Sendo Shin, the Supreme of the House

So I found myself becoming part of the team that gathers content for the Occult.Digital.Mobilization about a month back.  This isn't exactly a small feat, given that I was now expected to find occult- and esoteric-related material elsewhere, check for duplication with already included material, and then shuttle that material across the Internet - again - to whomever was preparing the torrents for release.  Luckily, I had already gotten somewhat of a head start, having been interested in the occult for somewhat longer than I had actually been participating in the project.

The fruits of my own labor, as well as that of several others (Frater_NS, ankh_f_n_khonsu, and Khephra specifically; forum names used here in accordance with privacy concerns) is now available - in three of four parts.  You can get the first here, the second here, and the third here.  The other part is soon to follow, in roughly four days, depending on how quickly the third part becomes seeded.

A bit about the DigiMob, as it's called for short, is probably in order.  The largest pool of information on what the project is all about can be found at the DigiMob Forums.  For those short on time (or link-clicking ability), I'll attempt to sum things up real quick-like.  The DigiMob is a project dedicated to students of the occult.  What this means is that we are a small group of people trying to make things easy for a somewhat larger, though still small, group of people.  Right now, it is still somewhat difficult to find certain esoteric and occult references, either in print or online.  The goal of the project is to make things more easily accessible to students of the occult the world over.  We've already built up an impressive library.  But even with all that we've still barely scratched the surface.

So who qualifies as a "student of the occult"?  Definitions may vary somewhat, but to me, it is anyone who is interested in the workings and dealings of those who have, do, and will practice occult/esoteric works - for whatever reasons.  It may be a journalist interested in the true meanings and goings-on of occult practitioners - rather unlike the vast majority of early reporting on voudou in the Haiti earthquake aftermath.  It may be an author gathering reference material for his/her next novel.  It may be an individual who him/herself practices, or wishes to practice, occult/esoteric works.  It may be a relative trying to get a better understanding of what, exactly, the previous individual has gotten themselves into.  It may be a politician attempting to better understand his/her constituents.  It might even be authorities in established orders or religious organizations trying to see what their competition is up to, whether to counter their effects or to replicate them.  It is hard to limit exactly who qualifies as a student of the occult, and so I don't try to.  The best way to learn about the occult, of course, is to practice what you learn from books and videos and even friends, so that you can learn how the practitioner feels as they go about their works.  But even if you do not intend to practice anything you encounter, you will at least come away with a more informed idea of who, exactly, practitioners of the esoteric/occult arts really are.  And that is wisdom *ALL* should seek.

I'm not trying to push this on anyone, despite my emphasis on my own feelings of the importance of occult study.  I'm merely attempting to shed some light on a dark corner, and open people's eyes to the reality versus the reputation.  Occult simply means hidden.  The DigiMob is simply de-occulting the occult.  Want to know more?  Check it out for yourself.

- Sen

A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself.
B. Tag seven people to do the same.
C. Do not tag the person who tagged you or say that you tag "whoever wants to do it."

1 - Unless I'm at work, I'm reasonably open about the fact that I am bisexual.
2 - I knew I was bi before it became popular - mostly by virtue of my own gender being mutable for the majority of my life.
3 - I am biologically human, but my consciousness (whatever form a being exists in when traveling astrally) is that of a dragon.
4 - My astral form is linked to two physical ones - the human one I currently use for everything, and the dragon form which is my own body.
5 - My dragon body has shape-shifting abilities, and has been around for billions of years.
6 - Because of my origins, I seem to be somehow disconnected from Earth's esoteric and mystical forces, as well as those with which I am more familiar.
7 - Despite this fact, I am deeply interested in understanding various forms of Earth "magic", and have become heavily involved with the Occult.Digital.Mobilization, writing a good deal of PHP to make the project easier to use and perpetuate.

by

7 people what haven't done it yet.  I haven't been around to find out either way...  :(

On forgetfulness, I actually forgot about LJ itself until just recently...  :(  Working on that.  Would be easier if I didn't have to upgrade my account to get text notifications from the site when stuff happens here...

- Sen

Well poo-flinging!  I haven't been around here for over a year now!  Obviously I'm still alive, I guess.  >.=.>

Quick sorta-update: since leaving Hawaii for home in Idaho, I have moved twice.  Home was Mom and Dad's place for about a month, then I moved (the first time) across town with some friends who needed my government paychecks to keep their place.  During this time I was in negotiations with the US Naval Reserve to affiliate with them for some extra cash and a retirement plan that doesn't suck.  The idea was to be in the Reserves the moment my Active Duty time was officially up.  Finally, in March, the paperwork was finished.  The wait for my affiliation bonus commenced.  I missed a drill in April so I could perform a wedding ceremony for a couple of friends of mine locally, then went to Salt Lake City (the closest drilling station for Naval Reservists to where I live) for the first time in May.  I'd been to SLC before, mind; by for the first time I mean the first time for work.  Upon my return home I was introduced to one of my roommate's old friends.  They had been involved in a sort of "falling out" a few years prior and my roommate had just finally realized it was for a stupid reason (namely said roommate's ex-boyfriend, who wasn't the best kind of guy for her in any sense of the phrase...).  About a week later, my roommate's friend and I were dating.  Not too long after, I finally found a job in the civilian sector.  My job was to refill (and rebuild, if needed) toner cartridges for printers and copiers and the like.  It was a pretty cool job, all in all, but it didn't end up lasting long.  There wasn't enough work for me, so I was let go.  Around this time I was finishing the tasks required to get myself into school using the Post-911 GI Bill.  So my focus shifted to school instead.  But alas, not for as long as I would have liked.  About a week more than a month ago, we were informed that we had to move out.  The landlord had opted not to renew our lease.  So my focus shifted to finding a place to live.  We found the new place in about a week, and with the help of family, moved in barely a week before the lease expired.  I'm still certain that a few things got left behind accidentally.  At any rate, I should mention that my roommates and I parted ways with the move - they moved closer to his work (the roommate whose ex-boyfriend had caused issues with my then-girlfriend had already met someone better by the time I moved back home), and I moved a tad closer to the school.  But I'm not living here alone - Tami (that's the name of the friend my roommate introduced me to) came with me.  Before the move was completed, however, plans were put in motion for Tami and I to be married.  They were accelerated plans for sure; Tami is my "then-girlfriend" above because the ceremony was held two weeks ago on 23 Oct.  She's now my wife.  ^.=.^

So I think that's about everything important from my end.  Feel free to request more details, and be sure to check my DeviantArt page in case I already answered your questions there!

- Sen

Just a heads up that tomorrow afternoon/evening I will be in the process of shutting down my entire command center, with the exception of Lappy.  This means that AWSWAN will be going offline.  The reason for this is my impending move back to the "mainland States" at the end of this week.  I will be attempting to ship Force-Majure (the server box) to my address in Idaho Falls - separately from the rest of my stuff.  Hopefully, by paying to send the server home separately, I can get it back online within a week or two, as opposed to waiting for it to show up for a month and a half before I can begin to bring it back online.

I will attempt to maintain a bit of online presence in the meantime, via Lappy.  Thanks for your patience and understanding.  And of course, may the Winds guide you in your Journey.

- Sen

Full details are available on my site, so I won't reproduce them here.  Just navigate over to awswan.com and read the first post on the front page.

Thanks for your time!

- Sen

(CROSS-POSTED FROM DEVIANTART)

Seems that because I'm almost out of the Navy (six months, tops), I can't get a loan. It's a $4000 loan. But I'm not going to be in the military long enough to pay for it, regardless of the fact that I'll be working elsewhere just about the moment I get out of the Navy.

The loan is for a car. More accurately, $3000 of it is for a car. The other $1000 was for other expenses, but I didn't get it either, nor do I expect to. Indeed, I don't even expect to get the $3000 for the car.

Here's the catch, though, and the reason I'm livid. The title is already in my name. That means I'm responsible to pay for the vehicle. I can't just not buy it. So where am I going to come up with the $3000? As of right now, I'm going to have to sell the car to someone else. I've become a middle man, all because I don't want to reenlist. Another fine example of the Navy screwing me over.

Using the car as a collateral restricts me from getting a six month loan, which automatically means it would be denied, leaving me at square one. What makes this whole thing worse is that the guy I'm buying it from leaves tomorrow afternoon. I have about that long to sell the car to someone else.

Hooray. My life is so awesome.

- Sen

(CROSS-POSTED FROM DEVIANTART)

I never mentioned this when I discovered it, but it turns out that it WASN'T a bad SATA card after all.  (see previous LJ entries for more details on that one...)  Indeed, it seems that it was merely that Force Majure's PSU is running at its limits with all the other random hardware in there - no less than six drives running simultaneously takes a bit of oomph, not to mention the CPU and the network stuff.  As a result, it merely couldn't handle the extra draw of an extra card.  Case solved, though it does limit the number of drives I can use in the server at once.  But then again, if it doesn't have the power for the extra card, powering ANOTHER drive would probably kill the poor thing.  Solution?  Buy a new, more powerful PSU.  And an add-on PSU to provide a little extra juice.

Of course, none of this will actually happen until I get a new place to put Force Majure so that it can provide its services to the 'net at large once more.  After all, no power is getting to the machine at ALL until then anyway, so what's the point?

But yeah, that's the update on that.  More later if I'm bored enough and have the Internet access.

- Sen

Anyone who reads my devART journals or the front page of my website is already aware that I have been kicked out of my barracks room.  However, as of last report, they had forgotten they were going to do it, and so I got no eviction date, and it went unenforced.  Now that has changed.  I got an eviction date.  I have until April 2.  I expect to move out the 29-30 of March.

Still not sure where I'm going to put all of my stuff.  Chances are I'll have to mail it back home to be placed in my storage unit there (it's been paid until the beginning of next year already), but I might find a unit here close to base and store a few things there instead - things I might want quick and easy access to.

As for where I'll be sleeping...  I can either sleep on the ship, or I can try to find someplace else on a night-by-night basis.  I loathe the ship.  I may end up sleeping in the storage unit, if I get one.  Though I'm sure that's frowned on, so I may not be able to pull that off.  So it looks like I may as well get used to sleeping on a shelf again.

Also, my school decided I owe them $2354.42 (USD) for classes I never actually took.  Since the government only pays for classes you PASS, this money has to come right out of my already-empty pocket.  Lucky me.

This journal entry has a decidedly dark tone to it.  I apologize, but I did warn everyone involved that updates would be few and rare.  Anyone with ties to AWSWAN, you might want to start preparing to not have those ties now.  The server goes down when I move out, as I won't have any way to keep it online at that point.

I hope you enjoy your own lives far more than I will mine in the coming months.  As always, may the Winds guide you in your Journey.

- Sen

OK, it wasn't the video card causing problems. It was a bad SATA card. So I've put the Radeon 7200 back in until it really does die, if that ever actually happens. <3 working server!

Also, happy (albeit belated) birthdays to drachenhebron and ridayah - hope you two had fun!

I fly back to Hawaii in about 8 hours, so I should probably get a bit of sleep...  >.=.>

- Sen

Should you be MALE or FEMALE?* created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Either You brain is neither specifically male, nor female in the way you perceive your surroundings. As bad as this may sound to some, it can easily mean that you are capable of combining both gender aspects to your advantage. Rather than being genderless you are possibly able think freely. This does not mean that you are bisexual or androgynous or indecisive, but it might. Either 79% Female 54% Male 46% Neither 43%

OK, so here's a microupdate, since AWSWAN will be offline until Friday at least.

First off, a happy belated birfdae to zyleeth. Second, a happy one-day-early birfdae to wingless_kitty. Hope they're happy ones!

Secondly, AWSWAN is offline. At first it was due to issues with my ISP and the Navy. Longish story. It'll be on AWSWAN when I get it back up. Once I fixed the ISP issues and regained my Intarwebz connection, the server's video card stopped working. This is a rather nice Radeon 7200 I've had for several years, so it's had a good life, but I wasn't quite ready to see it go. Now I'm trying to find a replacement card that I can actually afford. I want to avoid ordering online, but it might be cheaper and faster that way - especially since I don't need anything special or powerful or anything. I only need it so the BIOS will stop complaining and let the computer boot. Hooray for the Navy.

That's about it. As I said, microupdate. Well, for me anyway. Take care, and let the Winds guide you in your Journeys, dernit!

- Sen

http://awswan.com/ is back up.

Go see. Go enjoy. Go say stuff.

- Sen

Your brain: 60% interpersonal, 40% visual, 100% verbal, and 200% mathematical!

Congratulations on being 400% smart! Actually, on my test, everyone is. The above score breaks down what kind of thinking you most enjoy doing. A score above 100% means you use that kind of thinking more than average, and a score below 100% means you use it less. It says nothing about how good you are at any one, just how interested you are in each, relatively. A substantial difference in scores between two people means, conclusively, that they are different kinds of thinkers. Matching Summary: Each of us has different tastes. Still, I offer the following advice, which I think is obvious: Don't date someone if your interpersonal percentages differ by more than 80%. Don't be friends with someone if your verbal percentages differ by more than 100%. Don't have sex with someone if their math percentage is over 200%.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on interpersonal You scored higher than 99% on visual You scored higher than 99% on verbal You scored higher than 99% on mathematical

Link: The 4-Variable IQ Test written by chriscoyne on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Just to prove that it's legit.

- Sen

Yeah, I took it. Funny result, though. Also:

You scored as Faerie. Faerie: Aren't you a cute little flying person? Faeries are earth spirits. They live among each element completely hidden. They have cousins called Pixies. Pixies however, are very mischevious. They enjoy tormenting other creatures for fun. Little pranksters.. I hope you never meet one. Pixies have a bad reputation for finding a creature and clinging to them until death. Faeries can be somewhat close to a Pixie, but mostly they are loving, playful, and carry with them a child-like enthusiasm for life. Hide among the pedals of a Daisy, you are a Faerie. </td> Angel 100% Faerie 100% Mermaid 84% Dragon 58% WereWolf 50% Demon 0% What Mythological Creature are you? (Cool Pics!) created with QuizFarm.com

And of course, my alternate for the tiebreaker (since I prefer BOTH options, not one or the other, thank you very much!) would be:

You scored as Angel. Angel: Angels are the guardians of all things, from the smallest ant to the tallest tree. They give inspiration, love, hope, and positive emotion. They live among humans without being seen. They are the good in all things, and if you feel alone, don't fear. They are always watching. Often times they merely stand by, whispering into the ears of those who feel lost. They would love nothing more then to reveal themselves, but in today's society, this would bring havoc and many unneeded questions. Give thanks to all things beautiful, for you are an Angel. </td> Angel 100% Faerie 100% Mermaid 84% Dragon 58% WereWolf 50% Demon 0% What Mythological Creature are you? (Cool Pics!) created with QuizFarm.com

Anyway, that's all great and fine if you believe such quizzes can actually know stuff like this. If you're of the mind that no mortal is capable of making these kinds of judgements, and therefore no computer could possibly do it either... Well, they're just fun to look at. ^.=.^

- Sen

After you die... Guardian Angel After death, you will exist as a guardian angel in order to protect your still-living loved ones. You might even inspire a classic Christmas movie.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Somehow I know I wouldn't be doing this well if I'd've admitted being a crazy dictator. >.=.>

- Sen

[edit] I was right. Instead of helping people get there, I'd be deposited in Heaven if I admitted to being a crazy dictator:

After you die... Heaven After death, you will exist in heaven. Everything and everyone you love will constantly surround you for all of eternity. You lucky scoundrel.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Go figure.

- Sen [/edit]

I've told a few people many times over that I'll never join LJ. So don't tell anyone that I did! If you want to know about me, check out http://awswan.com/ because I don't plan to update here very often - if at all.

Laters, all!

- Sendoshin