Daily post

Sleep: 11:30pm to 3:30am, 5:30am to 7am, 9am to 11am

Pain: 8

Weather: rainy, 89F, 62% humidity, high 89F

Daily BPAL: JUDITH VICTORIOUS

Daily Tarot: Death, Reversed: Disaster, political upheaval, revolution, anarchy. Death of a political figure. Temporary stagnation. Tendency to inertia. Am I a horrible person for hoping the first part of this comes true on a national level?

Reading:
Granuaile: Ireland's Pirate Queen C. 1530-1603 by Anne Chambers
Awakening to Oneness by Arjuna Ardagh
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Douglas Brinkley
Satan Says by Sharon Olds

Deeksha

Does anyone have experience with this Spiritual Movement out of India centred on the Deeksha, or Oneness Blessing? I have a friend who is very taken by it, to the point that he's on a crusade to try to get the Unitarian Church to sponsor him to go over to India and take a course on it, and he's asked me to read the book and give my opinion. I'm very near the end and I have some conflicting views about it. I thought I'd ask if anyone here has any experiences they can share.

Definitions

blancmange: (n) 1. Formerly: A dish composed usually of fowl, but also of other meat, minced with cream, rice, almonds, sugar, eggs, etc.
2. Now: A sweetmeat made of dissolved isinglass or gelatine boiled with milk, etc., and forming an opaque white jelly; also a preparation of cornflour and milk, with flavouring substances.

isinglass: (n) 1. A firm whitish semitransparent substance (being a comparatively pure form of gelatin) obtained from the sounds or air-bladders of some fresh-water fishes, esp. the sturgeon; used in cookery for making jellies, etc., also for clarifying liquors, in the manufacture of glue, and for other purposes. Also extended to similar substances made from hides, hoofs, etc.
2. A name given to mica, from its resembling in appearance some kinds of isinglass.
3. A kind of moth.

adit: (n) 1. An approach; spec. a horizontal opening by which a mine is entered, or drained.
2. The action of approaching or coming to; access, entrance, approach.

cess: (n) 1. An assessment, tax, or levy: in various spec. applications; A rate levied by local authority and for local purposes. Now superseded in general English use by rate, but frequent dial.; in Ireland it is still the official term.
2. In Scotland: The land tax.
3. In India: A tax levied for a specific object; often with prefixed word defining the object.
4. In Ireland: The obligation to supply the soldiers and the household of the lord deputy with provisions at prices ‘assessed’ or fixed by government; hence loosely used for military exactions generally.
5. Assessment, valuation, estimation.

charabanc: (n) A kind of long and light vehicle with transverse seats looking forward. Also, a motor-coach.

pantechnicon: (n) 1. With capital initial. A building in Motcomb Street, London, constructed in 1830 to house the exhibition and sale of various arts and crafts, and subsequently used as a furniture storehouse.
2. Any building housing a collection of shops or stalls offering a range of (esp. exotic) merchandise; a bazaar.

dunlop: (n) The name of a parish in Ayrshire, Scotland, used (chiefly attrib.) to designate an unskimmed-milk cheese originally made there.

cachet: (n) 1. A seal. In a letter of cachet: a letter under the private seal of the French king, containing an order, often of exile or imprisonment.
2. Stamp, distinguishing mark, ‘sign manual’.
3. Done under letter of cachet; privy, secret.
4. A covering of paste, gelatine, or other digestible material, enclosing (nauseous) medicine;
5. Prestige, high status; the quality of being respected or admired.

metheglin: (n) A spiced or medicated variety of mead, originally esp. popular in Wales.

acarine: (n) An arachnid of the family Acaridæ; a mite.
(adj) Of, belonging, or due, to Acari or mites.

madrone: (n) Any of several arbutuses of western North America, handsome evergreen trees with dark lustrous green leaves, red berries, and hard wood; esp. (more fully Pacific madroño) Arbutus menziesii, found from British Columbia to California, and (more fully Mexican madroño) A. xalapensis, of the Mexican border.

peregrination: (n) 1. originally and chiefly Theological: The course of a person's life viewed originally as a temporary sojourn on earth and hence as a spiritual journey, esp. to heaven.
2. A pilgrimage; the activity of making pilgrimages.
3. The action or an act of travelling or going from place to place; a course of travel; a journey, esp. on foot. Also occasionally: an account of a journey
4. Travels; ramblings; random movements.
5. The spread of a plant, etc., into a country.
6. A place of rest or temporary residence; also the action or condition of living as a temporary resident in a foreign country; a sojourn.
7. In early use: a comprehensive or systematic investigation or study; a discourse. In later use: a literary wandering or digression.

dory: A small boat; esp. a small flat-bottomed boat used in sea-fisheries, in which to go out from a larger vessel to catch fish.

lighter: (n) A boat or vessel, usually a flat-bottomed barge, used in lightening or unloading (sometimes loading) ships that cannot be discharged (or loaded) at a wharf, etc., and for transporting goods of any kind, usually in a harbour.

50bookchallenge, 15000pages

Book #68 -- Sharon Olds, Satan Says, 72 pages.

This was one of my attempts to read more poetry, particularly more modern stuff. My impression of Olds is mixed. Some of her stuff was just wonderful -- brilliant. And others were just a little too crass even for me. Not to say that those weren't also brilliant, perhaps, but I must admit I have little appreciation for poetry about excrement fat men with flabby cocks. Still, I'm glad I read it. I could use more recommendations for modern poets to read.

Progress toward goals: 211/365 = 57.8%

Books: 68/100 = 68%

Pages: 22158/30000 = 73.9%

2007 Book List

cross-posted to 15000pages, 50bookchallenge, and gwynraven