zeptember

December 30, 2006

Changes

Category: Endometriosis, Administrative, Epiphanies, Sick. Posted by zept at 10:21 pm.

Last night on the way home from work, I decided I want to redo my website and journal. I want to create custom rss feeds for my homepage. Failing that last night, I turned to a new journal design, which I’ve also been thinking about lately.

I succeeded with the journal design, at least.

The changes you see before you reflect change in the person as well. I got tired of all the depressing blue and black. I felt I was keeping myself in a cold depressive funk by the very colours and imagery I’d chosen to reflect my personality through this journal.

The new design I’ve picked and tweaked feels warm. I hope my overall tone begins to change as well. I’m tired of being the depressed pessimist with never-ending health problems. I want all that to change in 2007.

October 31st was my New Year’s Eve, and I’d started thinking about what changes I want for myself in the coming year. It took me about two months to even get used to the harsh changes that I plan for myself, and now, tomorrow, on the New Year’s Eve that is more widely acknowledged, I can officially throw the stone out to sea with the things I don’t want anymore.

I’ve realised in the last two months that I’d become an alcoholic again. I’d become chronically depressed again. I acknowledged consciously once more that all I ever talk about are my health problems. I realised that my grudge against my mother’s side of the family was at fever pitch again for no good reason. And then, to drive it all home, between December 17th and December 29th, I sprained my ankle while piss-drunk, threw out my back days later, got a horrible sinus infection, and got my usual debilitating period while still trying to recover from all the other injuries.

My first reaction of course was self pity and depression, along with the fatalist overtones I learned so well from my mother and her family. But I kept thinking of that song, and of my determination to finally GET IT on a conscious level.

I think I’m finally getting it.

Saturn is retrograde from December 5, 2006 until April 19, 2007.

According to Judy Collins of the Arizona Society of Astrologers, “A retrograde Saturn makes the individual seek a different kind of responsibility and purpose in life. The person may be challenged by either the father or other authority figures to take more responsibility for their actions. Through the past life experiences, they answer their critics with a slow persistence of reaching their goals in life. Where the planet is by house and where it rules shows the area where they will have to strive hard for success. A retrograde Saturn builds the character to accept small gains in the long process of success. Security issues need to be addressed in their present life and only when the ego does not interfere, does the individual feel a sense of peace. Saturn’s sign in the chart is where the person needs to address the demands and responsibilities of life.“.

Well hm. I don’t know how to do chart progressions. I’ve sat here for hours digging through my astrology books, before finally ordering a chart progression online from a site I’ve visited for years.

I do know where Saturn was at the time of my birth, though. Saturn was in the 2nd house of my natal chart. Not a good placement. Spells a life of financial trouble. I was set from day one to grow up in poverty and have financial woes. However, I firmly believe that I chose this path for myself, pre-incarnation.
It’s been a life-long struggle to overcome being so pissed off by my own karmic choice.

With that, I also know I won’t stop talking about my health issues as I continue to find a way to overcome them, but perhaps I can approach it without such a defeatist attitude.

In general, I want to start approaching what’s left of my life in a healthier manner for myself.
And by “what’s left of my life”, I mean exactly that. I have no idea when my life could end. I could live long or I could die before finishing this journal entry.

It feels good to think of letting go. I want to be able to believe that I can achieve letting go in 2007.

Susan Miller of Astrology Zone writes for this month’s Virgo forecast, “The past year has been a tough one for you, due to the eclipses, but you seem to have adjusted well. Pat yourself on the back for having shown so much strength and fortitude in the face of so many challenges, dear Virgo. I raise my glass of champagne to you.”

Thank you.

October 13, 2006

Spam issues

Category: Administrative. Posted by zept at 10:35 am.

I had to lock down part of my journal due to massive spam attack. So if you decide to leave comments to a post I’ve made, and suddenly you find that you have to get past a form to fill out, it’s only one time.
After you’ve been approved to leave comments, you don’t have to wait or fill anything out again.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

March 27, 2006

site dev

Category: Administrative, Fun. Posted by zept at 11:27 pm.

In further experimental development of this website, I’ve made use of some more software goodies and added a gallery.

Please to be checking it out, and let me know what you think.

March 13, 2006

Site organisation

Category: Administrative. Posted by zept at 11:42 am.

I’m not sure I like everything on all topics being posted in one journal.

I understand that everything breaks down into categories, which allows me to go view one area of journaling at a time.

The problem is, if anyone comes to this journal to catch up on how I’m doing, perhaps they are not prepared to be reading about my period.

The way I had it before when I coded my own journal was that each topic had a separate journal directory. The front or facing journal was just stuff about how I’m doing. More intimate stuff like the period or my depressive episodes had to be manually clicked on if one wanted to read about that.

I still prefer that idea, so as soon as I have some time, I’ll be creating those separate directories here.

March 5, 2006

Purpose of Journal

Category: Administrative. Posted by zept at 10:22 pm.

The purpose of this journal is to chronicle my life online, like so many other people out there who feel the need to share their lives online. “I am important, dammit!”

I had a journal for three years which I coded by hand in simple HTML, and I got tired of having to focus on HTML while trying to get my thoughts out for each entry.
So instead, I went through a lot of initial pain to set this journal up for the ease of being able to log in, type my thoughts out, click a button, and presto! Journal entry.

The issues I will write about include:

  • Attempted career change from the dotcom industry to teaching elementary school
  • Ranting about Endometriosis
  • Chronicling my bicycling and exercise routine
  • Acknowledging my depression issues
  • Recording my dreams
  • Gender Dysphoria
  • Chronicling unemployment
  • Day to day stuff and things

I actually have a lot that’s bottled up, because in my stubbornness, I refused to continue my other daily journal past December, 2005. So beware a possible initial flurry of entries.
That other journal, in case you are interested, is archived here (with links being slowly switched over from the old domain).

Hello world!

Category: Administrative. Posted by zept at 1:50 am.

Wow, I finally figured out how to edit CSS and PHP.

Go me!

I first started this journey into WordPress on February 22, 2006. This is the first time I’ve been able to spend any real time on personalizing my chosen Theme. I couldn’t post my first entry til I got past the formatting. That’s just how I am.

So now that we’re past all that… hi.