Pneumatised!

Disappointingly, Ivett Gonda lost her preliminary match to Sweden’s Hanna Zajc. The score was 2-0. Perhaps it just was a bad day.

China’s Wu Jingyu pulled off an amazing win in her preliminary by outscoring her opponent 7-0. The Olympics have adopted the “mercy rule”, which means that a competitor wins the match if she is winning by 7 points. Wu Jingyu won that match with a nice spinning hook kick to make it 7-0. Based on her match so far, I’m predicting China to win the gold.

Thailand’s Buttree Puedpong defeated Cuba’s Daynellis Montejo in sudden death overtime with a nicely timed defensive roundhouse to Montejo’s axe kick.

For a look at who’s fighting who in the women’s 49k quarterfinals, see official results courtesy of the Beijing Olympics site.

The women’s 49k quarterfinals will start at 3:00 a.m. EST. Tune into www.cbc.ca/olympics/ and click on “watch live” next to taekwondo on the schedule.

The men’s 58kg preliminaries are on now. Canada does not have a competitor in this category. Canada’s next taekwondo match is Karine Sergerie’s at 9:30 p.m. Thursday. Sebastien Michaud’s match is on Friday at 12:15 a.m.

Good luck to Karine and Sebastien!

~~~C

Carol Huynh has won Canada’s first Olympic gold medal in women’s freestyle wrestling. Competing in the 48 kg weight division, Huynh easily defeated her Japanese opponent by getting four points in the first period and two in the second. Additionally, teammate Tonya Verbeek won her bronze medal match in the 55 kg weight class for freestyle wrestling getting Canada’s first bronze in this year’s Olympics.

Canada’s men’s rowing pair also achieved a silver medal giving Canada one gold, silver, and a bronze for Day 8 of the 2008 Olympics. Canada is now tied for 29th place in the Olympics. (See Olympic medal count.)

I’m still holding out for some good taekwondo matches in three more days. CBC promises to air all of Canada’s taekwondo matches. Sports Illustrated has predicted medals for all three of Canada’s competitors in taekwondo. Don’t forget to tune into CBC Tuesday night at 9!

~~~C

Canada has yet to win any medals in the Olympics this year. Perhaps Canada’s best chance for a gold is in taekwondo. Okay, maybe I’m a little biased (I’ve only been training in taekwondo for almost nine years), but let’s look at Canada’s women’s lightweight contender – Karine Sergerie. Sergerie is the current World Taekwondo Champion in her weight division (she weighs in at 63 kg). Prior to her gold win in the 2007 World’s, she placed second in 2003 and third in the 2005 World’s. On top of that she won the gold medals in the 2007 and 2006 Pan-Am Games. In 2006, she won the Commonwealth Taekwondo Championships. She has won the gold in the Canadian Senior National Championships since 2002 – that’s a seven-time consecutive champion in Canadian Nationals. That’s an amazing record so far, almost enough to win the olympic gold medal on its own. Sergerie apparently isn’t the type to let her record stand on its own, but rather the type that will keep battling it out. Here’s a video clip of her winning the 2007 World’s.

Karine Sergerie winning the World Taekwondo Championships 2007

In this match she was down 3-0, she pushes on in the match to tie and move it into sudden death overtime. (In taekwondo rules, you could also lose a point if you get two warnings from the referee and lose the match in sudden death that way too.) She manages to get her kick in faster and stronger than her opponent and win the gold.

Canada has two other athletes in the olympics for taekwondo, Sebastien Michaud and Ivett Gonda, also good competitors in taekwondo.

For more about Karine Sergerie, read CBC’s “World champion finally gets her shot”. (For those who don’t know, Dominique Bosshart received a bronze for Canada in the 2000 olympics.)

See also, CBC’s video profile of Karine Sergerie.

Please also see these articles on taekwondo at the olympics.

Taekwondo sparring terms (Korean sparring terms that you will hear used by the referee.)

Taekwondo history (What this article fails to mention is that there are two styles of taekwondo, ITF and WTF. WTF (for World Taekwondo Federation) is featured at the olympics while ITF (for International Taekwondo Federation) is not. The historical difference between the two relates to the split of Korea into North and South Korea. Maybe one day, ITF and WTF will merge recalling their initial beginnings as one martial art.)

Head Shots (What judges look for in a good taekwondo sparring match. Unlike something like boxing or wrestling, there is a certain grace and dexterity in taekwondo sparring as it requires precision more so than brute force to make a good sparrer. Anyone else note the wide weight classes? That means someone at the light end of the class might have to spar someone 20 lbs heavier. There are only four weight classes in taekwondo for the Olympics – see the link to “weight divisions” above.)

I don’t know about the rest of Canada, but I’m looking forward to some exciting Olympic taekwondo matches. If Sergerie brings home the gold in taekwondo, perhaps Canada will finally pay some attention to this great martial art and sport, which blends grace and finesse with a true fighting spirit.

~~~C

Nate and I decided to do a (minimum) 20 km walk this year. Last year I did a walk/run down Yonge Street from Finch to Bloor, which was 12.6 km. This year’s walk (this past Saturday) was nearly double last year’s. We started our walk at Church St. and Weston Rd., then followed the discovery walk paths along the Humber River down to the lakeshore. This brought us to the mouth of the Humber River, where it joins with Lake Ontario. From there we crossed the Humber River bridge (see picture below), and walked east along the lakeshore to Union Station.

Humber River Bridge

View of Lake Ontario from the Humber River Bridge

The walk took just about five and a half hours. Halfway into the walk, it started to thunderstorm. I think it rained for almost two hours. Luckily, I was wearing a waterproof track jacket. Unfortunately, I had changed from my track pants to my shorts earlier because it was warming up. We weren’t expecting a thunderstorm that day, but well… I’m going to blame it on Nathan and that’s that. My legs were actually starting to get cold from the rain. By the time we were walking past Ontario Place, my good knee was starting to get cold and stiff. We walked on and the rain starting to ease up. Eventually, I found some shelter that turned out to be a washroom where I could freshen up and change back into my track pants. It wasn’t much after that that we reached lakeshore and Bathurst. From there, we could just walk along the Queen’s Quay to the Harbourfront and then to Union Station. I’m amused that the thunderstorm happened just as we were walking along the long stretch of lakeshore were it was more desolate. By the time we got to Bathurst, it was sunny and warm again. Go figure!

All in all though, I was happy with the walk. My feet were a tad sore, but in actuality no more sore than when I used to do three hours of taekwondo training. I felt that good about the walk, I still went for a run the next day!

~~~C

I recently finished reading You Suck by Christopher Moore and A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin. You Suck was quite amusing, brilliantly written, and the ending… hm… well, it ended the only way it could end, really. A Wizard of Earthsea is wonderfully written and I see why the Earthsea books are famous novels.

I’m diving into Lady of Avalon now, after having read the first chapter awhile back. I read the next chapter of Dhampir (by Barb and J.C. Hendee) – it does remind me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer but with more of a Lord of the Rings setting. The writing is quite good for an action fantasy story.

I started reading the Cassandra Kresnov novel, Crossover by Joel Shepherd. I think I might come back to it later. I’m finding I really like the style of writing in Gravity’s Rainbow. Some people may not like the style, especially the sections where there isn’t a clear distinction between reality and the fantasy of the character’s mind. It’s an interesting book though if you like to puzzle things out, which I happen to like. It will take me a while to read Gravity’s Rainbow as it’s 700 plus pages. It’s written in four parts though, so I’ll try to get through one part first. I tend to jump between books until my mind decides I just want to finish reading one story over the others more.

I picked up a new fantasy series, The Runelords by David Farland. The story seems interesting, but I’m finding the writing isn’t as good as Marion Zimmer Bradley or Robert Jordan for example. However, it isn’t the worst writing I’ve read. The characters are amusing so far. The Runelords is published by the same publishers as The Wheel of Time so it should be pretty good overall. Another series of interest is A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. The writing is quite good, possibly better than Robert Jordan’s. The first book in the series is A Game of Thrones and amounts to just over 800 pages. It will take me some time to finish that novel too, but it seems quite worth the eye fatigue that will come with reading it.

I think for now I will be rotating through these few books. After some time, I’m sure I’ll get back to reading The Wheel of Time. I start to miss the characters in the story after a while.

Okay, back to.. hm… the world of Avalon.

~~~C

Yay! I finished reading book seven of The Wheel of Time. I had read half of the book, then put it down for awhile. I decided to go back to it the past two weeks and finish it. I don’t think I’m starting book eight, The Path of Daggers, just yet as I might read some other novels first. I think I might actually start Gravity’s Rainbow first. I also want to read the first book in a series by Joel Shepherd. It’s called Crossover, which is a ‘Cassandra Kresnov novel’. Cassandra Kresnov is a “synthetic person” designed to be a soldier. Hm… interesting. Reminding me of the TV series, Dark Angel, except with an artificial life-form. I also started reading a very humourous vampire love story called You Suck by Christopher Moore. The first chapter is called ‘Get Over It, a Lot of People are Dead’. The first line in the book reads ‘You bitch, you killed me! You suck!”‘ Yeah, you know you want to read the rest now. Go on, go get the book. What this vampire couple does with an overweight, fluffy cat is quite a chuckle.

Okay, now, back to more reading and maybe some much needed rest.

~~~C

Well, as you can see from my last post, I delved into astrology again. I was looking at transits to my natal horoscope and trying to determine what factors were relevant to my chart. I’m hoping the effects of some the recent transits to my horoscope are dwindling away. I still feel somewhat hermit-y, but a little more energized. It’s probably due to it being summer and me getting enough sun this time of year, oh, and also the fact that my solar return is coming up (astrology speak for “birthday”). I don’t really celebrate my birthday much, but supposedly the solar return horoscope is supposed to determine what the year ahead is going to be like for me.

So, I’ve been studying astrology – again. Lucky me, I found an old astrology text four weeks ago at the used bookstore – Christian Astrology by William Lilly. I don’t think the bookstore realized how priceless that book is to the right person. The copy the bookstore had, and which I subsequently bought, is the third edition published in 1985 by Regulus Publishing Co. Ltd. in leather hardcover binding. Christian Astrology was originally published in 1647, with a second edition in 1659. While Christian Astrology may be available from astrology publishers as three separate books, I don’t believe anyone has published it as one volume since 1985 by Regulus Publishing. The one volume publication consists of the three books, the first being an introduction to astrology, the second dealing with horary astrology, and the third dealing with how to interpret the natal horoscope (including progressions, transits, and revolutions). This text is the text to read for the serious astrology student who is more interested in classical astrology rather than modern day astrology. Modern day astrology tends to be more concerned with psychoanalysis while classical astrology is more predictive. Classical astrology is more complex than modern day astrology, and William Lilly attempted to clarify this complex art. From this perspective, Christian Astrology is a wonderfully in-depth read compared to modern astrology texts. This book will change your mind about many things in astrology. I’ve only just started reading book three of Christian Astrology (I read book one already, and plan to go back to book two for the horary astrology), but I’m sure I will be referring to this book often as I continue with my astrology studies.

~~~C

Note for the beginner astrologer, you may need to read up on transits first and review how to interpret your natal horoscope to understand this blog entry.

Pluto square natal Pluto occurs earlier than many astrologers thought it would. In some of the older astrological texts, it is written that Pluto won’t square your natal Pluto until at least age 40. In another, it says the earliest is age 36. Well, my generation got those astrologers beat, as Pluto squared my natal Pluto when I was 32. (Astrologers are supposedly stargazers, but I’ve often thought some didn’t spend much time with astronomy. If they did, perhaps they could have predicted this early Pluto square natal Pluto.)

Pluto is currently at 29 degrees 5 minutes Sagittarius, retrograding to 28 degrees 30 minutes on September 29th this year then moving direct again. Additionally, Pluto and Neptune have been in sextile aspect since approximately 1940. Anyone born after that time will already have a Neptune-Pluto sextile in their natal horoscopes, indicating a near universal attraction to spiritual pursuits and matters of the subconscious and unconscious mind. If you were born between 1970 and 1974, you may be feeling the effects of Pluto making a square transit to your natal Pluto, also reinforcing the Neptune-Pluto sextile since this aspect is still a transiting one. In your natal chart, this means that you would have Pluto located in late Virgo to early Libra. As Pluto is currently in retrograde motion until September 29th this year, this means that the Pluto square should affect those with a natal Pluto at about 24 or 25 degrees Virgo (assuming an orb of four or five degrees for the transiting influence). For those readers who don’t know anything about their horoscope, you may get your horoscope done at www.astro.com for free and quickly look to see what degree and sign Pluto is in. Those with natal Pluto in late Virgo should be feeling the final effects of the transiting Pluto square as Pluto retrogrades and then moves direct later this autumn. For those with natal Pluto in early Libra, the effects of the transiting Pluto square are just getting started. The full effects of any transiting planetary aspect to your chart occurs when the transiting planet makes an exact aspect. The duration of this transiting Pluto aspect is roughly six years give or take a few depending on whether or not Pluto has a few more retrograde cycles. The six-year estimate I’m giving here for this transit is based on my personal chart, which shows that transiting Pluto will be square my natal Pluto for at least another three or four years (depending on the orb you are assuming for the transiting effects – I think my astrology program has set the orb for squares at 7 degrees). According to my astrology program, the Pluto square my natal Pluto started near the beginning of 2006.

What does this mean though? Pluto in the horoscope represents long-term changes, it deals with the subconscious and the unconscious mind, and it also relates to power and control. Pluto’s location in the natal horoscope shows how a person deals with change, how they view power and control, and the nature of their subconscious and unconscious mind. As I mentioned, everyone born since approximately 1940, already has a Neptune-Pluto sextile indicating a near universal attraction to spiritual pursuits and matters of the subconscious and unconscious mind. How someone deals with this natal aspect depends on if the Neptune-Pluto sextile is aspected by any of the faster-moving planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn – also considered the traditional astrological planets). Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are slow-moving planets, which is why the influences of these planets or aspects between them are considered to be generational influences.

Having established what Pluto means in your chart, the transiting Pluto making a square to your natal Pluto means that changes will be occurring during this time and you will be inclined to some inner-soul searching. What kind of changes and how you deal with them depends again on other factors in your chart, notably whether or not the transiting Pluto and accompanying Neptune sextile are aspected by any of the faster-moving planets. Some astrologers may also feel that the Pluto square your natal Pluto has no effect unless there is an aspect to any of the faster-moving planets. I am of the opinion that it affects you regardless, but that any aspects to any of the faster-moving planets will indicate how you should deal with the Pluto square natal Pluto and the reinforcing of the Neptune-Pluto sextile.

Using my own personal horoscope to illustrate, my natal chart has the generational Neptune-Pluto sextile, but this sextile is influenced by Jupiter making a trine to Pluto and a sextile to Neptune. Jupiter in my chart is in Aquarius and in Jupiter’s own house, the 9th. This very likely indicates my interest in occult philosophy and studies. Because we are dealing with Pluto making a tough transit to my natal Pluto, let’s see if there are an easy aspects in my natal chart. There is one, Neptune sextile the Sun. This would give my core personality a little bit of a dreamy quality, make me somewhat drawn to fantastical ideas. For me, this actually makes me love watching fantasy or sci-fi movies or shows. So, this is one way of coping with the Pluto square my natal Pluto. Compounding this is the Neptune-Pluto sextile because Neptune as it turns out is transiting my Midheaven (MC). In fact, it has passed my MC and then went retrograde. It’s going to retrograde and cross backwards over my MC on my birthday. (Eek!) I’ve managed to determine that Neptune’s transit has affected my career and life goals. In fact, this transit makes someone who was sure about their life path start to question everything. It may also bring to light any false spiritual teachers. Funny enough, I decided to drop my spiritual studies at a church (not that my teacher was “false” in any way, it just wasn’t for me) and I have just gone through some major changes in my life, but it is most notable that my spiritual life has changed (aside from doing things with my boyfriend, I’m pretty much a solitary pagan again). Because Neptune was causing so much uncertainty and casting some illusions in my natal horoscope and because I happen to like fantasy and sci-fi, as it turned out, I was happiest during this Pluto transit watching sci-fi shows and various movies that pulled me into a different world than this. Granted, continual escapism isn’t a good thing. All things in moderation right? Luckily for me, I was able to draw on my natal Saturn to help me through this transit too. In my natal chart, Saturn and Pluto are square to each other. This helps me deal with change responsibly. Pluto means change and Saturn means responsible. Saturn is also in my first house, which indicates that at the core, I’m quite responsible. Thus, I wouldn’t be caught in continual escapism. I would always deal with reality, but of course, on my own terms. Because of all the changes going on in my life and that I wanted to take responsibility for my life, I went through old notes and papers, and boxes of stuff that needed to be sorted through for a while now. There was a lot that was no longer needed or useful to me because of my life changes. In the end, I must have recycled 30 plus reams of paper. I also put some things away and re-organized some of my personal keepsakes. (I really need a nice chest for this stuff.) I have to say having done all this has helped me move on with the changes that have happened so far in my life. Magically speaking the physical clearing out of outdated, needless stuff helps clear things out mentally and spiritually. I felt afterwards that I was more able to concentrate and work on the things I needed to work on now. I should also note that Pluto is recently trine to my natal Mars, which explains why I would feel it is easier to take action now to help facilitate any changes needed.

Having looked at how the Pluto and Neptune transits affects your natal horoscope, you should also look at all the transits occurring. Some days I noticed it was easier to leave my “bubble” because the moon was making positive aspects to my natal horoscope that would offset the effects of the Pluto square natal Pluto and the Neptune on my MC. The moon transits really do make a difference. Pleasant Venus transits to your natal chart will help you deal with others, and easy Mercury transits will help you communicate during this Pluto transit.

So, if you’re going through this Pluto square natal Pluto thing, don’t despair, just hold on and be patient. Sometimes change is for the better. If you have to deal with other people on a day-to-day basis, let them know to be patient with you and that you may be going through a rough time (depending on whether or not this transit affects your fast-moving planets in your natal horoscope, but you don’t have to tell them that). Look carefully at your natal chart and see if there are ways to deal with the effects of Pluto in a pleasant way.

I hope this has helped clear up any anxieties about this Pluto transit. “The only constant is change.”

~~~C

Where did a month go? It seems like time passes by too fast. I spent the past month, first just reading a bit of The Wheel of Time because I didn’t feel like doing much since my kitty passed on, then I started cleaning up my whole place. I had a pile of stuff in the hall closet that I needed to sort through and get rid of – mostly papers. This took quite a while. Then I spent some time going through other things, re-arranging in order to make more room in my apartment. I spent a lot of time reviewing things I had written over the past… oh, probably about ten years.

Let’s see… I had old notes from college to sort through. I already threw out my notes from university years ago, but I still had notes from my law clerk course because some of the stuff is practical. I have old assignments that amuse me whenever I happen to read them. Whenever I read something that I wrote before I’m always kind of puzzled that I wrote it. That’s just me, I guess. I spend a lot of time writing sometimes that I think I forget what I wrote. Then I sorted through a lot of research I did on various topics. Loads of paper for that! I can’t believe I printed things out so much. So much paper, so much wasted space. Of course, I did print double-sided or print on scrap paper when I could. I also spent some time looking at notes I had on Wicca and various related subjects. I still have two binders with notes I made from the WCC classes over the years with attachments of related website articles and/or book excerpts. Sheesh! I’m very happy the internet has gotten to where it is, because I can do most of my research now online and keep everything on digital instead of lying around on paper in boxes gathering dust bunnies. I’m going to toss out the notes in the binders once I update my digital notes with the appropriate articles attached to them.

Such is how I ended up updating my website this week. I’ve actually been meaning to for a while now, but just wasn’t in the mood too. I think my house cleaning spree happened during the Mercury retrograde in Gemini – go figure! Of course, I’m cleaning out paper and reviewing things I’d written over the years.

Okay, here’s what’s new on the website…

1) Two new web pages. The first is a web page highlighting some writing I did that was inspired by my Dedication. The page is called appropriately, “A Dedication”. The second is called “Pagan Poems”, and it features pagan poetry from a talented friend of mine. She doesn’t have an online presence, so I asked if she minded I post her poems for her on my website. She was very pleased with the idea.

2) On “My Creative Writing (the early years)”, I have added a piece I’m calling “Our Happiness/Games”. It’s actually two smaller poems comprising one. It’s also one of those naive, hopeless romantic poems, but I think it was well-written for what it is. I kind of like it better than all the other naive, hopeless romantic poems I wrote in the past, probably because it wasn’t as hopelessly romantic anymore. I was getting fed up with the situation when I wrote it.

3) On “My Creative Writing”, there is a cute little piece called “Love’s Journey”. It amused me to read it after five years. So much has changed, but yet so much remains the same.

4) Lastly, on “My Ritual-based Writing”, I’ve added a whole slew of things after the general god and goddess calls.

There you have it. Something new to mull over.

In other news… I hope to write at least one book in the next few years (one of the many reasons I’ve not been writing too much on here lately). I have a few different novel ideas, but I’ll have to decide which one to write first. For now though, I’ve been clearing out old stuff to allow my brain a chance to think of new things. Strange how that all works. There’s just been too much clutter lately, physically and mentally. Yes, cleaning house has been a magical process for cleaning out my mind.

Okay, now that that’s done I can move onto the next thing… which is getting some much deserved rest!

~~~C