Blessed (very early) Beltane to you! - and stuff I've discovered

Blessed (early) Beltane! I'm afraid I didn't think to post anything until now, my inspiration a little dried up for this blog even as my work on everything else increases tenfold. Did you know that despite all of my projects, I still find ways to be bored? I'd almost disappoint myself, if I wasn't so amazed at my ability to procrastinate.

In any case, Happy early Beltane! Although for those of you who are Christian, I might want to revise my statement and say Happy Easter to y'all instead. It was my perception that Beltane came first in history due to paganism and all, but eh. I'm a little iffy on the whole "this mythology and its set of ideals is original!" religion thing. Now pardon me while I go find a place to hide . . .

I'm afraid, as you might've noticed, I'm not religious at all. But I can tell you some stuff about Beltane - Beltane, in paganism, is a holiday celebrating the consummation of the Goddess and God and largely celebrates the fertility of the Goddess. It's celebrated in the middle of spring, actually, on April 30th or May 1st, so I'm pretty early with this explanation - but that being said, Easter follows a similar-ish theme with rebirth etc, seeing as the Goddess becomes pregnant with the God when she and the God unite (and with Jesus rising from the grave and all - I think. God, I don't keep up). It's an eternal cycle, of course, hence some of the imagery used. In any case, celebrations are done with feasts, rituals, May Poles, and the use of the cauldron in ceremonies/rituals. (Cunningham) Of course, this is what I can gather roughly, at least - I am not a practicing Wiccan, and I'm sure I'm not explaining it as well as a practicing Wiccan could. But that's the summary of my knowledge of it, although I'm totally going off of my book Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham. It's fantastic - if you're interested in looking up anything about Wicca or want a glimpse into a little bit of what paganism is about, I recommend you grab this. Wicca, of course, is just one of the religions in the grouping of paganism, but it's utterly fascinating.

...again, though, I'm not a Wiccan, nor am I a Christian. I'm an atheist - although I will admit that I have a slight favor to Wicca for a variety of reasons.

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So what am I up to these days? My vacation started on Friday and ends . . . tomorrow. Yeah, just four days for spring break, but whatever. As I said before, I amaze myself with my ability to make myself bored, so I don't think there's any point in complaining at all.

Anyways, I figured I'd just show off some of what I'm into right now, if only to give ya a glimpse into my world for a bit. After all, I do not live in a vacuum, and the last thing I want to do is make this blog all about me. Besides, my inspiration comes from outside of me, too.

(Side note - is this seriously a plus size model? Google is insisting so. She really doesn't look it at all . . . maybe it's the angle, but I dunno. Freaking society!)

First off, this came into my feed this afternoon, although I think I caught it a bit late (three days - obviously!). I started watching Craving's blog mainly so I could keep track of the site, since their stuff looks pretty cool and I would not mind having them in the back of my mind once I get a bank account of my own and can more reliably buy stuff from the internet . . . once I have the money, granted. And yes, I am into this stuff! (Don't ask. I'm older than eighteen, I'm coolio with this stuff at this point.)

I nabbed an imgur post in the last two weeks and have had it in my bookmarks ever since. It's called "25 of the greatest Fantasy books ever written". As a person who enjoys writing and reading fantasy, this is a list I was really excited to find! Unfortunately, I haven't read many of the great works of fantasy yet (J.R.R. Tolkien, I'm sorry to make you roll in your grave a little), but hey - maybe this list can help me get started. After all, there's no excuse for me to wait! . . . besides all of the romance and YA books I keep finding . . . *cough*

I'm sort of embarrassed to share this one mostly because it's not the stuff I usually listen to, but despite the outrageous (and sort of sexist?) lyrics, it's actually really catchy. And of course, I can't help but fantasize about my characters while I listen. Nothing naughty! Just some fight scenes and stuff, because my mind works in fun ways.

And lastly - this is mine! It's a piece I drew and painted using my tablet as part of a persistence project for my Honors Sem. class. It took me at least five hours to finish and an hour to write the accompanying essay, but it's pretty fantastic to look at, at least from my point of view . . . there are obvious flaws (mitten hands! MITTEN HANDS!), but overall, it's not bad for being done entirely on my tablet. My tablet and I agree to disagree, so working with it can be a bit of a pain, but it's still holding up, so I'm content. Gotta love doing things right, too!

That's all I really have to share, then. Sorry to get a little rant-y, but I haven't posted in a few days. Gotta keep up, darnit . . . just keep rolling with the waves . . .