Doing it in threes...

[triadruid]

Brought my leather-bound journal with me to work today. Ostensibly, this was to have been the journal I kept my ADF Dedicant's Program materials in; it has entries from October, 2001, and then a dry spell. Oops.

However, I *was* clever enough to write down in it some significant dates concerning my spiritual evolution:
Samhain 1996 (not 1997 as I'd previously thought) is when I decided for sure that I was pagan.
October 1999, I found Druidry to be a more precise expression of that belief.
Spring 2002, I joined Ritual Teams at Gaia Community...
2005, I (re)start my Dedicant's Program...

I'm fairly certain that I stopped being actively Christian about 1993 (when I left home and church was no longer just an escape from a bad situation), and in 1990 I was serving as an altar boy in a small Anglican church in San Antonio, if memory serves. I hope it doesn't take until 2008 for me to finish my DP, but we'll see... anyway, mildly amusing.

Finished Guns of the South last night this morning at about 2am; it was significantly better than I feared going into it. I actually picked up the wrong book (science fiction alternate-history of the Civil War, not How Few Remain, which is I believe straight alternate-history fiction and the start of his larger series, to boot). However after some initial misgivings of Johnny Reb with an AK-47, it came out very well overall. Not for everyone, certainly; if it helps, I suspect Harry Turtledove and Robert Jordan have very similar writing styles (I wouldn't be surprised if that was true, since RJ is a graduate of the Citadel or VMI, I am reminded).

Now, on to my next (3rd?) meeting of the day, and hopefully an end to those sorts of festivities. By which I mean meetings, not reading, or Druidry. *yawn*

Comments

The Good Master Jordan...

[wildnsquirrelly.livejournal.com]

Robert Jordan has been known to write under a few different pen names. He is a graduate of West Point. He's another Army boy, but don't hold that against us. He's also quite fond of historical fiction. Among the other books of his are the "Fallon" series that takes place during the revolutionary war. Unless I'm mistaken Regan O'Neil was his pen name for that one. Not a bad read. More sex than in the Wo'T series, but who's going to hold that against him. He's not nearly as bad as Heinlein about it.

Re: The Good Master Jordan...

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I thought he'd graduated from The Citadel, a distinction this former West Pointer is irrational about. An excerpt from what seems to be accurate biographical information:

"After Vietnam, he entered the Citadel, the military college of South Carolina, where he received a degree in physics. In retrospect, Robert Jordan feels that physics is not such an unusual background for a fantasy writer. 'You can't study quantum mechanics without a feel for fantasy,' he recently reflected, 'Schrodinger's Cat alone will kill any logical person dead.' After attaining his degree, he was employed by the Navy as a nuclear engineer. He was hospitalized for an injury which gave him a great deal of time to catch up on his reading. Jordan quickly ran out of satisfactory material, and in exasperation, thought he could probably write as well as the authors he had been reading."

Damnit...

[wildnsquirrelly.livejournal.com]

OK, I'm fucked up. He did graduate from the Citedel. Damn. It was the Bronze Star with Valor decoration that threw me off. It's usually the Army & Marines that get put in positions to earn one of those. Bugger.

Re: Damnit...

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

He was in the Army for Vietnam. He just entered The Citadel *after* that, is all.

Re: Damnit...

[wildnsquirrelly.livejournal.com]

Oh good. It's nice to know that I haven't completely stepped on my genitalia.

and amusingly enough...

[capriciouslass.livejournal.com]

When I hit this entry, it had 3 comments...

[zylch.livejournal.com]

I quite enjoy Harry Turtledove, both GotS and HFR (I'll admit, I haven't been able to keep up with reading the rest of that series, but it looks good.) HFR is much more straight alternate history: what if the orders for General Lee's Army of NOVA *hadn't* gotten lost at the start of a crucial campaign? What if they had reached their intended destination, instead of falling into Union hands? It's logically posssible (I don't know about probable) that things would have gone entirely differently; gods know the Union generals were still being seriously outmanouvered at that point in the war.

In other commentary, VMI = yeech.

[lexpendragon.livejournal.com]

Those Are Interesting Years ('93 and '96), Because A Statistically Surprising Amount Of People I Know Left Xtianity In 93, And Openly Used 'Pagan' In '96.

I Wonder What Was Going On In Those Years That Had Such A Wide Spread Effect.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

At a start, I'd have to say the birth of the World Wide Web had *something* to do with it...and in my case, 93 is when I graduated high school, so I was out from under a lot of other influences.

But there may be something more Mystickul...