being_libran dafremen One of the awful things about being Libran, (and many Librans in the room will nod their heads, no doubt, when they read this), is being surrounded by people who constantly ask for advice that they never take. These are the people who know perfectly well that you've thought it out, they know that you are trying to help them. But for some ungawdly reason, they consistently choose to disregard all reasonable opinions and head off to slay the consequences. Then when they come back..beaten, they give you a look. The "don't-say-I-told-you-so" look. Now...here's a real something to sink your teeth into. Imagine these same hapless souls telling YOU to disregard your own advice, because theirs is better. ?!??! Sigh. Being Libran... 050818 ... unhinged that's me and my best friend daf. we have a mutual friend in our past but i no longer speak to him. i haven't for years. but she was always closer to him. so for a long time i just listened to her problems with him and cringed. but i've been trying to convince her for over a year to just stop talking to him and she won't. it's finally gotten to the point that i told her i don't want to hear about it anymore cause i've told her a million times she just needs to stop talking to him because he's a dick. and he continually proves my point but she won't stop talking to him. especially because when me and him got into the fight that resulted in us not speaking anymore he tried to get her in the middle of it and i didn't talk to her for three months as a result. *sigh* is being surrounded constantly by drama a libran characterstic? 050818 ... dafremen No. it is a characteristic of many of those who are NOT Libran. Librans are pretty pleasant little f*ckers to be around...if you aren't there to upset the harmony. Catch a Libran when folx get em stirred up...better yet, don't. We won't stop saying things to you. And really CUTTING things too. Sarcasm at its most devastating and to-the-bone true most of the time. (Shudder) 050819 ... unhinged unfortunately i think my unlibran characteristic of internalizing everything is one of my biggest faults. although i have gotten better at releasing my aggressions on the correct people in the past couple of years. mostly, i used to leave my sarcasm to myself. but i find myself letting my inner dialogue out of the bag much more often. funny example of that: i was in my music history seminar last semester. my prof was an awesome lady who treated us masters students more as equals than students so the class was generally a good time even though the topic of baroque opera was a little .... not up my alley to say the least. she was giving some of the low brass players in the back of the room shit about how their brains were inversely proportioned to the size of their instruments or something along those lines. i always sat in the front row and i turned to the kid next to me and said 'just because their instruments are big doesn't mean they know how to use them' or something like that not thinking our prof heard me and all of a sudden she started cracking up and it distracted the class for like 2 minutes. honestly, i think that incident helped my grade a little bit. yeah, my sarcasm has gotten me labeled as a bitch many times. 050819 ... unhinged is hard to do when you can't seem to balance what people want out of you with what you need from them 050822 ... The Heretic This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behavior, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whoremaster man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! My father compounded with my mother under the dragon's tail; and my nativity was under Ursa major; so that it follows, I am rough and lecherous. Tut, I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. Edmund - King Lear 050823 ... dafremen King Lear obviously had NO understanding of astrology (at least this fictional version didnt) not the sort that could have afforded him a better understanding of how misguided that statement was, anyway Astrology doesn't say a blessed thing about the planets compelling us to do things. Rather it describes natural tendencies and common traits that have manifested themselves in people throughout the ages. Astrology teaches that there are certain times and circumstances that are more favorable to certain activities. More to the point, however, astrology teaches ABSOLUTELY that bad decisions lead to appropriate corrective consequences and likewise good decisions lead to beneficial consequences. It's pretty straightforward, there's not a whole lot of mumbo jumbo to it once you take it out of the hands of the "marginally inclined." It's a real straightforward idea: There are influences out there that are so complex and abstract...that to describe them in words is very difficult, would and has taken VOLUMES to do. Each influence defines a place in the natural cycle..and can best be described with descriptive symbols related to everyday objects that most people can relate to (or could have back in the times when the symbols were chosen.) This is why both the turtle and the crab have been used as the symbol for Cancer. Think of the traits those two creatures share, and you'll have a better understanding of Cancerian nature. The symbol ecompasses many of the traits as a sort of memory cue to help the would-be astrologer recall what he has learned about that sign through observation. What a shame that so many intelligent people have been taken in by the dirth of misinformation out there. Even good old Will Shakespeare...sigh 050823 ... The Heretic EDMUND WAS LEAR'S BASTARD SON. I THINK YOUR INTERPRETATION OF THE TEXT IS NARROW. HE IS COMMENTING ON THE DISCIPLINE AS A WHOLE. GETTING HUNG UP ON TECHNICALITIES MISSES THE POINT. WE MAKE OUR OWN LUCK. THE INFLUENCES OF A GREATER COSMOLOGY ARE BACKGROUND NOISE, AND HAVE NO RELEVANCE IN OUR LIVES IS WHAT I BELIEVE HIS WORDS MEAN. DO YOU ALSO READ PALMS, ENTRAILS, TEA LEAVES AND AVOID BLACK CATS? DON'T FORGET YOUR GARLIC. 050823 ... neesh GLOUCESTER: These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us: though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects (I.ii) KENT: It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions (IV.iii Quarto) oh now i want to read the play again! what i love about lear is that it refuses to draw conclusions, it only offers opinions, differing opinions at that, depending on the character and circumstance (like the fool's analysis of loyalty, so intricate, so complex, so inconclusive). and incidentally edmund shows some pretty clear hints of insanity, and i wouldn't trust him hold any opinion or say anything that isn't self-serving. 050823 ... neesh also, king lear was only ever a fictional king, he didn't exist. unlike king edmund, who was succeeded by king edgar. 050823 ... The Heretic I BELIEVE HIM TO BE AN ARCHETYPICAL EVERYMAN, AN OUTSIDER WHO'S OPINION IS NOT VALUED. AS A CONSEQUENCE THE AUTHOR IS ABLE TO MAKE UNPOPULAR STATEMENTS, BUT ONES WHICH NEED TO BE AIRED. I IMAGINE HIM TO BE VERY CLOSE TO THE BARDS OWN HEART. I WILL CONCEDE THAT THIS IS AN INTERPRETATION. I HAVE NO SUPPORTING EVIDENCE TO BOLSTER THESE CLAIMS. I WOULD LIKE TO IMAGINE THAT WILL'S FORMIDABLE INTELLIGENCE WOULD NOT PERMIT ANOTHER CONCLUSION. I AM, HOWEVER, NOT AN AUTHORITY ON THE SUBJECT OF THE BARD. IN THE END, I CAN ONLY PROJECT RATIONALISM ONTO THOSE I HOLD IN ESTEEM AND WONDER. 050823 ... neesh i feel he lacks the basic morals to be considered an everyman, but this is my interpretation, because i believe that people have morals. it's a very interesting idea, heretic, a clever way for him to reveal harsh truths, if that's what they are. and in the end all a critic can really do is impose their own understanding of life onto a text (though sometimes that might mean changing one's understanding of life), as you have done in only selecting to believe the character who says what you believe. the gods are cursed and sworn by, their existence is mocked, is bitterly expressed ("like flies to wanton boys are we to th'gods; they kill us for their sport"), while their is a lot of mute christianity in edmund and cordelia, whom also appears like a white witch in one scene. but there is no external influence on the world of king lear; not even where opinion shapes actions, like in hamlet (he doesn't kill his uncle because he's in prayer; he doesn't commit suicide for fear of the afterlife; it makes an interesting comparison with notions of patricide and suicide in lear, where there is no such religious or belief-based imposition, save the belief that life itself is sacred, ultimately, along with the opinion that life is meaningless and empty, ultimately. again, there is no conclusion drawn, only a lot of ideas.). 050823 ... unhinged king lear is my favorite shakespearean (sp?) tragedy you know what, in some ways i think my astrology is shit because i'm supposed to be a scale but most times i'm so horridly out of balance that that just doesn't make any fucking sense. 050823 ... neesh i always thought of it as librans craving balance, rather than being balanced. they force it, or they panic because they're not it, but it's always about balance. and in time they do just level out, or at least my sister and her husband did. i don't know if my two best friend librans ever will, but they're cusp virgo, surely one of the most painful mixes to be, trying to hold yourself together but always tearing yourself apart. 050823 ... neesh and yeah, without doubt my favourite play. 050823 ... unhinged gemini / cancer cusp is pretty painful too, although i guess any cusp has it's difficulties 050823 ... dafremen I'm just enjoying the way this blathe is taking shape. Ahh blather. 050823 ... blather semantics check it's spelled "dearth" and you meant glut. nice slip, though. "a dirth of misinformation," indeed. and you're doing a great job of loading us full of it. as well as pinch hitting for bsc. 050823 ... dafremen I'll misspell "their" when i mean "they're" alot. And I'll say a glut when I mean a scarcity occasionally too. Sometimes there is effective communication in spite of my poor writing. Sometimes there is not. I'm glad you understood my meaning and that the point was communicated effectively to you, no thanks to me. Now is there a reason you have a sneer and a touch of drool on the corner of your mouth? Did I miss something? Punch? Pie? 050827 what's it to you? who go blather from