How To Deal With Study Burnout

Supermoon Uses

Since there will be a supermoon tonight (Dec 3rd 2017) I figured I would make a helpful post for you all. 

What is a supermoon? A supermoon happens when there’s a Full Moon or New Moon at the same time as the Moon’s closest approach to the Earth; perigee. It’s also known as Super Full Moon, Super New Moon and Perigee Moon.

There is a huge increase in the moons energy allowing for a heightened ability to cast a spell that will come to fruition.

 It’s a good time to pull out the spells that mean the most to you; the ones you really want to work

 A full moon is always a powerful time for meditation, energy healing, and recharging your energy field and chakras. The full moon shines down so much pure energy that anything it touches can’t help but feel its radiance and love. The supermoon effect amplifies that power and makes it even stronger.

Some things you can do to make use of this time.

1. Get in Touch With Your Emotions- Emotions are more easily accessible during this time making it simpler to acknowledge and release them. Express your inner truths and feelings, write down your intentions.

2. Take a Moon Bath – Spend time under the moon bathing in its light. Steep your body and spirit in purifying light, wash away negativity and leave yourself fresh and renewed.

3. Manifest Your Desires - Spend some time picturing your life as you wish it to be. What are your intentions? The full moon will magnify any energy you send out, and help guide it into the welcoming embrace of the universe.

4. Release Negativity - The moon can reach the deepest parts of your soul and pull out the things you’ve been hiding or trying to ignore. The moon illuminates any negative emotions.

5. Be Creative - The full moon is the time to do whatever creative activity makes you feel joyful!

6. Boost Your Feminine Energy - Women, take note: you in particular need the feminine lunar energy of the moon in order to keep your energy field vibrant and strong. This is not to discount the guys, because they need feminine energy as well—remember everything is about balance—but the female energy of the moon is essential for women to maintain the health of their field. 

It’s the perfect time of year for this to happen, if used correctly this moon has the potential to set up your new year to be the best in a long time.  

Badass Playlist

(The playlist you need to play when you feel like you need 50 strippers backing you and angels with hair as high as the heavens (hair metal bands)) (This also works great to drive to)

1) Wild Side–Mötley Crüe 

2) Hunger–King Kobra 

3) Breathless–Quiet Riot 

4) The Wild and the Young–Quiet Riot 

5) Shout at the Devil–Mötley Crüe 

6) Girls, Girls, Girls–Mötley Crüe 

7) Sumthin’ for Nothin’–Mötley Crüe 

8) Highway Tune–Greta Van Fleet

9) Uncle Tom’s Cabin–Warrant 

10) Nobody’s Fool–Cinderella 

11) Cherry Pie-Warrant 

12) Kickstart my Heart–Mötley Crüe 

13) Push, Push–Cinderella 

14) Gypsy Road–Cinderella 

15) Dancing on Glass–Mötley Crüe 

16) Still of the Night–Whitesnake 

17) Shake Me–Cinderella 

18) Let’s Get Crazy–Quiet Riot 

19) St. John–Aerosmith 

20) All in the Name Of…–Mötley Crüe (Even though the lyrics are quite questionable)

21) Looks that Kill–Mötley Crüe

22) Ten Seconds to Love–Mötley Crüe 

23) Hell on Wheels–Cinderella 

24) Somebody Save Me–Cinderella 

25) Put Up or Shut Up–Quiet Riot 

Theo James travelled with UNHCR to meet refugees in Greece

The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller

Rating: No Good Genre: Fantasy Representation: Gay men, Greek/Mediterranean cast Trigger Warnings: rape, rape culture, explicit sex scenes, child sexualization, exotified ethnicity, character death

I stopped reading The Song of Achilles a third of the way through.  I started the novel with high hopes, as The Song of Achilles promised to be an exploration of the romantic relationship between Achilles and Patroclus—taking what The Iliad only implied and putting it to paper.

Here’s what I was hoping for: an honest exploration of the ancient Greek conception of sexuality, taking into account that homoeroticism that we today would call “homosexual” was not considered part of one’s sexual identity, simply what one did (in addition to taking a wife, of course).  What would a boy growing up in (mythical) ancient Greece, a land where even Zeus took male lovers, think about his own romantic and sexual desires?  Does he desire only men (in The Song of Achilles this is true of both Achilles and Patroclus), and what does that mean for him personally, as compared to what it would mean for us today?

Here’s what I got: The Song of Achilles reads very much like the erotic fantasy of a straight woman about gay men.  I was made personally uncomfortable, especially considering how young the characters are in the first 3rd of the book (9-16). The Song of Achilles revisits tired tropes that seem very out of place in the ancient Greek setting–a culture notorious for its fluid sexuality. Thetis (Achilles’ mother) behaves more like a small town republican than a goddess. She’s upset that Achilles and Patroclus kiss and makes it her mission to separate them. This makes absolutely no sense considering that, as a goddess, she should be above the petty who’s-kissing-who of mortals, and makes even less sense when you consider that Zeus himself took male lovers. The bigotry is only included in the text because Miller has no idea how to deal with queer characters outside of the angst of the present day.  I was expecting this story to at least acknowledge that ancient Greece is not the same as Victorian England just because both periods happened out of living memory.

Neither Achilles nor Patroclus consider themselves as part of a greater social context.  If Patroclus really had exclusive feelings towards men, there would be some internal narrative exploring how he feels about his feelings–how does he see himself fitting into his culture? Instead, the entire narrative focuses on the external–how attractive Achilles is, and the external consequences for their relationship (such as the disapproval of Achilles’ mother). This is what really convinced me that this book was written for straight readers. A coming of age story about queer children, yet they spare no thought for their own identities? No thoughts of the future, or considerations of whether there are others like them? I would have been incredibly interested in a well-researched novel which explores the unique challenges (and enjoyment!) of queerness in an ancient context. That would have been a truly unique novel. The Song of Achilles, however, reads like Miller read one Alex Sanchez novel and thought she was somehow qualified to write this book.

Further, Miller struggles with separating her own voice from the voice of her first person narrator, which makes for some very uncomfortable narration surrounding the bodies of 9-13 year old children. Patroclus, 9 at the time, describes Achilles as “still plump with childhood” and with “hair lit like honey in the sun.” Later, at 13, Achilles is “supple.” This is the language not of a child, but of an adult observing childhood. A child would never say another child their age was “still plump with childhood.” Patroclus’ voice gets lost in Miller’s desire to write in a sophisticated style, which has the horrible repercussion of making her novel voyeuristic.

Related to this is the fact that Miller exotifies the nationalities of her characters. Everyone has “skin the color of freshly pressed olive oil” which is so silly coming from the point of view of Patroclus, who has grown up seeing Mediterranean people all his life–and looking just like them. Frankly, it’s racist. It’s a white woman looking in and impressing her own observations, not the observations of a young Greek boy, on the narrative. Some further racism: Achilles, hyperattractive demi-god that he is, is portrayed as “whiter” than everyone else–and his beauty is almost always described by the color of his “golden” skin. His hair is honey and his eyes are green, in contrast to the dark eyes and the “nut-brown” bodies of the rest of the Greeks.

So, not only is The Song of Achilles a disappointment for queer readers looking for good representation, it’s not that well written, constantly breaking point of view to give us an uncomfortable dose of child sexualization and racism. The premise of this novel had a lot of potential, but Miller couldn’t follow through with an inoffensive execution.

For more info on Madeline Miller, here’s her website

Temple of Dionysus (Temple IV)

Yria, Naxos, Greece

580-570 BCE

28,5m x 13,5 m

Ionic order (One of the earliest uses)

Around 580-570 BCE, work began on the fourth and largest temple of Yria, the only one of which remains are visible, and the only one to have been restored. It is an archaic hekatompedon (30 m. long) temple of the Ionic style. It is built of local granο-diorite rock, and it has an Adyton (innermost sanctuary for a mystery cult), marble portico (prostasis) with columns forming a monumental entrance, and a marble altar. Τwο tetrastyle marble colonnades divide the building into three aisles. 

The temple is divided into three naves by two rows of four columns of Ionic order, each of which consists of two or three marble drums. The Adyton is separated from the cella by a second monumental gate. The hearth, found inside the temple, was of marble and was used for libations. 

Billie Lourd on how Grandma Debbie Reynolds wants people to identify her

You know those weird horizontal pupils that goats have?…. they get a lot weirder.   Other places to see my posts: INSTAGRAM / FACEBOOK / ETSY / KICKSTARTER

How to feel again

Walk barefoot in the grass, remember the way this feels. Now put your shoes back on, you do not want the thing to touch your toes.

Go outside in the dark, scream at the moon. She is listening, it is okay.

Allow her to comfort you, she means well.

If you hear other people screaming, do not fret, they are just as apathetic as you, let them feel.

If an elderly woman comes and stands near you, thank her. Listen to what she has to say, she knows best.

If you see an animal that does not belong, leave. Go home, and sit in a room in the dark. If you don’t, go home and have a good night’s sleep

Do not fall asleep.

If you hear whispers, it is okay.

Remember rule number 7 and 10. Leave at sunrise. Lock the door behind you. Feel.

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Italian specimen agate and quartz box, circa 1800.

Mexico earthquake leads to discovery of ancient temple

Archaeologists scanning a Mexican pyramid for damage following September’s devastating earthquake have uncovered traces of an ancient temple.

The temple is nestled inside the Teopanzolco pyramid in Morelos state, 70km (43 miles) south of Mexico City.

It is thought to date back to 1150 and to belong to the Tlahuica culture, one of the Aztec peoples living in central Mexico.

The structure is dedicated to Tláloc, the Aztec rain god.

Archaeologists say it would have measured 6m by 4m (20ft by 13ft). Among the temple’s remains they also found an incense burner and ceramic shards.

The discovery was made when scientists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) used a radar to check for structural damage to the Teopanzolco pyramid in Cuernavaca. Read more.