Happy Birthday To Me...

Okay, technically it's no longer my birthday.

But since I'm off come 6:00am, I'm gonna celebrate another day. I've got some Castle Season 1 at home, and Netflix is supposed to be sending some Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip tomorrow, too. PLUS, my li'l bro scored us brewskies, so there we go! :)

My celebration today was as follows:

I got home to my friend Traci's b-day present: The Psychic Tarot Oracle Cards by John Holland. It's this GORGEOUS deck with a bit of a more positive bent than the well-known Rider-Waite deck. (If someone says "tarot cards", the images that immediately pop into your mind are, most likely, from the classic Rider-Waite deck.)

I'm a fan of divination tools, but I've never really explored tarot cards too deeply because the decks creep me out! I'm not kidding, I just get this very negative buzz off traditional tarot cards. I'm even talking about regular playing cards used as a tarot deck. I don't know why, it's just creepy to me.

But John Holland designed this deck that's completely not creepy! I knew there were different types of decks out there, and I've sort of browsed them from time to time online, but never really found a deck that I connected with.

But then my buddy Traci hooks me up! I think I can learn tarot from this deck.

Which is COOL!

Because, first of all, even Carl Jung recognized the value of using a divination tool in order to see a problem or situation from a new perspective. He specifically discussed tarot cards because they work with archetypal images and notions which connect with the subconscious. So whether you believe God (or one of His angels) manipulates the cards in order to speak to the person asking for advice (be it you or someone you're reading for), you can still see how the random images flipped over during a reading can give the mind something to free-associate upon, freeing up the querrant's creative problem-solving abilities and allowing them to, possibly, see a solution where they previously had seen an impassible problem.

But I'm not planning on setting up shop in the back of a New Age book store anytime soon. I'm excited about these cards because you can use them to help you create fiction! :D

This isn't an original idea. That is to say, it was original when whoever first thought of it thought of it, but I am not original in my usage of it.

You'll hear many writers talk about receiving stories, or characters or situations, as though they were a gift from somewhere. You'll hear writers talk about "the Muse". But whether you believe in an unseen force, or merely recognize the mind's own astounding and ineffable inner-workings, using tarot cards is an interesting -- and FUN -- way to battle Writer's Block! :D

But I'm not trying to be politically correct here, I TOTALLY believe in unseen intelligences helping us out in our physical journey! (I named my blog after the concept of wu wei, after all.) I'm a completely metaphysical cat. I have observed, over the last 2 or 3 years, that my intuition seems to be almost paranormal at times, and I'm hoping that learning my new tarot deck will hone these inexplicable insights that I sometimes get.

It happens, approximately, once in a blue moon now. So I'm hoping to increase that frequency to, maybe, once in a full moon, then maybe once every other weekend.

If I turn full-on psychic, I'll let you know. :)

Telepathically! :D

OOH! OOH!

I'm writing on something! It sort of combines EVERYTHING that I'm into, believe in, believe in the possibility of, or just read about!!! I don't know if it will grow into a short story, novella, a novel or anything at all, but it's fun writing it! If it grows into a novella or longer, I'm thinking of calling it 2012: The End of... some stuff...

Catchy, no? :)

Oh, right! I was telling you how I've celebrated my birthday so far...

Okay, so after I got to know my new tarot deck a bit, I watched Black Eyed Peas' new video "Meet Me Halfway" -- which was GORGEOUS! Then I went to sleep listening to a playlist made up of my favorite skits from (meaning, "the majority of") all -- seriously, ALL -- of Monty Python's albums!

Then I woke up and started listening to SModcast #95 -- which just happens to be EXCELLENT! Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier carried me through the processes of cooking breakfast and lunch, getting ready for work, and my drive to work. Once here, they kept me entertained as I got my night's coffee brewing, then I had to take a break. Then, after the heavy-lifting of my shift was complete and everyone left the station in mine and Pete's hands (on Thursday's I'm not the only one here overnight), Misters Smith and Mosier kept me laughing past midnight, carrying me through the end of my official 39th birthday.

By the way, "SModcats 95: RB07701" is worth listening to, if only for the "audiobook" version of Shootin' the Sh*t with Kevin Smith: The Best of the SModcast!!! I mean, I love the episode because I love SModcast, but the "audiobook" bit is brilliant!!! :D

So then, when SModcats wrapped up, I sat down and started typing this.

And now I'm off.

And I plan to be... well... incoherent from the time I get home from work until sometime late Friday night/early Saturday morning, so you won't be hearing from me too soon. (I try to stay away from the keyboard when I'm drinking. I get very, very happy, you see... And all these words from the farthest depths of my vocabulary surface and start hurling themselves at my fingertips... To say my prose becomes "whimsical" is sort of akin to saying that Grandma getting drunk and burtsing into a stip-tease is "sexy", ya know? I mean, Grandma may be in terrific shape for her age, but you still just don't wanna see that!)