Andrea was always in my class, from Kindergarten all the way through to when we graduated high-school. I like to think I was the closest thing she had to a genuine friend, though that thought is also rather troubling when I lie awake at night thinking about her.
Andrea was weird. Like a generic creepy ghost child from another mediocre horror movie. I heard that her first word was "Chop!", though that could just be a rumor. Rumors swirled around Andrea, always.
"Chop! Chop! Chop!" She'd repeat, whilst staring at an empty corner of her basement, where a previous occupant had butchered his son.
In truth, she was a sweet, shy and unerringly polite kid who blushed when she heard a curse-word. She sat at the back of the classroom and rarely bothered anybody much. Her pitch-black hair was forever tautly tied in twin braids, like Wednesday Addams, which didn't help dispell her spooky reputation.
You see, Andrea knew things that she couldn't know. Sometimes she knew things she SHOULDN'T know. And this only ever ultimately made everyone else uncomfortable. Oddly, she only knew these things about other people, she once told me with a shrug. Never about herself.
She could tell when people were pregnant, for example. And I mean waaaay before a baby bump was showing. I asked her how, and she thought about it for the longest time, whilst chewing her peanut butter and American-cheese sandwich (see! I told you she was weird), until she eventually said that "their eyes change. I see the baby's soul inside."
She knew exactly when the rain would start and stop. You could set your watch by it. She knew when someone was sick. She knew that a kid named Mikey was soon to die of a brain haemorrhage, though he ignored her warnings, with much mockery.
It was after Mikey's death, in 5th grade, that people really began to pick on her. "Witch!" They'd hiss, with real venom. And that was the grown-ups. Mikey's mom got herself arrested for throttling the girl outside the school gates. Rocks were thrown through Andrea's dad's windows. This made him hate his daughter even more. Andrea's mom had died giving birth to her, which Andrea's dad reminded her of on a daily basis.
Oddly, Andrea remained upbeat, all through school. Philosophical. She planned to turn her strange talents into a career. "In medieval times, I'd have been the Village Wisewoman!" She told me, grinning. "I'll be the one psychic who isn't full of shit."
However, that fact turned out to not be such a ble
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Here is the third session of Kalyra's adventure: The Wisewoman. Kalyra seeks aid from a mysterious wisewoman reputed to live in the Hinterlands.
Under the link you will find a podcast of the session, and a complete write-up if you prefer to read instead. If you missed the earlier episodes, you can find them in the archive.
As I was editing this, I thought perhaps I should have summarized a bit more; instead of having Kalyra repeat her whole story to NPCs each time she has to explain what's going on, I should probably gloss over those bits.
Query: is the site design sufficiently readable?
The cart-man with his wagon full of plague-ridden corpses keeps poking his head in to my cottage, which is not at all encouraging.
Harma Dogshead aka Harma the Dogshead is a female wildling raider who leads Mance's most seasoned raiders in the van:
>Harma had five hundred in the van, every one ahorse." -ASOS, Prologue
I had two thoughts regarding her:
1) Why does she hate dogs?
2) What happened to her pigs?
Which due to some proximity/circumstances led me to believe she could potentially be a skinchanger:
Background
She once warred with Rattleshirt:
>Mance had spent years assembling this vast plodding host, talking to this clan mother and that magnar, winning one village with sweet words and another with a song and a third with the edge of his sword, making peace between Harma Dogshead and the Lord o' Bones -ASOS, Jon II
and is later slain by Stannis:
>It was from them that he learned about the battle beneath the Wall. "Stannis landed his knights at Eastwatch, and Cotter Pyke led him along the ranger's roads, to take the wildlings unawares," Giant told him. "He smashed them. Mance Rayder was taken captive, a thousand of his best slain, including Harma Dogshead. -ASOS, Samwell IV
Hatred of Dogs
Harma hates dogs and is constantly killing them:
>There was Harma Dogshead, a squat keg of a woman with cheeks like slabs of white meat, who hated dogs and killed one every fortnight to make a fresh head for her banner -ASOS, Jon II
and:
>"Kill him," urged Harma. "Send his body back up in that cage o' theirs and tell them to send us someone else. I'll keep his head for my standard. A turncloak's worse than a dog." -ASOS, Jon X
To kill a new dog every (fort)night is some deep seeded hatred and while it could be for a variety of reasons, the best "in world" reason I could come up with was ties to warging.
In the ADWD, Prologue we see Varamyr shunned after using a dog to attack/kill his little brother bump. I am not arguing it was varamyr, just that a similar warging into a dog and attacking a family member of Harma's is possible.
Its also possible that it has something to do with her/pigs. For some reason Harma is never mentioned with pigs (that I can find), yet after she dies, all of a sudden she has these "evil" (according to Edd) pigs that her family leads south of the wall.
- It should be noted that its possible she is never mentioned with these pigs due to the fact she is leading the van, but we get no association of her/pigs
The funeral director was asking us what we think Mum should wear in her casket.
Mum always loved to wear sarongs (fabric wraps that go around the torso and drape downward a bit like a long skirt would), so my uncle suggested that she wear a sarong in there.
The funeral director looked a bit confused, as did some of our family members, to which my uncle added:
"What's sarong with that?"
I started laughing like an idiot. He was proud of it too. The funeral director was rather shocked. We assured her, and our more proper relatives, that Mum would've absolutely loved the joke (which is very true).
His delivery was perfect. I'll never forget the risk he took. We sometimes recall the moment as a way help cushion the blows of the grieving process.
--Edit-- I appreciate the condolences. I'm doing well and the worst is behind me and my family. But thanks :)
--Edit-- Massive thanks for all the awards and kind words. And the puns! Love 'em.
I would have a daughter
This is a quote from The Crossing by one of my favorite authors, Cormac McCarthy. This was one of those passages that as soon as I read it, it just struck a chord without me fully understanding why. "The shape of the road is the road" could be profound, or maybe it merely sounds profound without holding any real meaning. Yet it's stuck with me and always evokes powerful emotions. A full interpretation finally clicked into place so I wanted to share. Here is the rest of the passage:
>"Long voyages often lose themselves.
>Mam?
>Listen to the corridos [historical folk ballads from Mexico] of the country. They will tell you. Then you will see in your own life what is the cost of things. Perhaps it is true that nothing is hidden. Yet many do not wish to see what lies before them in plain sight. You will see. The shape of the road is the road. There is not some other road that wears the shape but only the one. And every voyage upon it will be completed. Whether horses are found or not."
For more context, this is a poor, hermit/shamanic wisewoman who is giving advice to our young protagonists in the form of this cryptic but dire warning (this is a favorite trope of McCarthy). Our protagonists have set out ostensibly to recover stolen horses, yet in truth they have been set adrift by a tragedy and can see no other path to take other than that of vengeance. They are venturing alone into a place of violence and depravity (as conceived by McCarthy, at least) -- rural Mexico along the border during the early/mid 19th century.
Here is my interpretation of this passage, from a stoic perspective:
"Then you will see in your own life what is the cost of things. Perhaps it is true that nothing is hidden. Yet many do not wish to see what lies before them in plain sight." Not too much of a stretch to see this as a warning about how easy it is to self-deceive and ignore the harm we do to ourselves when we make choices carelessly. Even if we make choices with lots of thought and justification behind them, if we started from a place of self-deception then we are likely to pay a price. Possibly the ultimate price (to a Stoic) of violating our values, aka our pursuit of virtue.
"The shape of the road is the road" This strongly evokes the stoic notion that the things you do in your life are your life. This is the central point of the woman's warning. It is at once the most obvious thing in the world and yet something that is very often overloo
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Capital of Ireland
It's Dublin everyday
http://m.imgur.com/ImM3RWz
But Bill kept the Windows
True story; it even happened last night. My 5-year-old son walks up behind me and out of the blue says, "hey."
I turn to him and say, "yeah, kiddo? What's up?"
He responds, "it's dead grass."
I'm really confused and trying to figure out what's wrong and what he wants from me. "What? There's dead grass? What's wrong with that?"
.
.
.
He says, totally straight-faced, "hay is dead grass," and runs off.
You officially hit rock bottom
And then you will all be sorry.
No it doesn't.
Now itβs syncing.
He replied, "Well, stop going to those places then!"
I will find you. You have my Word.
She said how do you know he was headed to work?
βthank you for your cervix.β
...sails are going through the roof.
Mods said I'm a cereal reposter...
A taxi
But now I stand corrected.
Wait. Sorry, wrong sub.
Wookie mistake.
Theoretical Fizz-ics
Because you canβt βCβ in the dark
Just walked past one of the members of the Mabrigash tribe worshipping the Ghost Snake in Deshaan, (not sure if it was Munabi or Minbid-Dal, both were standing outside the palisade) when I swear I could hear "Thank Vivec you stopped the ... from summoning Sadal!" and I stopped in my tracks. Pardon Milady, but I don't think you should let your wisewoman hear you're secretly worshipping that God Wannabe. Incidentally, I have pretty reliable information that he's somewhat....indisposed at the moment....
Tsk... and Shaali Kulun called ME a heretic!
(And if they didn't say it, then it was strangely loud for someone quite a bit away...)
