Ansuz

More Japan trip links

These are mostly collected for my own reference, so that I can quickly find them during my trip, but they may be of interest to readers as well. Inclusion of a site on this list (or on the linked maps) doesn't necessarily mean that I will visit it - some I'm just recording for reference, and my itinerary will be at least partly decided spur-of-the-moment. See also my earlier posting. I will probably continue updating this entry rather than writing new entries for additional links; but reports when I'm actually on my trip will go in new entries.

Media from Toronto trip

Now online: photo gallery, PDF presentation slides, and MP3 audio recording of my talk from my recent Toronto trip.

Shrine links

In September I'm going to Japan for three weeks, and one of the things I'm planning to do there is visit Shinto shrines. Here are some links on that, which may be of interest to Western pagans among my readers.

"Grimoire" fonts

Here's a project that provides, among other things, free vector fonts of magical glyphs from the Lesser and Greater Keys of Solomon. I found it by way of sourceforge.jp's flagging it as a similar project to Tsukurimashou.

Chinese Seal Script fonts

Here's a page of Chinese fonts including a few for the Seal Script. Could come in handy...

Typographical history of the TTC

Here's a Web log article, with several links and a couple of posters for sale, on something I've wondered about before: the unique typeface used for station names and some other signage on the TTC.

Of never feeling hot

This is a good article: Of never feeling hot. It's not written in the words I would use, but that may be a good thing, because when I write about this topic myself, I'm perennially misinterpreted. Thanks Paul for the link.

Four Web logs about publishing

It's very easy to get into believing in "Be the change you want to see in the world." I'd really like to think that that works; I've even preached that world view to others, and today I'm a little bit ashamed of having done so. Make approaches and you will be approached. Link to others' Web logs, and others will link to yours - not the individuals you linked to, in incestuous tit-for-tat, but more generally as part of a positive-sum reputation economy where the law of attraction brings reputation from third parties to those who give it freely. As I've written before, it doesn't work. Thirteen years of my HTTP logs bear out that it doesn't matter how much you give with a Web site, it'll never mean you're allowed to expect anything. Nonetheless, I'm going to post some links here for my favourite Web logs related to books and publishing.

Astrology of Eris

A reader sent me this link on "The Astrological Eris" and I thought it was quite interesting both from an astrological and mythological point of view - and it's serious, with not a fnord to be seen. I haven't done much thought or research on the astrological implications of 136199 Eris except to propose the Golden Apple as symbol; as this commentator points out, it has a very long orbit and so will appear in pretty much the same location in the charts of anyone alive today. This is a sign of the times rather than (for most of us) a personal influence. Signs of the times are important too, though, and his thoughts on envy, the connection with Chiron, and allergies, all seem interesting to me. Also, one of the religious groups I'm involved with is planning an event in honour of, among others, Ares the brother of Eris; so it is well to do the homework.

From the article:

One thing, however, that cheers me about Eris is that its difficult associations will force astrologers to take a more cautious view of the new planet's benefits. It's traditional for newly-discovered heavenly bodies to be hailed by the woolier end of the astrological community as symbols of spiritual enlightenment, universal harmony, and other New Age bromides. Even Chiron, who has one of the saddest and most pessimistically pragmatic stories in myth, full of irreversible loss and chronic pain, was seen in some quarters as the astrological poster-boy for 'healing' in the tofu-and-shamanic-drumming sense.

Tell 'em, brother!

More on removing the desktop cashew in KDE4

KDE4 introduced a stupid useless icon that you can't get rid of, in the upper right corner of the desktop. The developer of the relevant code has adamantly refused to introduce any possibility of making it optional; but a civic-minded third party created the "I Hate the Cashew!" "plasmoid" to make it go away. That's all well and good.

The bad news is that "I Hate the Cashew" is no longer maintained, and doesn't work anymore with the current version of KDE, 4.5.1 as I write this. The good news is that with some digging, I found a solution in a Web log comment from someone using the name "Newar," and that works. The trick: you can now move the cashew to your choice of corner. So move the panel out of the way temporarily (for instance to the left edge of the screen), move the cashew to a corner that will be covered by the panel (lower right), and then move the panel back to its usual location. The cashew is still theoretically there, but at least it's no longer all up in your face. Thank you, Newar!

Satoshi Kon, 1963-2010

I was saddened to hear that my favourite anime director, Satoshi Kon, died last week. The link is to a goodbye letter he left behind.