Hi! You may know me as woodburner. Or hey, you may not. Anyway, this is a mostly open journal - subscribe/unsubscribe at will, no need to ask permission. :)

I'm offering fairy tale flash fiction here and incense here.

Leave it to Ursula Vernon to make an epically hilarious post out of rage-inducing idiocy - "Stuff I Should Not Do In The Morning: Read articles about how men's rights groups are getting pissed because women's rights groups are going to Haiti to offer aid to vulnerable women."

My favorite bits:

"Leaving aside that apparently the notion of "aiding women" has been conflated in these people's minds as 'lesbian paratroopers with pink machine guns will be kicking away the hands of dying men while women are showered with maxi-pads, chocolate, and aromatherapy candles'..."

Also:

"The outrage of a gentlemen at "Men's News Daily" that apparently men and boys didn't deserve "hygiene supplies" gave me one of the only laughs in this whole business. Oh, honey....If you really really want to distribute tampons to the poor tampon-less men of Haiti, I will buy you a case out of my own pocket."

My least favorite part? Learning that rape was not made a criminal act in Haiti until 2005. 2005. Holy crap nuggets on a cracker, I can't even...



RELATEDLY!

I am offering a bundle of custom-made incense over on help_haiti - my thread is here.

(Btw, that was supposed to say "e.g.", not "i.e."; now it kind of sounds like I'm saying you have to choose between those three things instead of giving those three things as an example, s-sob.)

Augh, I hate this whole not posting thing. IT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE I DON'T EXIST. I gotta get back into the rhythm.

Anxiety is way out of hand, my hair is falling out (in tufts! JESUS CHRIST, my hair has gotten so thin and limp all in the space of about a month!), and I just know going to the doctor is going to result in yet another "uuuh we dunno" and they'll send me home without any other leads to follow. Otoh, I have an actual solid physical symptom presenting itself in an observable way? Maybe that will put a fire under their asses?

Also I have to go for an MRI in Feb. to make sure my spine is still okay. Uneasy. EXTREMELY UNEASY. The thought that it might not be scares the hell out of me, because as much hell as my last surgery was, I am sure, as perpetually ill as I am now, that it would be 10 times worse if I had to do it again.

...

Um, anyway. I need some money for incense making supplies. Therefore! Tarot reading sale. 5 slots open, $6.50 a pop, done through email. Comment and I'll give you my paypal email. You can send me your query with your payment or separately to my main email (branewurms at suddenlink dot net).

General info: I usually use a star-shaped, 8 card spread that I modified to meet my own tendency of reading towards a "problem solving" angle, but you can ask just about anything and I can find or modify a layout for it. (Well, you can't ask what the winning lottery number is going to be, har har.) Please note that it may take up to a week for me to get back to you (usually it's less, but I'm a slow reader and tend to ruminate forever and a day so I like to play it safe).

1. taken
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Also, just to get a general idea here, who might be interested in purchasing incense from me if I make a largish batch? Each bundle would likely be 15-20 sticks, around 4" long, and I'd charge between 4 and 6 dollars a bundle. The scent will be very frankincense-y, with sandalwood and cedar, spice, and labdanum - a very bright and warm scent. They will probably not be packaged in any fancy way since I'm still struggling to find feasible packaging options.

Oh, and in case you wondered what became of the incense poo (because I'm sure you were all just dying to know):



The little box on the left is what Dave made to put them in. Our printer decided to run out of yellow on the last box. RAGE.

I packaged them in plain brown boxes with red and green rafia bows.



Aren't they cute? ♥ Dave's sisters seemed to be impressed. I'm pleased with my little X-mas project. (Though not with my printer. :E)



Our tree! My god, the presents look ridiculous, it looks like we're rich or something. (And it looks like a tissue factory had a catastrophic explosion there in the back.) Man, my whole theory of "buy lots of inexpensive things because people have more fun opening more presents"? DOWNSIDE! The wrapping supplies end up costing almost as much as the presents! Not to mention wrapping that many things was exhausting.

On the other hand, I am awesome at finding deals. I got some fairly nice things for everyone and I think the only person I spent more than 15 bucks on was my mom. (Minus candy-making and wrapping supplies, of course.) I got a 20 dollar scone mix for literally the cost of sales tax! (Although I somehow still felt like I was getting ripped off, because seriously? 20 dollars? For a little bag of scone mix? SERIOUSLY? It called itself "extra-special". All I can say is, you damn well better be "extra-special".)

I AM SO EXHAUSTED. Next year: ALL ONLINE SHOPPING. I swear to God.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having/has had a nice holiday season!