Year in Review: 2016
Astrologically, with Saturn in Sagittarius, and me, being a November Sagittarius, it’s been one Saturn moment after another.
Year in Review: 2016
Personally/professionally, I passed the three-year mark in residency as the alternate Tuesday reader at Nature’s Treasures in Austin. As an adjunct to that, it also marks my third trip through the Complete Works of Shakespeare — well — as audio files. Still, part of my own, ongoing education. Originally, I picked Tuesday because it matched my book’s title, Two-Meat Tuesday, just a fun — for me — meandering miscellany.
Year in Review: 2016
Fishing’s been crap this last year, in part due to me, in part because I can’t get organized (Saturn in Sagittarius) to get down to the coast, or even out to a lake.
Year in Review: 2016
Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood. One of the books that’s certainly stuck with me. Moreover, this was the year I discovered that a publishing company was going to release a number of novels by big-name authors, based upon the works of Shakespeare. Hag-Seed is a spin on Shakespeare’s homage to his career with the stage, ostensibly his final play, The Tempest, and the Canadian riff on themes is well-executed, drawing on the elementals, plus, well, to me anyway, a ripping good yarn. What made the book such an experience is the way points from a 400-year old plot line still has mythic symbols that tie to the current world.
Like another year in books.
Year in Review: 2016
Politics. No comment. I hate being right. Not right, I’m lefty, but correct. Denial — the force is strong in this one. A little cryptic, but have to leave that one alone.
Coffee rerun — San Antonio coffee — note to Sister.
Year in Review: 2016
In the last year, I changed my “office space” around, some of which is visible on the video, when recorded at home, and when I can be bothered. Not a big demand item, but sometimes fun. The video/podcast thing. So what isn’t visible is a futon/couch I had off to one side. More like a “guest room,” and most folks don’t spend more than one night on the futon. Works well for me, but I’m rather ascetic at times. Lived like a monk, in Austin. So the office futon? That’s been replaced with a simple, wooden bench. I keep a blanket that I use for a meditation mat there, and I can easily drape discarded clothing on the bench and it allows easier access to the bookshelves — and — oddly enough — a few audio CDs.
Got out to see Buffett once, and that was about it. Along that Capricorn–inspired musical notation, two albums landed in my hands at the end of November, a Jimmy Buffett Christmas Album, and the new Robert Earl Keen Live from Floores Country Store celebration of the 20th anniversary of Live #2 Dinner. Both were birthday gifts, and since my birthday fell after Thanksgiving, listening to Xmas music was justified and safe. Both are good albums, and frankly, at the least the Buffett Xmas album, it’s a better offering than before.
Year in Review: 2016
A quick look back, a “Best of” from 2011.
Year in Review: 2016
Similar opening lines, from me, from 2000, and more recently.
Year in Review: 2016
My blog — in its various forms and formats — currently at astrofish.blog — serves as a valuable testing ground for ideas that might get rolled into the main site. For a couple of years, I used a piece of software called ByWord, almost exclusively for weblog writing, and more as an idea catcher rather than as a primary implement.
That changed. I switched to Ulysses, which, quite similar, worked well across all my content, from image curation to the mainstay, my horoscopes.
Around August or September, I pulled the plug, made the switch, shifted all the work over to the program.
In itself, not a big shift, but it does point to the growing convergence I wrote about many years ago, where the phone, the web, the tablet, and the desktop kind of blend together.
The work I do is difficult to define, as it doesn’t fit in a neatly striated category. Part content, and part curation, with that single tool being the most effective — at this writing — to get the job done.
Year in Review: 2016
A little more than ten years ago? That was Austin, then.
Year in Review: 2016
Three Books
Three books came to mind, almost immediately. As touchstones, and the hard copies of the books themselves are tangible reminders — the point of the books and their titles? It was a long time ago, as I was passing through Dallas, working freelance computer gigs, and with one big paycheck, I had an opportunity to buy the three books. It was important as they were “wish-listed,” and this was years before Amazon, &c. All three of my copies of these books have a sticker from a long-dead bookstore (chain) that offered steep discounts. The Book Stop price tag, more than the price on display, are part of the image. Serves as a way to date the time and place of acquisition.
Ginsberg: Collected
It was an earlier collected works, from the archetype for the Beat Poets, Allen Ginsberg. 1988 imprint, and it was a year or two after that, so I had my eye on the book long before I bought it. Big, red cover with Buddhist-inspired imagery. My copy has notes scattered throughout with a couple of references stuffed in it. Honestly, I probably only read a half dozen pages, but the book has been used, and it did figure into some of my earlier works, some showing material is quite influential.
Addendum: The Essential Ginsberg – Allen Ginsberg
As I Lay Dying
Previous commentary, about re-reading Faulkner. First time “high brow lit” made it into my reading stack as just plain good stuff. Or fun material, or, in this example, sick and twisted, with dark comedic background. Part of my family has deep, southern roots. That explains everything.
Planets in Transit
This one ties to the first book in this list of three, and the connection is merely a nearly invisible price tag, still affixed to the back cover. Regular price and member’s price, both below the cover price.
As an astrological reference, this single book is without parallel. It is a true de facto, go-to bible for understanding and interpreting astrological transits. When I first started earnestly studying the stars, I figure out how it works with patterns, themes, and repeated processes that lead to obvious conclusions — about the established planetary arrangements.
To this day, I still use it as an occasional reference point as it triggers thoughts in particular areas.
DramaticIrony.net
Some place between Planets in Transit and most of the other books about predictive astrology, I am carving a niche for Dramatic Irony — my collection of astrology transits, interpreted, my style. Not as long or psychologically probing as some, but more substantial than others. All depends.
Dramatic Irony
“Coming Soon, to a bookseller near you.”
Experienced astrologers aren’t cheap,
Cheap astrologers aren’t experienced.
astrofish.net/travel
astrofish.net/shop
astro.fish
astrofish.blog
