balaurul dealului

back pocket. “What kind of art do you do?” Oh, this and that. Landscapes. Lots of landscapes. If you tell the truth—I’m on 

disability—especially if they can’t see anything wrong with you, no missing limb or visible twitches or tics, you get, “Don’t you 

want to work? Wouldn’t you feel better if you did something with your life?” As if I wouldn’t want a job. As if any person 

doesn’t want to be respectable. Leg blown off, yeah, that’s pain. If your life is your pain, if you go through your days feeling fear 

all the time, anxiety, dread, regret, guilt, there’s no prescription for that. Not really. You take the doctor’s little pills. A bit less 

hope with each new prescription that doesn’t fix a thing. You can get a wooden leg. They can fasten you together with screws. 

You can’t cut out the part of yourself that doesn’t work right. You can’t get a wooden brain. So you do stupid things to yourself 

in order to numb the pain. You do things that you wouldn’t do under normal conditions. Things that make it better for a while 

but destroy you in the long run, like the reason you’re on disability is made worse by being on disability. I want people to know 

that I’m suffering, but at the same time I want them to see me as a normal person. So when I go pick up a sandwich I want to 

feel like this person recognizes that I’m something Other but still deserving of sympathy. Not empathy, sympathy. Of being 

called a human being. Sometimes I want to be looked at as a freak. I want people to stare at me like that. So that they don’t 

expect me to be normal. I can’t live up to normal. Sometimes I embrace it. I embrace the title. Disability. That’s what I am.

tell me why this budgetless gay youtube series made for fun by a group of friends has the best editing and writing of anything i’ve watched in a year.

Honestly, ask a Romanian! Because you're right, it's quite difficult to find great sources on Romanian stuff, printed or otherwise. Most of what I know was explained to me by a Romanian using a Romanian source. If you don't know a Romanian, maybe pose the question on r/Romania. I don't think they'd mind.

As far as I know even Mircea Eliade didn't produce anything definitive on Romanian folklore, aside from some scattered references here and there. His novels will touch on them, though, such as Miss Christina, which is about a strigoi (which are not exactly vampires as popularly known), though it's hard to find in English. So here are some strigoi fun facts I was taught STRAIGHT OUTTA ROMANIA:

Strigoi come out of their tomb at night, visit their relatives' houses, eat their food, and spill their flour

If you cut off the head of the first snake you see on the day of St. George with a silver coin then stuff its mouth with garlic, you'll be able to see strigoi who steal cows' milk on this same day

If someone dies six weeks after a relative, unbury them. If you find them lying with their face down, then they're a strigoi; stick a spike in their heart, take the heart out and give it to all the family members to smear themselves with it, so none of them dies

If a dead man had a twin, stuff his eyes, nose, ears and mouth with millet and pebbles so he doesn't turn into a strigoi, then shoot a rifle into the air above his tomb after he's buried

If you find an unburied dead man, leave him like that because he's a strigoi and burying him is a sin

If a baby that was supposed to stop sucking their mother's milk keeps doing this in secret one week after they were supposed to stop, they'll become a strigoi after death

If someone uses a cane to capture and stick someone's shadow into a building, then that person will turn into a strigoi

Strigoi are afraid of garlic, so decorate your house with it

If a baby is born with a caul, it's assumed it will turn into a strigoi after death. This is why after death, the baby's body should be bound with wood and put like this inside their tomb, while their eyes, nose, mouth and ears should be stuffed with millet

If a cat steps over a dead person, they'll turn into strigoi

So aside from the fear of garlic, most of this probably doesn't match expectations of supernatural creatures thought to abound in the country of Wallachia/Transylvania. Though honestly, considering how prevalent, wacky, and desperate the countermeasures against them were, I think modern Romanians by now might just all be strigoi.

There are five different types of sigils, and these five different types of sigils are based off of what they are trying to manifest. By learning these types of sigils you will be able to understand the different purposes, and forms that sigils can take, and will have a way of categorizing them. By being able to identify which type of sigil you are working with will allow you to work with a sigil more effectively, and it may even help you decide how to go about using it.

Desire sigils:

Desire sigils are a type of sigil that go through the process of manifesting the desires of the practitioner, or of the intention the sigil has programmed into it. These desires can be anything that is achievable through magick, and will represent that desire, so that they can be used to manifest it. Desire sigils are one of the most common forms of sigils, and are the one you will probably spend the most time interacting with. They are usually made from statements of intent that details exactly what the practitioner wants to set in motion.

Examples of desire sigils:

Sigil for protection

Sigil for good luck

Sigil to curse your enemies

Sigil to have a good job interview

Along with many others…

Name sigils:

Names sigils are sigils that represent a specific name, construct, or entity. These sigils are connected to that specific name, construct, or entity, and can be used as it taglock, or magickal link to them. These sigil reflect the power, and the metaphysical properties, virtues, and associations of the name, construct, or entity. Names sigils can be used in order to summon forth the entities that have that name, or as personal sigils to represent entities, and constructs much like a form of signature. Some practitioners place them on things to mark them as theirs such as artwork, land, objects, or other constructs. Names sigils can be constructed using many different forms of names such as a first name, middle name, last name, username, nickname, magickal name, or anything along those lines. The greater that the name is connected, or associated with the construct, or entity the stronger the connection will be between it, and the sigil. These names sigils also mimic the aspects, and associations of the name, and of what owns the name, and because of this name sigils can be used to boost personal aspects of an entity, or construct, or can be used in order to give those aspects to another. Names sigils are primarily focused on proper nouns, and usually focus on a specific one-of-a-kind construct.

Examples of name sigils:

Name Sigil for Jack

Name Sigil for Cynthia

Name Sigil for America

Along with many others…

Correspondence sigils:

Correspondence sigils are sigils that are used to represent the correspondences of a specific construct. These types of sigils are connected to the construct’s correspondences, and associations, because of this the sigils mimic the power, and associations of the construct, and can be used in place of it in spells, and rituals, and other magickal workings. The difference between correspondence sigils, and name sigils is that correspondence sigils are connected to common nouns, or a class of constructs, and name sigils are connected to a proper nouns, or a specific construct. These correspondence sigils are not as effective as using the actual construct in your magickal working, but it can be a good substitute in situations where that construct is unavailable, or you need something to represent it in your working.

Examples of correspondence sigils:

Sigil for fire

Sigil of lavender

Sigil of the wolf

Along with many others…

Linking sigils:

Linking sigils are sigils that are connected to each other, or another sigil, and because of this connection they can be used to connect situations, and magickal workings together much like an occult telephone. These sigils allow any power to flow through them, and their connection. These sigil can be used as taglocks, or magickal links to situations, and other destinations in order to target whatever is on the other end. All sigils are some form of linking sigil, and are connected to the other versions of itself, but by making a sigil specifically for the purposes of being a linking sigil, one will be able to create sigils with a stronger association with each other.

Examples of linking sigils:

Ellis linking sigil

A sigil of a group

Along with many others…

Combination sigils:

Combination sigils are a combination, or mix of multiple types of sigils, or two, or more sigils. These types of sigils can be incredibly useful when you want something more complicated done in your magickal working, and need more than one type of sigil to be present in one sigil representation. These types of sigils can be created through creating a ligature of two already made sigils, or by combining the properties. You could also go through the process of creating a sigil with two specific intentions in its statement of intention, so both of them can take shape in the world when the sigil is charged, and activated.

Examples of Combination sigils:

Combination sigil for love and strength

Combination sigil for Tasha and awareness

Combination sigil for link between waters

Combination sigil for Jessie, and James

Obv these are things I do that significantly help when I suddenly get the ADHD mega zoomies and need to redirect my energy. These are also specific witchy things!

Go for a walk! Sounds basic, but go outside and walk for a little bit. See if you can identify any flowers or trees you see along the way. When you get back you can -

Scrapbook or work on your grimoire! Sometimes I need to do something artsy but regular drawing isn't doing it for me. This is a great way to be creative, focus on something, and it keeps both hands busy. Write down a new spell and add some flair, or jot down the plants you could identify outside. Look up their magickal properties and put that down too! You never know when you might need the information.

Water your plants or tend to your garden! I'm personally awful at remembering to water my plants 💀 so I mostly have succulents that require little to no water. Still, when I think about it I go take care of them! Water, clean up any dead leaves, and trim if it needs it

Play with your pets! It's very important to have a strong bond with your pets, and the perfect way to strengthen it is by playing! The perfect time to play is during a zoomie moment. Get down on all fours with them and get in the moment! Roll around with them! Your pet will undoubtedly love it. (Also good for my fellow therians)

Take your pet outside! If you have one that you can't play with like this, such as reptiles, birds, or other animal, then take them outside if you can! Default loves to sit on the conk crete in the sun or run around in the grass. Just make sure you keep a close eye on them.

Talk to your deity! If you're a huge verbal stimmer like I am then you probably love talking, whether it makes sense or not. If you're working with a deity, talk to them! Tell them about your day, get theatrical, use big movements to accentuate your words and act like you're putting on a play for them of your day's events!

Reorganize your altar or shrine space! One of my absolute favorite things to do when I'm having a certified ADHD Moment™ is to clean. I'll move everything off the shelf, wipe it down, wipe down the objects, and then put them back in a new order! This keeps things fresh and interesting.

Spend some time with your deck! Haven't used your tarot cards in a while? Take some time to learn a new way to shuffle them, a new spread, or brush up on the cards and their meanings. Organize the cards and put them in order again! This can "reset" the energy in your deck, like cleansing!

let me see you and stay

let me see you and stay

He is my favorite astronaut for any number of reasons, but he’s also one of my favorite visual artists.

Like, look at this stuff????

It’s all so expressive and textured and colorful! He literally painted his own experience on the moon! And that's just really fucking cool to me!

Just look at this! This is one of my absolute favorite emotions of all time. Is Anyone Out There? is like the ultimate reaction image. Any time I have an existential crisis, this is how I picture myself.

And then there's this one:

The Fantasy

For all of the six Apollo missions to land on the moon, there was no spare time. Every second of their time on the surface was budgeted to perfection: sleeping, eating, putting on the suits, entering and exiting the LEM, rock collection, setting up longterm experiments to transmit data back to Earth, everything. These timetables usually got screwed over by something, but for the most part the astronauts stuck to them.

The crew of Apollo 12 (Pete Conrad, Al Bean, and Dick Gordon) had other plans. Conrad and Bean had snuck a small camera with a timer into the LEM to take a couple pictures together on the moon throughout the mission. They had hidden the key for the timer in one of the rock collection bags, with the idea being to grab the key soon after landing, take some fun photos here and there, and then sneak the camera back to Earth to develop them. They had practiced where they would hide the key and how to get it out from under the collected rocks back on Earth dozens of times.

But when they got to the moon, the key was nowhere to be found. Al Bean spent precious time digging through the collection bags before he called it off. The camera had been pushing their luck anyways, he couldn't afford to spend anymore time not on the mission objectives. Conrad and Bean continued the mission as per the NASA plan while Dick Gordon orbited overhead.

Fast forward to the very end of the mission. Bean and Conrad are doing last checks of the LEM before they enter for the last time and depart from the moon. As Bean is stowing one of the collection bags, the camera key falls out. The unofficially planned photo time has come and gone, and he tosses the key over his shoulder to rest forever on the surface of the moon.

This painting, The Fantasy, is that moment. There have never been three people on the moon at the same time, there was never an unofficial photo shoot on the moon, this picture could never have happened.

"The most experienced astronaut was designated commander, in charge of all aspects of the mission, including flying the lunar module. Prudent thinking suggested that the next-most-experienced crew member be assigned to take care of the command module, since it was our only way back home. Pete had flown two Gemini flights, the second with Dick as his crewmate. This left the least experienced - me - to accompany the commander on the lunar surface.

"I was the rookie. I had not flown at all; yet I got the prize assignment. But not once during the three years of training which preceded our mission did Dick say that it wasn't fair and that he wished he could walk on the moon, too. I do not have his unwavering discipline or strength of character.