Kitty!

I just finished a plush for Glowstickk. It came out really very nicely! (Though OMG stripes and stars and markings! It took FOREVER to do all those itty bitty pieces!)

( Anyhow, here's pictures )

Edit: I should also just note that I've restructured Loonakit prices to be simpler, I think the various sliding scales were a little off-putting to some. They're all flat rate now, unless you want something odd like the Cthulakit.

Psychics

I've been reading a lot of stuff about psychics lately. I started off at The Amazing Randi's website, which amused me greatly by lumping in the sellers of high-end speaker cables with the various fruits and nuts, because their claims aren't any more scientific than the average Phone A Psychic's. Randi kind of rubs me the wrong way though, he's just so arrogant. Sure, he has some right to be, given all the successful debunking he's done, but still... Anyhow, I got bored with his site, and followed a link over to www.stopsylviabrowne.com which is really fascinating to read. There are a whole heap of articles there, but the best ones are the series of articles where the author takes predictions which Sylvia has made, which were broadcast on TV, and then matches the prediction up with what actually happened. Veeeeeeeeery interesting. And the tone of that site is just "here's facts, think for yourself," which I approve of. I don't believe in psychic powers, but I'm open to the idea that they may possibly exist. I've just never seen any remotely convincing evidence of them. Judging from Sylvia Browne's abyssmal success rate, however, I'd say she's definitely not one!

Even more amusing was an account by an Australian skeptic about how she "became a psychic." The Psychic Skeptic is awesome reading. And it shows just how fake a lot of phone psychics are. And they are SO fake! I know that's sort of ironic, coming from somebody who's religious, but I've got a lot more evidence for the reality of God than I've ever seen for the reality of people who can speak with the dead or see the future, or any of that. And people like Sylvia aren't just harmless cranks, they do as much damage as any rabid fundamentalist does. They ruin people emotionally and financially. That's the bit that really makes me skeptical. If they were really in touch with some higher power, the way so many of them claim, you'd think they'd be nicer, more helpful people who don't charge desperate people hugs sums of money in order to help them!

It's funny, because I've only had one actual run-in with a psychic. It was while Fishy was visiting me in Utah, when we were dating. We'd gone to explore one of the weird little corners of Salt Lake that's very not typical Utah. (There was a "novelty" shop and tatoo parlour there, where you could buy all those interesting adult items.) Anyhow, there was this neat little New Age/Wicca/Alternate spirituality sort of store there. I like those kinds of places, as they have all sorts of interesting things. I came very close to coming home with a Dancing Shiva statue, I've always loved the symbolism of the Dance of Shiva, and the art of it tends to be very nice. Anyhow, the lady behind the counter there was, apparently, also a psychic, and as it was a slow day she offered to do a free reading for one of us. I turned her down, I really couldn't think what a psychic could tell me. I mean... why do people go to them? To get messages from dead relatives, but I haven't got anybody I was close to on the "other side." Or to get advice on big decisions, but I hate getting advice from people I know, why would I want advice from a stranger, even one who had some sort of mystic wisdom? Or to somehow get in touch with their inner self, or their spirituality, or something, but I'm about as in touch with my inner selves as it's possible to be, and I have my religion for the spiritual side. I just couldn't think of what on earth a psychic, even if one was real, would have to offer me! Unless they could give me accurate predictions on the price of silver, that'd be useful! But I've never heard of a psychic using their power for anything so prosaic. You'd think they would, given that so many of them seem to need vast sums of money in order to keep "helping" people.

Anyhow, Fishy said he'd like a reading. So she whisked him off to this little curtained corner. I didn't hear what was said, but from what Fishy told me after, it was all awfully generic, mostly of the "you have potential for this, and that" sort of thing.

He seemed to really want to believe in it, which honestly ought to have been a sign that we weren't compatible right there. But I wanted to believe in our relationship even more than he wanted to believe in psychics, so I ignored it. I'm pretty dense sometimes!

That was random! But I felt like sharing.