User Profile

This is not a tale of sorrow
This is not a song of woe
This is not the path of heartbreak
This is where the dreamers go

Things I believe:

1. War is bad. Killing is wrong. Humankind will never evolve as a species unless it gives up war.
   
2. Music is good. Music brings us closer to whatever divine synchronicity there may be in the universe.
   
3. There is a sublime, divine synchronicity to the universe.
   
4. People always get what they deserve: it just takes a little longer with some. We reap what we sow.
   
5. If it doesn't have deep appreciation for and reverence toward its cultural roots, it's crap. If it uses cultural roots as an excuse to oppress people or glorify violence, it's dangerous crap. If it pretends it's better than its cultural roots or disparages them, it's pretentious crap.
   
6. There is a divine spark inside of you that cannot ever die. Don't hide it or try to snuff it out. Acknowledge your greatness, celebrate your creativity, and reward excellence where you find it.
   
7. You can learn everything you need to know about a person by observing how he or she treats children (their own and other people's), people in the service industry, people less fortunate than themselves, and animals.
   
8. Similarly, you can learn everything you need to know about a country or its government by observing how it treats children (and they're still children after birth), people in the service industry, less fortunate people, and animals.
   
9. If he only treats you like a princess when you do what he wants you to do, he doesn't really love you.

I live in London, England, with my beloved husband, filceolaire, my teenage son, and our kittycat, Minerva. We frequently get to spend time with filceolaire's daughters, mokatiki and pola_bear. I'm a professional musician with a lively schedule of teaching wirestrung harp and singing, paid gigs around London, and teaching knitting at iKnit London. Professionally, I manage a cultural community centre in Southeast London, and I plan to go back to univeristy in the autumn of 2009 to begin work on my MPhil in Creative Writing, leading eventually to a DPhil (that's a PhD for you Americans ;>) in the same subject.

I am a long-distance member of kickass band Three Weird Sisters.. When I moved to the UK in September of 2004, a fourth Sister was added. All the band have LiveJournals: my Sisters are ladyat, weirdsister, and quadrivium. Three Weird Sisters have released two CDs, Rite the First Time and Hair of the Frog, both on the BedlamHouse label and available from CDBaby.com or amazon.com. In October of 2003, I released my first solo CD, Box of Fairies, which is available from either link below, or if you see me at a gig and I've actually brought some CDs along, you can buy them from me there.

Buy Box of Fairies at CDbaby.com
Buy Box of Fairies at Amazon.com

Entries to this journal that are not specifically about knitting or music have been mostly friends-only.

My friends list is large, because for a long time this journal was completely friends-only, and lots of people seem to want to know what I'm up to. That is beginning to change, now that I have the life I always wanted in a supportive, non-abusive environment, in a country where I feel appreciated as a person and at home, and with a family I love and who love me right back. LiveJournal has become mostly a place where I keep in touch with my friends and communities, particularly since I am now separated from many people I love by the wide Atlantic.

I think one of the secrets to having a rewarding life is keeping good friends for a long time, and there's more than one person on my friends list who's known me since my teens. There's even one person on my friends list (and no, I'm not telling; sie can reveal hirself if sie likes) who's known me since I was seven! A surprising number of the people on my friends list are friends and acquaintances in real life. Many of them are people who make me smile with their wit and insight. I hope some of the things I write make them smile, too.

Although I welcome new friends, I am not the most trusting person. My trust has been badly abused in the past, and so I am cautious these days. If you add me, I won't automatically add you back. If you're interested in being added to my friends list, email me at my livejournal email address and let me know why you want to be added.

If I've added you, and you have no idea who I am, it's probably because I read a comment you made on a community or on a friend's journal, clicked to your journal, didn't get bored in the first four or five lines and was in fact entertained and engaged, and found no scary things in your userinfo. Don't worry; I'm mostly benign, and sometimes I'm even a little bit fun.

PSA: In order to avoid becoming a victim of stalkerware, get an adblock add-on for your browser, and make sure you ban this address: http://*.ljtoys.org.uk/*. While the logging function at LJToys only tracks hits to a LJToys user's journal, and according to LJ Abuse, it doesn't actually do that 100% accurately, volumes of abuse and malicious harassment are possible with a "toy" that ties hits to a web page to LJ IDs and IP addresses. Don't make yourself vulnerable.

My Blog Code:
B9 d- t- k s u f i++ o+ x++ e++ l c

-----BEGIN KNITTER'S GEEK CODE BLOCK-----

Version: 1.1

KCCmLR+++ $ Exp+++ SPM++ Addi+++ Stash++(+) Scale+++ Fin+ Ent++ FI+++ Tex+++ Lace+ Felt-- Circ+++ ML+++ Swatch++ KIP++ Blog+ FO ? WIP 10 Gauge F++ DK+ W++ B- SNB EZ+

------END KNITTER'S GEEK CODE BLOCK------

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