Ginger reminded me of how much I love Jasper Fforde, so I thought I’d share his particularly quirky sense of humour with you:
If you prefer words, and haven’t read The Eyre Affair yet (and why haven’t you?), you can read an excerpt here. Caution: this is addictive for anyone who has a sense of humour and multiple degrees, or even a single Eng.Lit. degree. You’ve been warned.
Dinner’s being made, so I’m still noodling about on the Wondrous Wide World of Web.
In seeking an author web site I found a welcome page for a hosting service which included the following:
Disclaimer:
Almost all of these sites assume you, Gentle Reader, don’t have a problem with one, more, or all of the following, and moreover that you are of a legal age, height, weight, state of mind, state of reason, or state of confusion to view this content in your community, city, town, village, borough, township, county, region, ZIP or Postal Code, state, province, area or city code, time zone, country, continent, hemisphere, planet, solar system, galaxy, or parallel dimension to view the content therein. Not all views expressed are those of Mike and Lorrie, and I’m quite certain that views expressed by some of the sites’ administrators are not shared by others. Viva free speech!
Non-Christian religions:
Neither Lorrie nor Mike follow an Abrahamic faith. Few of their friends do either. If that bothers you, browse somewhere else. This means that sites hosted here are cheerfully pagan, and almost all are of a Teutonocentric bent. That means Germanic. That does emphatically not mean “racist prat.” Just so we’re clear.
Unusual spiritual practices:
Not only do we worship strange gods, but we wholly advocate doing odd things with them once you have Their attention. Magic, poring over quaint, dusty volumes of forgotten lore, several other things. Mind you, people who didn’t bail after the first one probably aren’t going to leave us here, but I thought you should know.
I like people who display healthy senses of humour. It’s good for the soul.
Apparently NASA had a sense of humour at one point too, but the proof’s been removed:
Told for the truth, guys. NASA actually has a document on what to do in case of a Viking Raid. Here at last is proof that NASA and the government does have a sense of humor after all! (Has now been moved from the original NASA site…updated as of 11/17/99) (Found on this list of barbarian literature, of all places. I’m looking for Diana Paxson links, okay?)
I check out Neil Gaiman’s log every couple of weeks or so, and this morning I found a dizzying off-hand reference that made my blood pressure soar (in a good way):
finished the last tidy on the pre-outline story draft for the TAM LIN film I’m doing with Brian and Wendy Froud and Sony Animation
Gah! Being (a) a Neil Gaiman fan, (b) a Froud fan, and (c) a huge fan of the Scottish tale of Tam Lin, I am quite naturally over the moon.
Peeps – unholy marshmallow creatures. Being more of a chocolate bunny girl myself, I didn’t encounter Peeps until three years ago when a co-worker introduced me to the original Peep Research page. Then, it was LOTR as peformed by the little critters: Lord of the Peeps: The Fellowship of the Peep. Now, at last, someone has done a Peep study that touches my very heart: A study of small fluffy creatures and library research.
Three States Aim to Outlaw Eco-Protests
What’s next – complete abolishment of free speech?
And at the other end of the spectrum, science has established the optimum method of shoe lacing. Thank goodness; I don’t know how much longer we could have gone on…
See what happens when I work at the computer? I blog as I find nifty stuff while I research. When I don’t work, I don’t blog. You can be thankful or disappointed, as you like.
I’m done now, though. I need another Advil or two; my neck hurts.
I’ve been sailing along through this research, and all of a sudden, I’m forced to take another break; the server which hosts the pages I’m working on is overloaded and has politely asked me to come back later. Well, it’s one way to make sure I take time to stretch and munch something, and pour myself some iced tea (I gave up on the hot kind; it kept cooling before I got to drink it).
On my travels about today, I came across this article on the growing pains of Asatru on the Asatru Folk Assembly site , the modern Norse reconstructionist religion, comparable to traditional Wicca being a reconstruction of Celtic-Britannic spirituality. It seems that they’re addressing many of the same problems the eclectic Pagan community is addressing: the evolution from a hearth/home-based religion to a public religion, the problem of clergy, the problem of congregation in a non-organised religion, and the issue of money. I found it interesting.
Found completely by accident while researching ISBNs on Amazon.com: a recommended reading list for Teutonic mythology and religion entitled So You’d Like to be a Heathen Lore Whore.
This list includes the classic phrase, “A lot of people have called Heathenry “Paganism with Homework”.
(If you’re into Norse/Teutonic lore, this reading list kicks some serious ass, by the way.)
It just caught my eye and appealed to my whimsical love of language and the study of world religion – a Heathen Lore Whore. Not necessarily the words I would have chosen, but apt in my case nonetheless…