So, sir, I thank ye;
I have not lived so ill, I fear to die.

• Sir Thomas More in Shakespeare’s
  Sir Thomas More 5.2.15-6

As always the question of authenticating the author comes into play, but yeah, just call it close enough, given the circumstance.

Horoscopes for 9.24.2020

Libra

If we are made of the dust of stars? Then we should turn to the stars to see what we’re made of? Made sense at the time, but sometimes I have to wonder. The stars, in this situation, and happy birthday, the stars are really planets, and they describe patterns as the planets follow their proscribed orbit and etched pathways through the night sky. That spells out a brief respite for all but the most dedicated of Libra people, as Mars slowly slides backwards opposite from Libra. That means the bulk of Libra, and especially this week’s birthday folks, all good. Slow down, but there’s a nominal pause, built in. In one reading of some of Shakespeare’s works, a particular actor suggested that the words and the meanings of the words indicated where a pause should be, not the line break or, in some cases, punctuation. Listen for that. There’s a natural position for a breath, an organic spot to pause, a particular place to take a break before continuing. With Mars? It’s important to pause and breathe.

Scorpio

On one website, sort of a side-project in its time, I had simple piece of software installed. The installation was supposed to shoot the current posting out to a certain brand of website news aggregator, and from there, get dispersed to the wild and wooly winds of the world wide inter-webs. That piece of software ran, so it seemed, but it never fulfilled its promise of broad dispersal. I kept updating it as the developers updated it, wondering if I was wasting my time. “It doesn’t seem to do what it is advertised as doing.”

I wrapped up with a client the other afternoon, then started messing around with something else on that site, bouncing from screen to screen, looking and seeing that — in fact — that software wasn’t doing what it was suppose to do. I started to delete it, but I thought I would run through the settings, first. Buried under the first, then second layer of settings was an error message. The software wasn’t working because it needed access to other sites’ data. Without that access, one couldn’t talk to the other. Automated software can only do what it is instructed to do. The software doesn’t “think,” not yet, anyway. Might seem like it some days, but it’s just an algorithm. What this week requires from Scorpio? Might have to dig into the settings to correct something that you thought was fixed a long time ago. Like a simple piece of software that wasn’t working as advertised.

Sagittarius

One buddy talked about a “blank slate” situation. Another used the analogy of blank chalkboard. Indeed, in its original iteration, Barefoot Astrology was called a “chalk talk,” but I don’t think I ever really used a chalkboard. So maybe the idea of whiteboard is better, but this is like a dry-erase board, the kind that has the velvet-tipped markers that are supposedly easy to erase? We’re about to start a project, start the planning part, start sketching out the Sagittarius rough drafts, and that means we need to start with a blank slate. An empty idea board. The chalkboard? The dry-erase board? Here’s what’s happening in Sagittarius, as we get ready to launch that new thing? Project, goal, new endeavors, whatever it is? That chalkboard, the idea board, the dry-erase board isn’t clean yet. This is the week to get out the rag, get the eraser, or get that chalk-coated and dust-filled eraser and go about cleaning up the board so we have a place to sketch our new ideas. Have to clean the board off, so there’s no remnants of what was there before.

“Wait! There’s still part of an equation in the corner, get that, too.”

Capricorn

We were overnight in a fishing camp, and my buddy had his kids with him. Early morning trying to roll out to fish, I rummaged through the supplies. I found Strawberry-flavored Cheerios and some kind of grocery store brand Cocoa Crisps. A little bit later, sweating buckets of beer from the night before, probably a little hungover, my buddy asked what I had for breakfast. I told him chocolate flavored strawberries. He groaned. After we got off the water, he was retelling my breakfast to is girlfriend, and she thought it sounded good, like chocolate-covered strawberries for breakfast. I was merely trying to break the boredom. An idea borne of my trial and error along the coast. Can’t say I recommend talking it over while hungover, but in time, and there are pictures on the web someplace of the fish, but over time, the idea caught on with my buddy. Think it was really his girlfriend, who graciously looked after the kids while we fished. Those are good girlfriends. But the idea, take a couple of items that might not really belong together and see what happens. For me, it was a way to break the monotony of breakfast on a fishing trip. For Capricorn? Combine elements that don’t seem to belong together and watch other people smile.

Aquarius

It’s simply a matter of learning when, and where to talk about what. There are some conversations I reserve for the “back of the boat.” In my world that implies a sensitive setting where there’s an obvious amount solitude and potential emotional intimacy. Where “guys” can be vulnerable, so to speak. There are some confessions that are best left to that kind of a setting. This isn’t hanging out with a groups of friends, and breezily talking about the neighbors, and the buddy’s old girlfriend; she now looks great, but, amongst guys, honor and all, we can’t say anything too nice.

See where this is headed? There are some conversations that don’t belong in public. Or don’t belong where others can overhear them. Some confessional material is great, done one-on-one, in private. Over the years in my career, I’ve found that the phone works well for that. It is intimate, and we are, essentially, alone. That’s good. That’s an excellent place for this sort of chatter. Back of the boat, slow day on the lake, sure. In a crowded coffee shop with individuals potentially crammed in on both sides? Maybe not the place we want to discuss intimate details about perfidy, love, loss, and other confessions. Yeah, yeah, social distancing and all, but then again, maybe not in public.

Pisces

It’s a really simple exercise, and I thought about it in respect to Pisces just this morning. The first part of the process is to make a list of things our Pisces self is grateful for. Then make a list of things that makes our Pisces selves happy. Finally, make a list of things we have to do this week. For Pisces? Take the second list, “things that make us happy,” and compare it to the third list, “things we think we have to do this week.” Compare those two lists. Now, we can make some adjustments in the Pisces life that helps align those two lists. It’s a simple process, and I started with three lists because I’m a bit of holistic health person, and starting with a gratitude list helps immensely, although, it technically has nothing to do with the latter lists. Dividing it all into thirds, though, helps, better than quartering, and better than just halving the situation. Less binary works better for Pisces. Make three lists. One, stuff we’re grateful for. Two, stuff that makes us happy. Three, stuff we think we have to do this week. Compare list two to list three. Adjust as need to be wind up happier.

Aries

Under my desk, I have a couple of inexpensive hooks, just plain hardware hooks. I think these might actually be decorative hooks, not much more than wire with a wood screw threaded on one end, bent in the shape a hook. However, I have these located underneath the desk’s surface, so the hooks themselves are out of sight. They are useful in that I can hang unused cables and wires, connections that are not in current use, but I like to keep on hand? I have them hanging from beneath the desk’s surface, so I can readily access the cables, as need be. I was looking at them, and I noticed I had a specialty cable for a camera I no longer own. It was small digital camera, with high resolution, but like most cameras these days, it got replaced by a phone camera. There are two Aries notations herein. One is obviously sorting through older material and realizing that I might not need that cable with its specialty connector anymore. The second part if about hardware, and arranging it in such a fashion that it is out of sight, but still reality accessible, like little hooks for all those cables on desktops.

Taurus

Hollywood and filmmaking are full of apocryphal tales of ad lib. Lines that weren’t formally in the script, and the actor inserted, to be caught on camera, and then used. The anecdotes are amusing. I’m unsure of what’s true and what’s typical Hollywood Hype since that material helps sell more. What brought this to mind was a local celebrity, known for his catch phrase, “Alright, alright, alright.” The story goes, when that famous line was first uttered, it wasn’t in the script. I’m unsure of how true that is. But as an example of extemporaneous ad lib that has worked well? Perfect example. This is a week fraught with mistakes, missed cues, and other timing troubles. Remember that there’s a whole branch of Hollywood Hype built around mistakes that turn into gold. So, as the week unfolds, for Taurus, is it a mistake? Or is it a new catch phrase?

Gemini

“Due diligence” is my choice for a Gemini phrase that pays, for the next couple of days. Seems like a long time, and seriously, “Due Dilligence” is not always a Gemini strength. Not that it matters one whit, but yeah, no, not always a strength. The way I get this fed back to me? I’ll ask if the Gemini did some research, and I’ll get a quick, “Of course I did,” and look over, and there’s my Gemini buddy, phone in hand, googling the exact term I was asking if he had previously researched. Granted that some of my Gemini friends are quicker on the uptake, and do well in a spur of the moment kind of situation, but this is one where a little effort — effort ahead of time — pays off more. More. Better. The secret? Due diligence. The secret? Do the work ahead of time. Do it in advance. Don’t just stand there with a phone in hand, “Yeah, I’m looking this up right now.” Fact-check. Corroborate. Or, like I started with? “Due Diligence.”

Cancer

Stuck between a bad spot and a worse place. Stuck in between a bad decision and a worse decision. Stuck in the place where no decision seems to be a viable alternative? While this won’t apply, across the board, to all of my Moon Children friends, there were some that this is acutely appropriate for. These are the important points, when we’re stuck in place like this. On the one side is Mars, backwards in another cardinal sign, all fire and stuff. Then, on the other side, in the best fixed Fire Sign of all — Leo — there’s Venus, moving forward and making an angle to that Mars.

This is like the center seat in the center row on one of those big jet planes, it’s like five seats across, and the very center means there’s a couple on one side, squabbling about one thing, and there’s a couple on the other side, silently icing each other out, and here’s the Moon Child, right in the center, bereft of compensation or solace, with fighters on either wing. If you can? Ignore it all. Some days, that’s possible, and other days? Not so much. That’s what I meant by stuck in a bad spot, and the answer? Don’t engage. If it were me? I’d bury my nose in a book, or put on headphones and watch something on a tablet or phone. You did bring headphones and the battery is fully charged?

The Leo

In the next week, Venus will move across the last third of Leo, essentially. That means we’re getting a weird vibration from backwards Mars and forward Venus as the two make suggestive and furtive glances at each other. I think of this like a flirtation rather than a clear and correct pass. Like they are up and in each others business without being too obvious. It is quite clear to a patient, outside observer that the two are playing games, like, batting of eyes, and continuous glances, the stare when they think no one is looking? Sometimes there’s a hint of hunger in the eyes of one, or other, but that’s temporary passing energy.

See, the planets are just flirting, not being serious. Not being sincere. Coy, sure, but this is one of those when the planets toy with emotions rather than bluntly just put it out there. As The Leo? We need it plainly spoken. No coy and shy glances, no batting of eyelashes behind Japanese fan, no, none of the cultured and look, don’t touch games, no, none of that. Doesn’t work. But that’s what the two love planets are doing, it’s a shy game of “Are you talking to me?” No, not really, just trying to catch your attention. Careful, dear Leo, don’t misread a casual flirtation for something serious, not now. Just Mars and Venus. Other things, too, but let’s just blame backwards Mars and forwards Venus.

Virgo

The process of learning it can appear to be a backwards kind of thing. Event. I’m unsure of the proper term. What it amounted to, I was trying to learn a new piece of software, and I’m really old school: we don’t read instruction manuals. We just toy with it until it breaks, fix it, then break it some more. Do it wrong a few times to figure out the correct way to handle the material. Make mistakes, get frustrated, complain how it isn’t as good as the old one, then, eventually, get annoyed enough to drop it and move on to another piece of software.

What happened, after swapping out hardware and software, the second one had clues as to how to work with the first one. If I hadn’t paused, shifted, changed directions three times, and finally bounced back to the first one? I would’ve been too jacked up to learn anything. But the process of learning varies from person to person. I learned by example, and I learned by finding a comparable skill-set on an adjacent platform. “If I can do this here, then I can do the same thing, over here, that should work, right?”

Virgo: actually? It does.

astrofish.net/travel for appearances

“Nothing runs on automatic.” – L.W. “Bud” Shipley, Jr.