Martin's forum.) Finally, I get to the front of the line. Suddenly the guy behind me is screaming, "Where did you come from? Did you just cut in front of me?" The cashier, bless his soul, looked at the guy and told him that I had been there all along.

Make of that story what you will. For me, I associate it with invisibility because this was around the same time that I had been experimenting with this particular subject. Obviously, if the cashier saw me, then I was not invisible. I am not sure how to explain the guy behind me in the line, but I do have a few theories. If you have a theory to share, please leave it in the comment section.

Necromancy and roadkill

There are just some things that you should not do: Trying to raise roadkill from the dead is one of them.

If you are really curious about the story behind that subject, slip over to Augoeides and read his latest entry. One thing is for sure, none of the stories from my drinking days (long since past---I have long ago gave up drinking) are as colorful. Thank goddess for that.

My friends also do this

A Roman visiting Corfu was sitting in a bar when they saw a strange man walking down the street. The man was dressed in a white robe and wearing a nemyss, and around his neck hang a gold cross with a red rose in the center. In one hand, he carried a long multi-colored stick with a white lotus flower on the end; his other hand he held with forefinger pressed tightly to his lower lip as he walked along. All the people in the street ignored him and went about their business.

The Roman asked the barman what that was all about and the barman said ,“Shhh, that is Aleister Crowley; he thinks he is invisible.” The Roman asked, “Why is everyone pretending that he is?” The barman said, “Have you ever spoken to Aleister Crowley? It is much better that we pretend we can't see him.... besides he might want to read us some of his poetry if we notice him."

Last night's Open Full Moon Ritual

Last night, I attended the Open Full Moon Ritual hosted by Hearthstone Community Church. For me, it was a red letter day; after all, this ritual had been inspired by one of my newsletter articles.

Now, I will admit walking into the ritual, I wasn't sure that I wanted any credit (blame) for the ritual. I had other people be inspired by my actions, people that I wish would not say that fact out loud.

There was also the fact that the current article arc is building towards what I plan on doing at the June 2010 OFM. There was a slight fear that I might have to revise part of my ritual plan. (I will be revising the ritual, for I am going to borrow an idea.)

Now, I wasn't too worried. I knew that there was a good chance that I would find the ritual acceptable considering who was doing it (Cynthia and Arynne). And they are more wicca oriented than I am; plus I am doing something that I have seen done publically before, so I figure that I was safe from both grief and revision.

What they came up with was very nice. They had a lot of interaction with the audience (attendees). And they came up with some new ways of doing stuff (I have never seen a circle cast that way before---I must remember that idea). My only complaint is the standard choppiness that all public rituals seem to have (you lose energy everytime that you stop to explain something---it is a standard problem that I have yet to discover a good solution to). Overall, I am very happy with the fact that I helped inspire that ritual.

Oh, and on the news front, Hearthstone Community Church is trying to make sure that next year (2011) that they present twelve different styles of ritual over the course of the year (which is actually the ideal, though for the last couple of years, there have been groups that have done more than one ritual per year). The slots will be filling up fast if this year is any indication. By the way, Bast Temple has already spoken for the June 2011 OFM.

March 26 2010 Open Full Moon Announcement

Here is the blurb advertising Friday's Open Full Moon Ritual, for those who do not recieve the newsletter. I am curious to see how this one turns out considering that I was the person who wrote the article that inspired the ritual.

Hearthstone meets the Friday before or the Friday of the Full Moon in the upstairs chapel at the First Unitarian Church at 14th and Lafayette in Denver. The church doors open at 7, and we like to start at 7:30. (We are NOT big proponents of Pagan Standard Time, but if there is weather related driving trouble or a problem on the freeway, we've been known to wait a bit longer.) This month's ritual is FRIDAY, March 26, 2010.


At the March 26th OFM, the ritual will give participants the experience of exercising their own will, through the use of words, to create the Circle, call the Quarters, invoke the Gods and manifest their will in magical circle using Words of Power. The ritual was created in response to the inspiring article on "The Use of Positive Statements in Ritual" in Hearthstone's January newsletter. Cynthia Lefevre and Arynne welcome you to join them in empowering ourselves and honoring the seed moon of March.




"If you ask me what I came into this world to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud."
--Emile Zola


Hearthstone Community Church, Inc.

Bringing the labels back

After seeing the feedback about removing the labels from my blog, I decided to bring them back. I guess that I was the only person that had a problem with how long my label list has gotten. All the feedback I got was in support of having the labels, and having them in an easily findable list on the side. So the labels are back. Yea! for labels.